Twilight Key
by Kog6943
Summary: As the battle ends with no victors, a decision must be made. Someone is needed to protect the balance of the worlds from the threat that looms before it. This person will be chosen by Kingdom Hearts as a champion to defend the worlds from the threat. This person will be the chosen wielder of twilight.
1. October 10th

**OK. This is Kog6943, and welcome to my first fanfic, Twilight Key! I've been browsing the seas of fanfiction for nearly two years now. I've never really considered writing any before now, although a couple of people have asked me if I wanted to. Before, I never really had any ideas that I would like to write about. A couple days ago, I got this idea in my head, and I couldn't get it out. So I decided, why not try my hand at writing a story? Two of my all-time favorite series are Naruto and Kingdom Hearts, so I wrote about those. Some of my favorites have also been neglect fics, whether the MC forgives in the end or not. This fanfiction may not be the most original, or the greatest, heck it might even be trash to everybody else, but I at least wanted to try it out. So let's get this started...**

 **The first chapter is pretty similar to the Naruto canon, but it begins to diverge the closer to the end you get.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else. I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Deity Talking: " **Insert witty remark here**."

Biju/Deity Thinking: _'_ _ **Insert witty remark here**_ _.'_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **Note: I toned down on the use of "-ttebayo" and the like later in the story. General writing style also improves as time goes on. (12/25/15)**

 **Previous time I was here: 7/27/2016 (Minor revisions)**

* * *

 **Konoha (October 10th)**

It was October 10th, a day that would forever go down in the history books of Konoha. The reason for this was glaringly obvious at the moment due to the vast amount of bodies laid about on the battlefield in the aftermath of the Kyūbi no Kitsune's rampage on the village. The battle was a long and difficult one, and it only got harder as more time passed and an increasing number of shinobi were killed.

However, despite the odds, it was also a time to celebrate. After all, the Third Hokage had managed to seal away the Kyūbi into the children of the Fourth Hokage. The yin half of the beast into the daughter and middle child, while sealing the yang half into the younger son, the third child. Lastly, the soul was sealed away into the older son, and the first child.

* * *

 **Outside the Village (A few hours ago)**

"AAAAHHHHHHHHHH! IT HURTS-TTEBANE!"

In a secured location that was located in a cliff that ran along a river, the pained screams of a woman were heard loud and clear. Although it sounded like a woman was being tortured, she was in actuality giving birth not once, not twice, but three times. While there were numerous guards stationed around the safe house, only four people were currently allowed inside the room.

In the center of the room laying down on the provided space, was the woman who was screaming her lungs out. She had long crimson colored hair that was sprayed out around her head and sticking to her face due to sweat. Her face was scrunched up due to all of the pain she was experiencing. While her bottom half was covered by a blanket, her top was a simple blue shirt provided by hospitals. The only unusual thing was that her shirt was rolled up to expose her stomach, and on her stomach was some sort of pulsating seal. The seal looked like some kind of intricate spiral with markings coming off at certain parts and surrounding it. Each time it pulsed, the woman would grip the handles protruding from the bed and scream again. Her name is Kushina Uzumaki-Namikaze.

"Are you sure that she is alright? She normally isn't fazed very much by pain." This new voice was from a blond man with striking cerulean eyes who had his hands pressed onto the pulsating seal. He wore a navy blue outfit with red swirls on the shoulders and blue open-toed sandals. He was currently shooting nervous glances to the woman every few seconds. This man is Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage and Kushina's husband.

"OF COURSE I'M NOT ALRIGHT! I'VE GOT THREE KIDS COMING OUT OF ME-TTEBANE!"

"Oh, uh, of course! Anything I can do to help?"

"HOW ABOUT YOU NEVER TOUCH ME AGAIN, YOU GIRLY LOOKING SON OF A BIT-"

"ENOUGH! Minato shut up and focus on keeping the Kyūbi right where it is! Kushina, you shut up and focus on pushing these kids out!" This time the speaker was a stern looking older woman with long brown hair tied up into a high ponytail. Her face showed signs of aging due to the blatant crow's feet she sported. She was wearing a standard medical ninja outfit for the procedure. This was Biwako Sarutobi, the wife of the Third Hokage.

"DON'T YELL AT ME-TTEBANE!"

"I'LL YELL AT WHOEVER I DAMN WANT! NOW SHUT UP!"

"Hehehe…" The fourth and final person in the room was currently questioning if helping her teacher out was worth the headache it was causing. She has shoulder length brown hair and brown eyes. She had on the same outfit as Biwako. Her name was Taji.

After the impromptu shouting contest, Kushina stopped trying to talk and focused on getting her soon to be newborns out while Minato went back to maintaining the seal on her stomach. The reason this was so important was due to the fact that Kushina was the jinchuriki of the mightiest of the bijū, the Kyūbi no Kitsune. It was a little known fact that while in labor, the seal of the jinchuriki is extremely weakened, and if not looked after, the bijū may easily escape.

"Ugghhh…" Kushina groaned as another contraction hit her. She had been looking forward for to being a mother for a long time now, and despite all of the pain she was currently going through, she was still happy this was happening. But that didn't mean that she had to like the pain. In fact, she hated it. A lot.

"Minato, calm down. A man would have been down for the count long before now. Only a woman is able to endure such levels of pain." Biwako half reassured, half insulted.

Minato sweat dropped at this. "Right…" Judging by how much pain his wife was in at the time, he was indeed questioning if he would be able to go through the same and stay conscious the entire time. But Biwako was a renowned medical ninja and although she didn't go out into the field anymore, she still helped out frequently in the hospital. Plus, she was a mother of two herself. If anyone knew what they were talking about, it was her. So he quickly shook his head to clear it and focused back on the pulsating seal.

 _'The Kyūbi is really pushing! It is taking so much chakra to hold the seal together, I don't know how much longer this can go on for. Kushina is really hurting too… Come out, you three! At least wait until you are born to cause us grief!'_

* * *

 **Outside the Safe House**

Unknown to those inside in the delivery room, the last of the ANBU guards was just choked to death by a mysterious man in a black cloak. After confirming his kill, he stood up and looked up to reveal that he was wearing a mask with only a hole for his right eye. The mask was designed to have black flames coming in from the left side.

 _'Ok, it is almost time to start the extraction.'_

* * *

 **Back Inside the Delivery Room**

"UGGHHHH!"

"Hang in there Kushina, you're almost through with the first!" Biwako was doing her duty as the midwife by making sure the delivery went well, and that meant she also had to reassure the woman giving birth.

"THIS IS ONLY THE FIRST ONE?! WHAT THE HELL-TTEBANE!" Although Biwako's reassurance had the opposite result this time. Kushina was currently lamenting the fact she was not even a third of the way done. "Agghh…. Kami this hurts."

"Alright, the first child is almost out, one more push on the count of three!" Biwako ordered.

Kushina quickly prepared herself for one more push to get her soon to be oldest child out.

"One!" Biwako got into position.

"Two!" Kushina took a deep breath and another wave of nervousness hit Minato as he again glanced at Kushina. "Pay attention to your own job, Namikaze!" But of course such a thing wasn't allowed.

"Three! Push!" Kushina cried out again as she gave one more push to get the infant out. Soon after the pressure died down for a time and the sound of a crying baby began. Both of the new parents knew what this meant and although they both wanted nothing more than to see their new child, they also knew they needed to focus on getting the other two out and keeping the Kyūbi in. "Great job, Kushina. You just gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. Just two more two go. Taji, please take care of him for now." Biwako congratulated then requested.

"Right away." After carefully taking the newborn, Taji moved off to the prepared area for cleaning off the babies.

"Ok, now that the first is done, I know what's coming! I'm ready for the other two now-ttebane!"

* * *

 **Delivery Room (A Little Later)**

"I was _sooooo_ wrong-ttebane." Kushina was now recovering from giving birth to the third and last child. While initially confident after the first child was born, that confidence broke once the contractions started up again. "There was no way to brace yourself for that. Mikoto-chan should have warned me when I asked her…"

"Oh you're fine and you did fine. You gave birth to three beautiful children. Two boys and a girl." Biwako stated as she went to help Taji clean up the newborns. After being cleaned, the oldest had calmed down and stopped crying, but the other two showed no such desire to do so.

The newborns already showed signs of resembling their parents. The oldest had a small tuft of blond hair that had some red in it as well and was now looking around the room with heterochromatic cerulean and violet eyes. The middle child and only girl was sporting her own small clump of crimson hair. When she actually opened her eyes, it could be seen that they were a violet color. She would be an extremely similar in appearance to Kushina when she was older. The youngest and second son also had crimson hair and violet eyes. All three had one thing in common though. Each of them had three whisker marks on each of their cheeks, reminiscent of a fox.

"Taji, help me bring them over to Kushina."

"Of course." Biwako gently picked up the oldest child while Taji took the other two. Together they carried the newborns over to the recovering mother.

"Um, can I-" Minato was quickly cut off by an irate Biwako.

"Back off! The mother gets to see the children first. The father is last!" After stating this, Biwako quickly side stepped a slightly depressed Minato and continued over to Kushina. "And shouldn't you finished up with sealing the Kyūbi away?! Get back to it!"

"*Sigh* Right, of course. But you don't have to be so aggressive about it all." Minato said. "Plus I am the Hokage, shouldn't I get a little more respect?" This last part was said under his breath to himself.

Biwako, used to dealing with her own husband, still heard it. "I wouldn't care if you were my husband's grandmother! If I yell at Hiruzen for leaving the toilet seat up while he is assigning missions to teams and talking to ambassadors back when he was still Hokage, then I sure as hell will yell at you however and whenever I feel like it!" Following this exchange, Biwako finished the short walk over to Kushina and presented her babies to her. "What will their names be?" She gently asked.

Kushina had been memorized by the sight in front of her. She was a mother! Of three! She was so happy and it showed by the glowing smile on her face and the tears leaking from her eyes. Biwako's question though quickly snapped her out of it and she then answered the question. "Minato-kun and I already decided on the names. The oldest boy would be named Naruto, the oldest girl would be named Narumi, and the second boy would be named Menma. Although now we don't need the other girl name as there is only one. We figured that out of the triplets, we were really unlikely to have all three of them be the same gender, so we didn't pick three names of either gender."

Biwako nodded along to these names but raised an eyebrow to the first. "Fishcake?"

Kushina giggled but shook her head, "No, maelstrom." She corrected.

"Of course, my mistake." Biwako smiled, but it quickly turned back into a frown. "Minato! Why isn't this seal secured yet?! Get on it!" After making sure he was on the move, she and Taji walked out of the way.

Minato sighed. But out of fear of getting yelled at again, quickly complied. Moving back over to Kushina, he lovingly gazed down at her. Even after all that screaming she did, and all that sweat and tears on her face, he still thought she was absolutely beautiful. He was sure that he would never feel any different about that. "How are you doing?" He asked her out of concern.

"As well as I could be, considering. But enough about my condition! We're Parents-ttebane!" Her face lit up at the prospect and Minato immediately mirrored the smile on her face. She was so happy she didn't even care that she used her verbal tick.

"Alright! Just give me a second to seal the Kyūbi back up, then we can get them checked up on and go home! It's the start of our family!" Minato was practically vibrating out of excitement at the prospect. He placed his hands on the seal and gathered his chakra to finish the procedure but was quickly cut off by two screams. Whirling around he immediately tensed at what he saw.

Biwako and Taji were dead, and there was a man in a black cloak and a white mask with black flames standing over them. Taji was slumped against the wall with a look of shock on her face and her arms still wrapped around the forms of Narumi and Menma. Minato tensed further when he saw the man was holding Naruto with his other hand hovering over the newborn's head ready to strike.

Once he saw that the attention of Minato and Kushina were on him, he spoke up. "Fourth Hokage, step away from the jinchuriki. Do it or your child dies."

Minato's mind was running at speeds that would rival his **Flying Thunder God** technique. _'How did he get in here?! What happened to the guards? And the barrier?! Who is he?'_ His thoughts were interrupted however by the seal pulsing again and Kushina let out a startled gasp of pain. The center of the seal blackened, covering up the previous spiral and the surrounding markings were spreading. _'And the Kyūbi is still trying to break free! I don't have time for this, the seal won't hold for much longer!'_

Minato's thoughts were further interrupted by the man pulling out a kunai and pointing it at Naruto, who was starting to tear up due to the atmosphere in the room and the less than careful handling of the man. "Hurry it up! Step away from her! Don't you care what happens to your son?" The masked man wondered.

"Let's just calm down now…" Minato was ready for a fight, but couldn't risk it with his children in the room and Kushina in her current condition.

"Speak for yourself, I'm as calm as possible!" With this lest statement, the man threw Naruto in the air. And leapt after him with the kunai ready to end his life. Minato saw this as if time had slowed down due to the adrenaline, and quickly got to his son before he could be killed, reappearing behind the man. But upon getting close he noticed that there were paper bombs attached to the blankets wrapped around Naruto, so he quickly pulled Naruto out of the blanket. The man still had his back turned and didn't see Minato had already saved his son. "As expected of the Fourth Hokage, but…" He raised his hand to make a hand sign to set off the bombs.

But Minato was still a step ahead of him. He knew that the masked man would soon be setting off the explosives, and assessing the situation, he knew he could only reach either his other kids, or his wife. Narumi and Menma were too close, and would definitely die in the explosion, but Kushina was far enough away to be ok, plus she was the target, the masked man would be sure to keep her safe. It tore Minato apart to be in this situation. He didn't want to have to make a decision.

"Minato, the kids!" Kushina was struggling. She wanted to help, but was in no condition to do so as the seal had immobilized her. She had seen what was happening and knew what was going through his mind. The best she could do in this situation was get him moving to save the kids. She had come to the same conclusion as Minato had. But she knew it would be hard for him to make the choice. This way, he would know she wanted him to save the kids.

Minato heard Kushina and knew what she wanted, this pushed him to move towards the kids. He made it just in time too, he got to them, and immediately had to use the **Flying Thunder God** to get out of there. He disappeared in a flash of yellow, leaving his wife and the man alone…

* * *

 **Secluded Safe House (With Minato)**

Minato reappeared in one of the Uzumaki-Namikaze safe houses. They were spread out in and around the village for emergencies. This definitely qualified as one. He looked down to check on his children, and after confirming that they were each alright, he let out a sigh of relief.

"Thank Kami, you're all ok." The relieved expression on his face was quickly replaced by a serious one though. _'He forced me to leave the area. His target is Kushina, I need to hurry!'_ Quickly deciding upon his next course of action, Minato went over to the bed in the room, and laid them down in it. "Naruto, Narumi, Menma, please hold on for a little bit longer." Minato gently tucked each of them in before his eyes seemed to sharpen and the warm cerulean pools turned into glaciers that have seen battle. "I have to go and rescue your mother right now…" He then disappeared in another flash of yellow.

* * *

 **Back at the Delivery Room**

He reappeared outside the delivery room, and was about to go in when he witnessed something in the distance that froze his blood.

About half a mile away there was a vast amount of red, bubbling chakra that rapidly increasing in size. It formed into the shape of a fox head. The head quickly soared into the sky and produced a body. The body was of a giant fox that was a mixture of red and orange in color. It was so huge it towered over the surrounding forest. The fox had long, rabbit-like ears. It also had the torso and upper body that was of a human shape. The most eye-catching thing was not any of this though; it was the giant nine tails swishing behind the beast. Once the shape was formed, the body quickly solidified. After the body was complete, the fox reared back and let out an earth-shattering roar. Last came the feel of the chakra. It was vile. It felt absolutely evil and dark, and his basic instincts were telling him to run in the opposite direction.

To Minato though, none of this was the scariest part. No, the thing that caused his blood to freeze was the implications of what this meant for Kushina. _'NO! I can't be too late!'_ With that thought, Minato pushed his speed to the limits, sprinting off towards the giant Kitsune. Within record time, he made it to the shore of a nearby lake, and he saw on the opposite side, Kushina laying down on a rock before the Kyūbi. He felt relief once again flood his system at the sight of her moving, and therefore alive. He snapped back to attention when he noticed the Kyūbi about to strike. He quickly dropped a tri-pronged kunai, before sprinting over to Kushina to get her out of the way. Once he reached her, he grabbed her, before disappearing in a yellow flash, only to reappear back at the shore with the kunai.

Kushina looked up to her savior, and relaxed once she saw who it was. But if he was here that meant… "Minato...The kids…are they…alright?" She had to take breaks in her speech due to how fatigued she was from the back-to-back child births, kidnapping, and extraction of the Kyūbi from her. If it wasn't for her Uzumaki heritage and sheer stubbornness, she would have died.

"Yes they're fine. All three of them. I've got to get you out of here." He sent a dark look back across the lake at the man next to the Kyūbi. With that, they disappeared in another flash.

* * *

 **Back at the Safe House**

Once they reappeared, Minato quickly set Kushina down in the bed. Minato took a moment to watch his wife and kids. Kushina cuddled with all three of the babies for the first time, and some tears leaked out of her eyes. Whether they were tears of happiness at cuddling with all three of her kids for the first time, sadness for what was happening, or a mixture of the two, Minato didn't know. His eyes hardened once again as he set himself off to get ready for battle.

He strode over to the armory, and took a couple scrolls and kunai. He took both standard kunai, and his customized tri-pronged ones. After he double checked his supplies, he walked over to the dresser where his forehead protector was and secured it to his head. Last but not least, he went over to the closet where he had a haori. This haori was well known throughout the elemental nations as Minato's trademarked attire. It was short sleeved and predominately white. But along the bottom was a red flame design and on his back it read "Fourth Hokage" in kanji.

"Good luck, Minato. Be safe." Came a weakened voice. After turning around his eyes softened once again. He nodded once, and disappeared, off to do battle. Kushina tried to relax and was able to marginally succeed. Although the sounds of battle and explosions were very disconcerting, she filtered them out and only paid attention to the sounds of her children breathing. This action was much more successful in relaxing her.

"All three of you…are absolutely gorgeous…Naruto…Menma…I can already tell you…will grow up to be…handsome just like…your father. And Narumi, you will…be such a knockout like me-ttebane." She gently whispered to them as she stroked their small heads. Naruto was the only one who was awake though, the other two had fallen asleep. "Naruto-chan…you have such pretty eyes…Your blue one is a little lighter than Minato-kun's…and your violet one is a little…darker than my own."

She sighed as she heard another explosion off in the distance, this time it was a lot bigger than the others. Something that powerful, she still couldn't believe she had it sealed inside of her. She shook off her feelings of unease though, as her fatigue finally caught up to her…

* * *

 **A Little While Later**

Kushina was jostled awake by the feeling of someone grabbing her. Her first reaction was to struggle, but once she felt the telltale pull of the Flying Thunder God, she relaxed as she knew it was her husband. They reappeared a few hundred feet away on the forest floor, in the middle of a clearing. Once she knew the technique was done and they had stopped moving, she heard a great explosion off a little ways away. Looking back fear gripped her heart at the sight of the Kyūbi no Kitsune standing tall in the fiery remains of the house she was just in. But the fear wasn't for herself, it was for…

"NARUTO! NARUMI! MENMA!" She was about to struggle to her feat in order to rush back over when she felt a pair of familiar arms wrap around her.

"It's ok! They're ok! We have them here!" Hearing this, she quickly whirled around. She was slightly surprised at what she saw. Not because her husband was there with her kids. No she expected that much after hearing what he just said. Her surprise came from seeing the familiar form of Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, next to Minato, with his arms holding two little bundles with red and yellow hair. He was wearing his typical black shinobi jumpsuit. He seemed to be wearing mesh segments under the jumpsuit as shown by the mesh that went past the sleeves of his top and the legs of his pants. On his head he wore an armored hood with a bandana-style leaf forehead protector over that. He wore a single green gauntlet on his right arm. On his back was the kanji for "fire".

The explosion had woken the two younger babies up, and they were once again crying. The third and final bundle was in Minato's arms, with a mixture of yellow and red hair barely visible. Seeing this, Kushina allowed herself to relax, despite the daunting form of the Kyūbi less than a mile away. "Thank Kami, you're all alright…" But she tensed up again once she saw the serious expressions the men before her had on their faces. "What? What's happened?" She was growing increasingly nervous as the time went on and they seemed reluctant to speak up.

"Kushina…" her husband started. "We need to stop the Kyūbi…" She nodded at that, of course they needed to stop it! But why would that cause the two of them to act like this? "As you know, you can't kill a bijū…" She nodded again, getting impatient with all of the hesitance that Minato was showing. "We need to seal it. And we decided it would be best to split the power as well. Split the yin and yang chakra of the Kyūbi. And even better if we could separate the soul, away from the chakra halves. That way, the Kyūbi couldn't easily utilize its power. The chakra will still be volatile, and could still respond to the commands of the soul if isn't secured enough and put enough effort in, but it would be easier for a jinchuriki to learn how to control it." Kushina was starting to get an idea as to where this was going… "Because of the recent strain on you, between the child birth and the extraction, as well as you wouldn't be able to adapt to only have the yin or yang part of the chakra after your body being used to both of them, you aren't an option. So we decided…" Here, he cut himself off again with an expression of extreme distaste, as if he was cutting of his own limb. "We've decided to use the ki-"

"NO WAY IN HELL! What are you thinking?! We can't put our kids through that! There is _no_ way I'm going to let yo-" Kushina's rant was cut off by her husband.

"KUSHINA!" When he was sure he had her attention, Minato continued with what he wanted to say. "Do you really think I want to do this? No! Never! And I could never ask a family to give up their children if I couldn't do the same myself. I would rather seal it away within myself using the **Reaper Death Seal** and then drag it with my to the Shinigami's stomach. But Hiruzen-sama got me to go with this plan. I will still use the seal, but split it up." Kushina calmed down after noticing that he himself was on the verge of tears at what was about to happen. That was when the Kyūbi decided to remind them of its presence with another roar. They each turned to look back at the rampaging bijū. It hadn't noticed them yet as it seemed slightly confused about the sudden change in surroundings.

Turning back to her husband, Kushina's mind was shifted into overdrive, thinking about other solutions. She didn't like the idea that was just presented not one bit. "But I'm worried…What if the villagers find out? After this, they will know that the Kyūbi is somewhere in the village. Before, many of them had no idea. They will know it is here now, and will demand to know where it went. And even then, using that technique would mean that you…" This was something she truly did not want for her children. The curse that came with being a jinchuriki. She was lucky, the village didn't even know that there was a jinchuriki in it. So she was spared of the hatred. Plus her husband would perish. Sentenced to spend eternity in the Shinigami's stomach.

"I will have Hiruzen-sama tell the village what happened. You can be there with him. Tell them that these three heroes were the ones to stop the Kyūbi! And they are continuing to do so using their bodies!" He still looked a little nervous about it all, but determined none the less. It was then that the Kyūbi finally seemed to notice them. After seeing them nearby, it began to make its way over.

"…fine…" Kushina finally gave her consent to the plan.

Minato nodded, and quickly erected a powerful enough barrier to hold the Kyūbi in place. It would not last that long, especially with how impromptu it was, but it was good enough for what was needed. He then did a few hand signs before slamming his hands on the ground. A large puff of smoke appeared. And when it cleared, there were three altars in place. Minato and Hiruzen set the newborns down in the altars. Narumi was set in the left altar, with Menma in the right one. Naruto was set down in the middle one. As he was set down, his heterochromatic eyes looked back up at Minato, causing the new father to smile.

"We decided to seal the yin chakra into Narumi, the yang chakra into Menma, and the soul into Naruto." Minato explained to Kushina who was simply watching with a sad expression on her face. Once in a while, she would get this pained expression on her face due to what was about to happen. And once she even began to open her mouth as if to protest, but then shut it afterwards with a resigned expression on her face. "Ok. Here goes." Minato was about to begin the hand signs for the **Reaper Death Seal** , but was stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Looking over, he saw it was Hiruzen.

Minato was about to speak up to ask why he stopped him, but Hiruzen spoke up before he got the chance to. "Minato, Kushina-san…let me just ask you first, is it true that Biwako-chan is…" He let off what sounded like a small choked sob. "…that she is dead?" Hearing the question, Minato and Kushina adopted sad expressions and looked down. "I see…" Hiruzen closed his eyes in sorrow for a moment before they snapped back open with a determined shine in them. He then stepped forward and delivered a chakra infused punch to Minato in the gut.

Kushina, seeing this could only gasp and yell, "Minato!" Minato, who wasn't expecting such a thing, didn't have his guard up. The punch hit him straight on, and he doubled over. He could feel his consciousness slipping away as darkness creeped into his vision.

The Fourth Hokage coughed weakly. "…Why?" It was taking a great amount of effort just to stay awake this long, and it was a losing battle.

"Let this old man do this. With Biwako-chan dead, and my children already nearly grown, it will be less of a blow. Yes, I know my family would be saddened by such a thing, but still…they had their entire lives with me in it…your children haven't even had a single day yet with the both of you." With that, he then finished Minato off with a chop to the back of the neck, and he dropped to the floor, unconscious.

He looked over to Kushina, who was struggling to get up and make it to her husband's side to ensure he was ok. He walked over to her and for a moment, they simply looked at one another. "I'm sorry about this…" Hiruzen whispered before he knocked her out too. He lifted her up bridal style, and carried her over to Minato before laying her down next to him. He then looked upon the three babies and whispered, "I'm sorry it has come to his."

 **Play Naruto OST-Despair**

Turning back to the Kyūbi, who was nearly free of the confines Minato placed him in, his eyes hardened. He briefly reflected back on his life, from his time learning under both the first and second Hokages, to meeting the love of his life, Biwako. The reminder that he would never again see her brought a fresh batch of tears to his eyes. His thought then turned to his own team, who have each grown greatly to be splendid shinobi. They even managed to become feared throughout the elemental nations. Whenever he heard the title, "The Legendary Sanin," a proud smile was brought to his face. He reflected back on both the good and bad times with his team, from formation to dissolution. The biggest regret surrounding his team brought a fresh wave of sadness to him.

 _'Orochimaru…I have failed you. If only I had paid better attention…been more diligent in my teachings…maybe it all could have been avoided…'_

His thoughts then turned to the three children he was potentially condemning to a life of bitterness and hatred. But quickly shook these

thoughts off.

 _'I must have faith in Minato and Kushina! They will protect their children! I know it! The will of fire may be dimmed right now…but it will burn again! And brighter than ever before!'_

 **End Music**

With his resolve reaffirmed, Hiruzen turned back to the Kyūbi with more determination than ever before. He quickly performed the needed hand sings, and called out, "Reaper Death Seal!" He felt a great drain on his remaining chakra, and a dark chill crawl down his spine. That was when he felt it, there was an overbearing presence behind him. Looking back he assessed the situation, his eyes widening at the sight before him.

Floating behind him was a chilling sight. It was a specter that was much larger than the average human, with purple skin and long shaggy white hair. Out from his hair, two red horns were visible. It was dressed in white garments, which only added to the ghostly look. In the being's mouth was a tantō. Extending from his own back, Hiruzen could see what he assumed to be his soul. It had taken the likeness to his shape, and was being held up by the Shinigami's long hair.

After he got a good look at what was about to consume his soul, Hiruzen nodded once, before looking back to the Kyūbi. Only to see that it was now looking at the children in the altars.

 _ **'Those are sealing altars! This human is about to seal me into those brats! Not if I kill them first!'**_ With those thoughts, the Kyūbi struck out, ready to impale each of the children.

Seeing this Hiruzen quickly activated the seal. Unseen to him, seal markings were now spreading across the arms of the Shinigami. After the marks had finished spreading, the Shinigami struck out and grabbed onto the Kyūbi, instantly stopping it in its tracks. The Shinigami then began to tug, harder and harder, and little by little, the Kyūbi began to split in two.

 _ **'NO, NO, NO! I REFUSE TO BE SEALED AGAIN!'**_ The Kyūbi fought against the Shinigami harder and harder, but to no avail. It was pulled apart into two chakra constructs, one a lighter shade of the Kyūbi, the other a darker shade. Both were about half the original size of the Kyūbi. Left in between them was a heart. It was an unnerving sight, as it was just floating there. It seemed to have some crystal like looks, and was a mix of a few colors. The easily seen ones were purple, red, and blue. Hiruzen determined that must have been the manifestation of the soul.

Pushing on with the ritual, Hiruzen prompted the Shinigami to seal away first the yin and yang chakras, then the soul. The darker Kyūbi was dragged towards Narumi, while the lighter one was dragged towards Menma. Once they made contact, they were sucked into their stomachs where a seal was formed. The seal was similar to the one Kushina had, where it was spiral at the center, and had markings surrounding it. Lastly, the heart was dragged towards Naruto.

After confirming that everything had gone as intended, Hiruzen then finalized the ritual. "Seal!" After calling this, Hiruzen could feel his soul get cut off from his body, as if it was a physical part of him, causing a great amount of pain. He soon collapsed. Feeling his life ebb away and darkness creep into his vision, he let a small, satisfied smile bloom onto his face before his eyes closed for the last time.

After consuming the soul of the latest human to call upon him, the Shinigami prepared to leave this realm to return to his own, only to pause when he got a better sense of what he just sealed the bijū heart into. Looking upon Naruto, he assessed the newborn with a critical gaze.

 _ **'This human child…I sense great power within him…he is blessed by**_ **her** _ **…he shall be the key to bringing about great change to this era.'**_

With that last thought, the Shinigami left, returning to his realm until the time he is called upon once more.

* * *

 **Konoha Hospital (1 Hour Later)**

Kushina was lying in a hospital bed, still unconscious from earlier events, but she soon began to stir awake. After a moment, she weakly opened her eyes, her vision still foggy. All she could determine was a sea of white and the smell of antiseptics. She was confused on her whereabouts and what caused her to lose consciousness. Reviewing her recent memories, she remembered talking to Mikoto, and asking her about the birthing process. Then she and Biwako headed to the predetermined location for delivery. The process was hell, but she pulled through. She assumed she fell asleep afterwards, due to fatigue, but then she began to remember more.

With a startled gasp, the rest of the night's memories began to return to her, from the mysterious man attacking, to the extraction of the Kyūbi, Minato rescued her, again, to resting with her kids. Then they were going to seal the Kyūbi into-

Kushina bolted up into a sitting position, ignored the pain, and frantically looked around for her family, and felt slightly relieved at seeing her husband in the bed next to her. But her panic raised to new levels when she didn't see any of her kids in the room as well. Becoming frantic, Kushina began to head over Minato.

"MINATO NAMIKAZE! GET YOUR ASS UP RIGHT NOW AND TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED TO MY CHILDREN-TTEBANE!" With her hair taking the infamous "Red Hot-Blooded Habanero" form where it seems to float in tails behind her due to her anger. For the people who knew about the Kyūbi, they assumed that was the Kyūbi's influence. It actually wasn't, that was all Kushina subconsciously using chakra to become more intimidating. It helps her get better results in scaring the hell out of people she was angry with. She grabbed the collar of Minato's shirt and began to violently shake him in an attempt to get him to wake up.

Minato soon woke up only to pale at the sight that greeted him. An irate Kushina was something to be feared, no matter who you were. Wracking his brain for what could have caused her to be angry with him, he began to remember the events that transpired. His eyes widening in realization, he quickly sat up and scanned the room.

Kushina, upon observing his reaction, and remembering that he was knocked out before her, realized he would be just as clueless as she was. Deciding that her priority should be finding her missing kids, she got his attention. "Minato, we need to find our children!" Seeing him nod his head and try to get up, she moved in to help him. That was when the hospital door opened.

"Both of you get back in bed right now! You're brats are right here!" Looking over to the speaker, both Minato and Kushina had their eyes widen at who was standing there. In the doorway was a beautiful blond woman with an impressive bust. Her hair was done in two loose ponytails with the bangs framing her face. She wore a sleeveless grey kimono-style blouse, held together with a blue/grey obi. It showed off a generous amount of cleavage. Over that she wore a green haori with "gamble" on the back in kanji surrounded by a red circle. She wore pants that match her obi that only went halfway from her knees to her feet. Her choice of shoes were open-toed, black sandals with high heels. Her hands were well manicured and he wore pink lipstick. On her forehead was a strange diamond. Lastly, around her neck was a blue crystal like necklace.

A step behind her was a younger woman. She had black hair and black eyes. Her hair was straight and at shoulder length that covers her ears and frames her face. She wore a blueish-black kimono that had white trimmings that was held together by a white obi. She wore open-toed low heeled sandals. Trotting after her was a young pig that was oddly enough wearing a pearl necklace and red jacket.

Kushina only glanced once at the newcomers before her sight zeroed in on the bundles in the arms of the women. "Naruto! Narumi! Menma!" She made to move over to them, but was quickly stopped by the blond woman.

"Didn't I just say get back in bed?!" The woman snapped. Quickly complying more so for the reason she wanted her kids, Kushina moved back over to her bed. Minato doing the same.

"Tsunade-sama, Shizune-san, you're back in Konoha!" Minato couldn't hide the surprise that was on his face. Tsunade's dislike of being in the village was well known.

The blonde woman, Tsunade, moved over to Kushina, and gently handed her the bundle in her arms. Shizune did the same with the two in her arms. Kushina didn't care about the conversation after that point, only that her children were back in her arms. Tears of happiness began to leak from her eyes. Minato decided to risk the wrath of Tsunade and moved over to gently embrace his family. Luckily, Tsunade decided to allow this much, as shown by the small smile on her face.

"Shizune and I were in the area when we saw and heard the explosions. I may not like being here, but I couldn't ignore that. So we came back in time to take charge of the medical situation in the aftermath. Now what the hell happened tonight? A huge part of the village is trashed, and the feel of evil chakra is still in the air."

Minato quickly went on the recount the events of the night.

* * *

 **30 Minutes Later**

"Hmmm…that would explain a great deal. Especially those seals on the stomachs of the brats." Tsunade was contemplating on all of the new information she just gave. "Well, I'm not on your level, but based off of what I could see, the seal is placed on all three of them and appears to be secure…but you should confirm that just in case."

Minato nodded and did just that. After a few minutes of inspecting each of the seals, he nodded again a small smile forming on his face. "All three of them are fine, but the most important ones would be the ones on Narumi and Menma, as that is where all the power is. Naruto shouldn't have any problems with the Kyūbi as it doesn't have any chakra. On that note, what are we going to do?" This last part was directed towards his wife. But the smile on his face grew to new proportions at the sight before him.

"Hmmm?" Kushina was still focusing on her children. Naruto especially seemed to have fun playing with her fingers. His was giggling like mad and trying to get a grip on one of them. "About what?" She questioned.

"We still need to tell the village what happened, remember? As we said earlier, they will ask questions, especially now that they know the Kyūbi was anywhere near the village. We don't have to tell them you were a jinchuriki, but we have to tell them about the kids. Especially with those whisker marks. If we don't do this right, they might come to their own conclusions. And that could be a lot worse." Minato was incredibly nervous, but he had faith in the villagers to listen to what he was saying.

Kushina was extremely reluctant but she knew that Minato was right. So she nodded her head, but still had a request to make. "Can it at least wait until the morning? I want to at least spend one night as a family before things potentially go to hell-ttebane." She was still tired from everything that had happened, and she was incredibly worried about the reactions of the village.

Minato nodded and turned back to Tsunade who had been silent. "Tsunade-sama, would you be willing to stay in the village? At least for a little while? To take care of the injured? It would be a great help, especially with the number of casualties I saw in the brief time I was around the other shinobi during that fight…"

Tsunade looked extremely reluctant but agreed anyway. Who knows? Maybe this will be the first step to moving on with her life. She knew that if she continued doing what she had been, she would only self-destruct. And it wasn't fair to Shizune to drag her all around the elemental nations like that. She nodded her head and said, "Fine, but you're paying for my booze! Shizune, let's go!" With that she quickly vacated the room.

"Wait for me! It was good seeing you two again! And congratulations on the kids!" After those parting words, Shizune followed her teacher out of the room.

After watching the two women leave, Minato turned back to his family. That thought brought a new surge of warmth and happiness to rush through him. _'My family! I can actually say that now! Thank you for this chance, Hiruzen-sama.'_ He embraced his wife and kissed the side of her head as she gazed down on their children.

Kushina smiled at the feeling of her husband embracing her, and allowed her worries to leave her thoughts for now.

* * *

 **Ok, I know that isn't really how you use the Reaper Death Seal, but for my purposes, it is. I like the looks of that better than the other one...**

 **So? What do you think? I've only written about 8,000 words and I already have a new appreciation for authors. Especially people like Fairy Tail Dragon Slayer who release constant updates, I mean wow. That is impressive.**

 **Anyways, like I said, this was pretty close to cannon but I will diverge it from there. Not like I have much of a choice anyways with two extra kids and a living set of parents... But anything you want to point out? Anything I messed up big on? Or shouldn't do in the future? No guarantees that I will use the suggestions, but I will at least try and listen to your opinions and point of view on things. And I am in no way an all-knowledgeable guy that knows everything about Naruto.**

 **I've already started on the next chapter, so I will at least try and post that, but whether anything goes beyond is yet to be seen. And although I will really try and keep chapters long, no promises. I will try and set a minimum of 3000-4000 words though. As a fanfic reader, I know how irritating too short a chapter can be sometimes.**

 **Kog6943**


	2. October 11th

**Hey there! Kog6943 again. Chapter 2 is now up! That's a whole chapter and a half further than i expected this story to go when I first started. But surprisingly enough, I kind of like writing this. After I finished writing for the day yesterday, I had a _bunch_ of ideas I really wanted to try out. They range from how I want this story to go, to _where_ I want it to go. I just hope I can pull it all off well enough... But anyways,**

 **JCB72: Yes, this will be a neglect fic. Probably not one of those extreme, parent hates the kid king of fic, but neglect.**

 **UzumakiBattleWolf: How I would pull it for where it makes sense for them to neglect Naruto stumped me for a bit. But earlier today, I got an idea that I really like. I don't _think_ I've read it in a story before, but it gets hard to remember everything I've read once in a while.**

 **But on with the story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else, I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Diety Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Diety Thinking: **_'Insert witty remark here.'_**

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

* * *

 **Stage in Front of Administrative Building (The Next Day)**

The survivors of the Kyūbi attack were gathered before the stage that gets set up whenever there are village wide announcements. They knew that this must have something to do with the Kyūbi, hopefully it will be the confirmation from the Fourth Hokage that he has killed the demon. There were a mix of shinobi and civilians in front of the stage, all waiting for the announcement.

On the stage were the important individuals of the village. This included the clan heads, the elders, the ANBU commander, the head of the hospital, the jounin commander, the head of TI, and anyone else that was a vital part of the village. What really surprised people was the fact that someone who hadn't set foot in the village in years was up there as well. Tsunade of the Sanin and her apprentice, Shizune. They were the only two who did not look even slightly curious about what was going on.

Up front in the crowd were the younger generation of Ninja. Two of them stood out more than the rest due to the shouting of one of them.

Shooting the shouting duo annoyed glances from nearby was a pretty teenage girl with black hair and red eyes. Her outfit consisted of a red top and the standard ANBU style shinobi pants that was held to her legs using bandages. She wore black open-toed sandals and had red lipstick on. Her hair framed her head and went past her shoulders. On her forehead was a Konoha forehead protector. Her beauty was only marginally marred by the disapproving frown they gave the two. "After all that has happened last night, I don't understand how they can act like everything is normal." This was directed to the boy standing next to her.

The teen next to her was also a shinobi based on his outfit. He wore the standard Konoha shinobi garb, consisting of the black ANBU style pants and shirt, but instead of wearing the armor, he chose to wear his flak jacket. He had on blue on blue open-toed sandals. He had short, spiky black hair and brown eyes. His skin was a tan color. On his head was another forehead protector. "To each his own, Kurenai. Some people try and cope by trying to act normal. If you looked closer, you would see that Gai's smile isn't as bright, and Kakashi is actually on time. That alone screams something is wrong…"

"*sigh* You're right...and I shouldn't push my bad mood onto others…Speaking of which…" She turned to the taller boy. "I'm sorry about my mood right now, Asuma…I'm just mad my dad sealed us in that barrier and then went off to…" Here she broke off with tears in her eyes.

Asuma, seeing this, wrapped an arm around her to give her a reassuring hug. "It's fine. Don't worry about it. I'm also mad my dad gave that order and then went and kicked the bucket before I could yell at him for it…" He tried to make things humorous, even if it was morbid, but his pained smile showed how he was truly feeling about it all

Kurenai also noticed how he was feeling, and returned the hug with a small smile.

* * *

 **Over with the Yelling**

The one who was shouting was wearing an unusual choice of clothing. It was a green jumpsuit with orange leg warmers. He also wore the typical blue open-toed sandals. His hands were wrapped in bandages and he wore his Konoha headband as a belt instead of on his head. He had black hair and black eyes, with his hair done in a bowl cut. The only thing that was potentially more eye-catching than his jumpsuit were his eyebrows, which were inches thick. He was currently screaming at the top of his lungs to the teen next to him. "YOOOOOSSSSHHH! KAKASHI, MY HIP RIVAL, WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS YOUTHFUL GATHERING IS ABOUT?!"

The teen next to him was far more normal looking, or as normal as a teen with gravity defying silver hair could look. He was wearing the standard ANBU style outfit, complete with the body armor and arm guards. The only unique parts of his outfit were the mask that covered the lower portion of his face and his forehead protector being slanted to cover his left eye. His eyes were a dark grey color. He seemingly had a disinterested look on his face, but if one was to look closer, you could see he was constantly aware of his surroundings. "Hmmm? Did you say something, Gai?" Kakashi slid his gaze over to the teen next to him.

"OH, YOUR HIP ATTITUDE IS GETTING WORSE, MY RIVAL. IF YOU ARE NOT CAREFUL, IT WILL COMPLETELY SNUFF OUT YOUR FLAMES OF YOUTH AND THEN-"

At this point, Kakashi zoned back out. It took too much effort to listen to Gai's talking 24/7, so he didn't. _'This is part of the reason why I don't show up early to things. Then_ I _have to wait…maybe I should look into finding a book to read in my spare time…'_ His mind went to his teacher, and wondered how the delivery went if the outcome was the release of the Kyūbi. He cut his eyes back over to his "rival" and cut him off. "Gai," At hearing the tone of his voice, Gai instantly stopped talking and took on a serious look. When Kakashi talks like that, it was time to be serious. "This is obviously about the Kyūbi, but what do you think happened to it after the Fourth transported it last night?"

Gai considered the question, and responded with "Unlike most of these people, we know you cannot kill a bijū, only seal it away. And a bijū as strong as the Kyūbi cannot be held in a typical paper seal, it would need a constant source of chakra to sustain a seal strong enough to hold it. And that would mean…" He trailed off.

Kakashi nodded at this, his own thoughts leading to such a conclusion. "A jinchuriki." Gai nodded along with Kakashi. "That would probably be what this is about. Minato-sensei is probably going to release the information voluntarily to control the response of the village. Otherwise, the backlash could really get out of hand…" It was then that Kushina and Minato walked up onto the stage, with Kushina carrying two bundles, and Minato carrying one.

* * *

 **Up on the Stage**

Minato was incredibly nervous, if not done correctly, then he could potentially be about to ruin the lives of his children, but if he didn't then it would be a lot worse. Knowing this, the only course of action he could take was to be open with what transpired the previous night, and reassure the village to control the reactions.

He raised his hand to call for silence, and it was quickly given to him. Many people were shooting curious glances to the bundles in his and Kushina's arms. "People of Konoha!" He began, "As you all know, last night, our village was the victim of a vicious and critical strike against it. Last night, the Kyūbi no Kitsune attacked us!" At the reminder, many people began took on angered expressions, no doubt reliving the events of the night before.

"Many lives were lost in the battle. Some died in the fires, some died being crushed, and some died heroically, giving their lives for their village. Let us all take a moment to honor those who have passed." With that, he looked down and closed his eyes, the others on the stage swiftly following his lead. Seeing this, the villagers did the same.

After the moment of silence, Minato looked back up. "Thank you. This village wide gathering is being held in order to tell you the outcome of the battle, and the fate of the bijū." At this admission, the village quickly paid their undivided attention to their Hokage, anticipating the moment when the death of the Kyūbi no Kitsune would be confirmed to them. So far, no one has been notified as to what happened to the giant fox.

"We do not know how it got here, and are looking into that…" _'Lies'_ he thought to himself, "but we know what happened to it at the end of the night. Let me tell you now, the Kyūbi no Kitsune is _not_ dead." He paused as he heard a great amount of startled gasps ring out throughout the mass of people before him. He started to hear murmuring of discontent begin to rise so he quickly began talking again.

"Please, let me finish!" After ensuring silence again, Minato continued with what he had been saying. He of course could not tell the true story to the village, but an altered one would due. But it would not fool some people, who were naturally suspicious or too smart for their own good. A certain Nara jounin commander and an old war hawk came to mind… "Last night when I joined the battle, I quickly regrouped with Hiruzen-sama, and together we devised a plan to defeat the Kyūbi."

This confused many people, as they were just told that the Kyūbi was not dead, so how was it defeated then if it wasn't killed? "We both knew that you could not kill a bijū, for it would only reform at a later time if you somehow to actually manage to overpower it and destroy its body. But we knew another way to defeat it. And it was possible to be done because we both had the necessary knowledge on seals and we knew a technique that would allow us to implement it on such short notice…" He paused, making sure that people were paying attention.

* * *

 **Back with Kakashi and Gai**

"Kakashi…" Gai murmured to his companion. "Is he talking about…?" He trailed off, not needing to finish his question as he knew Kakashi would know what he was asking.

Kakashi nodded his head, albeit hesitantly. "Yeah, we were right… he is going to tell the village about the jinchuriki, whoever it is…" His mind was whirring with thoughts, trying to make connections on who it could be. While he wasn't a Nara, he was certainly as smart as one.

"*sigh* So it was true…While I cannot claim it to be a youthful outcome, I know it was needed." Gai truly didn't like the idea that someone was about to be called out on having the beast that just destroyed a portion of the village and killed many. Although he acted like an idiot, Gai was by no means stupid. He knew it was very likely that this could go very bad and ruin the life of the person who just became a jinchuriki.

The two of them turned their attention back over to their Hokage when he began to speak again.

* * *

 **Back on Stage**

Minato continued talking, "There is a method of sealing that is fairly well known, that allows a bijū to be sealed away. Now this is no ordinary method, as given enough time, a bijū as strong as the Kyūbi no Kitsune would be able to break free from the confines of a typical scroll." The crowd was growing increasingly curious as to what happened to the bijū that had ransacked their home. "The seal would need a constant source of chakra to be able to maintain the power needed to hold the Kyūbi." He cut off again, as he saw some people begin to catch on and begin to frown. Whether this frown was due to them thinking hard, disapproval at forcing the Kyūbi on someone, or out of anger, was yet to be seen.

Minato pushed on with what he was saying. "I can see that some of you are beginning to catch on to what I am saying… It would be very unwise and impractical to seal it in some kind of scroll and have someone supply a constant flow of chakra…So we needed to directly hook the seal to the source…" He paused again. He was growing increasingly nervous. "This means we needed to seal the Kyūbi no Kitsune inside someone so they could supply the chakra." Startled gasps rang through the audience again at this revelation. "We created a jinchuriki at the cost of Hiruzen-sama's life."

Before they could begin to form a response, Minato continued. "We decided that instead of using the traditional approach of sealing a bijū into a single person with all of the power that comes with it, to split it up. We split the Kyūbi into three parts, the yin chakra, the yang chakra, and lastly the soul. This way, the chakra would be easier to control, and the soul would have a harder time influencing the parts of its chakra." He nodded to Kushina. Seeing this she stepped forward.

Her face was set into a nervous frown at what was about to be exposed. "It is much easier to use a baby in the procedure as their chakra coils have yet to be developed, and will grow accustomed to the strain of having the bijū chakra flood their children. And as horrible as it is, the younger the better…" He took a deep breath. "Last night, a set of triplets were born, and they were used in the ritual." The muttering of the crowd was starting up again, and they didn't sound too happy. Continuing, Minato motioned to the first bundle in Kushina's arms.

"This is Narumi, the middle child, Hiruzen-sama sealed the yin half of the Kyūbi's chakra into her." He then motioned to the other bundle in his wife's arms. "And this is Menma, the youngest and jinchuriki of the yang half of the Kyūbi." Finally, he looked down, at the napping baby in his arms. "And lastly, this is Naruto, the container of the Kyūbi's soul and the oldest child." He let out small smile as baby Naruto let out a cute yawn and woke up due to all the talking going on.

Looking back up, Minato continued with what he had been saying. "The three of them have been made into the jinchurikies of the Kyūbi no Kitsune in the hopes that when the younger two are older, they will learn to use that power, and with it, grow to be both splendid shinobi, and wonderful people. It is my hope that the Will of Fire will burn bright in them…" Before he could say anymore, he was cut off by an angry shout.

"That's impossible!" He wasn't sure who had said this, but the feelings of raw anger and hatred was clear in the voice. Out of the corner of his eye, Minato saw that Kushina had tensed. He wanted to retort but another voice called out, followed quickly by more after that.

"That's right, they're demons!"

"They will only bring us more misfortune!"

"I can't feel easy knowing my children will forever be in danger!" This shout quickly caused more supporters to rise. And the shouting grew. Minato had half a mind to call upon the ANBU hidden throughout the area to subdue the people who were causing the small uprising. It went on until a specific shout was heard…

"WE SHOULD JUST KILL THEM OFF NOW, BEFORE THEY CAN KILL US!" This shout caused Minato's temper to temporarily snap.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Seeing their normally calm and friendly Hokage snap shocked them to silence, and made some of them realize that they had jumped to conclusions.

"Do you really think that I would ever condone the killing murder of children regardless if they were a jinchuriki or not?! Of course I would never do such a thing! Never mind the fact that these three are my own children!" That revelation shocked them all to silence. The Fourth Hokage had children? Heck, who had he even had them with?! "Do you all not trust Hiruzen-sama or me?! We know what we are doing!"

Being directly questioned on their faith in the last two Hokages made some of them to look down in shame. Minato didn't give anyone a chance to defend themselves and pressed on with what he wished to say. "The seal is one of the strongest in the world! Created by the Shinigami himself! It is the entire reason Hiruzen-sama had to give his life last night, just to create it! The seal will allow the two younger ones, with the correct training, to control the Kyūbi's power! It will be all the easier as the oldest one is the holder of the soul." Many of the shinobi looked intrigued at this prospect, as they knew such a thing would help Konoha, but they were quickly chastised by Minato's next words.

"But do not forget! They. Are. Children. They are not the Kyūbi, They are not weapons or tools." Behind him, a certain war hawk narrowed his eye slightly and let out an internal scoff at such a ridiculous notion. "Treat them like you would like any other child, for that is exactly what they are. If I even hear a vague rumor that there are frustrations at their mere continued existence, then I will bring down my entire wrath as both the Fourth Hokage…" Here, he looked at his family again. "…and as a father. No one will be safe from me. Is that understood?"

Kushina decided this was the right time to finally speak up. "And as their mother, no one would be able to save you from me. You could run, but I will find you. You better learn how to look behind your back while you walk, because I _will_ put a kunai in it-ttebane." Minato nodded at her words. His cold eyes looked back up to his villagers, and was pleased to see that the majority of them accepted his words. Furthermore, as far as he could tell, those who did not take his words to heart only appeared hesitant to. He knew that these people would come around given the right amount of time for their wounds from last night to heal.

Then he heard something he did not quite expect. A clap. Then another, and another. Soon, what was one quickly multiplied into many. Cheers soon followed.

 **Play Naruto OST-Victory**

"I never doubted you!"

"The Will of Fire will burn!"

"For Konoha!"

"Na-Ru-To! Na-Ru-Mi! Men-Ma!" They had even begun to chant the names of the youngest Uzumaki-Namikazes. But all of these cheers soon gave way to a single, unified one.

"FOURTH, FOURTH, FOURTH, FOURTH!" With their faith in their leader restored and reassurance that they and their families are safe, they were willing to at least give the benefit of the doubt for the new family.

Seeing this, a relieved smile was brought forth onto Minato's face. He was happy things had turned out well. He turned to smile at his wife and saw that she was crying out of relief and happiness. He smiled gently at her and used his free hand to lift her chin up and plant a loving kiss on her lips. This caused a new wave of cheers to run through the village. The two of them jerked back in surprise as they forgot where they were and instantly they blushed. But if you listened closely, you could faintly hear the sound of fangirls crying…

Turning to look at the people up there on the stage with him, he called out. "Council meeting in half an hour! Dismissed!" With that, he walked off the stage, Kushina, Tsunade, and Shizune following after him.

* * *

 **With Kakashi and Gai**

"YOOOOSH! WHAT A YOUTHFUL RESULT! I CAN FEEL THE SHEER YOUTH OF IT ALL FANNING MY OWN FLAMES OF YOUTH! I NOW HAVE THE POWER TO RUN 500 LAPS AROUND THE VILLAGE NONSTOP!" Gai truly was relieved with the result of the announcement. He was worried at first, especially with the fact that a riot nearly started.

Next to him, Kakashi was smirking to himself, although it couldn't be seen due to his mask. He too was extremely pleased with the outcome of the gathering, and it showed by the fact he didn't zone out when Gai was speaking. In fact, he even responded with, "But Gai, we need to help repair the village. The sooner we finish, the sooner we can begin training." He didn't want to be useless if such a village-wide thing were to ever happen again.

Gai was surprised by this response, but quickly responded. "RIGHT YOU ARE MY RIVAL! WE SHOULD BEGIN RIGHT AWAY!" With that, he ran off. Kakashi was about to follow when he noticed his teacher about to leave the area and made to follow.

 **End Music**

* * *

 **With Minato and the Others**

"Minato-sensei!" Hearing this shout, Minato turned around to see his student.

"Kakashi! Glad to see you are alright." His relief was shown by the smile on his face when he saw who called out to him.

Kakashi nodded. "Yeah, they had the younger generation sealed up so we couldn't join the battle…" His scowl at the event was obvious even with the mask.

Minato had an apologetic smile. "Yes, I heard about that. But you understand why it was done, don't you?"

Kakashi sighed, but nodded his head. "I know, I know…" It was then that Kakashi got a look at the blue and violet eyes that were looking curiously at him. "So I see the delivery at least was a success…"

Minato was eager to start up this topic. He nodded his head and said, "Yes, it was. Naruto-kun, Narumi-chan, Menma-kun, meet your older brother, Kakashi!" Naruto giggled as his father lifted him up to greet Kakashi.

Kakashi on the other hand, grew flustered at how Minato had introduced him. "B-brother?!" But Minato only smiled while Kushina giggled. Shaking it off, Kakashi greeted the baby in front of him. "Ah…hello, pup."

Minato smiled at this, but frowned when an ANBU appeared and whispered in his ear. "Damn impatient council. Sorry Kakashi, but it looks like the council meeting will be starting sooner than expected…"

Kakashi nodded at this. "I understand, until next time." With those parting words, he disappeared in a swirl of wind and leaves. Seeing this, the remaining group continued on their way.

* * *

 **Council Room**

The council room was similar in shape to the shinobi academy classroom, but more circular. There was a long desk in the front of the room, where the Hokage sat. And depending on what was going on, more desks could be set up as needed for those who would be joining.

In front of the Hokage's desk, were numerous other desks. Each row was elevated higher than the one in front of it, allowing everyone to see. There were seats already filled with the representatives needed. These representatives were the people who ran the village. The consisted of the clan heads, the division heads, the hospital head, the elders, and the civilian representative. Many of the clan heads were relatively knew at it, as they had only taken the position less than a decade ago.

In the Aburame seat was a man with short spiky black hair and a moustache. He wore a high-collared, tan jacket that was zipped up all the way and the hood was over his head. He, like all the other members of his clan, was wearing dark glasses that blocked people from seeing his eyes. His had a tassel hanging from one side. This man was the Aburame clan head, Shibi Aburame.

In the Akimichi seat, was another man with wild, long hair that was red. He was a bit on the plump side, but that only helped him uses his techniques. On his cheeks were purple markings, showing his membership of his clan. His outfit was reminiscent of a samurai. It was a black suit with armor that had the kanji for "food" on it. His choice for a belt was a rope. He wore handguards and a hachimaki as a replacement of his forehead protector. This was Chōza Akimichi.

The Hatake seat was vacant, as the heir, Kakashi, was a little too young to take it. And he wouldn't show up to the meeting anyway.

In the Hyūga clan seat was a stern looking man with long, brownish/black hair. As was typical with his clan, his eyes were a pupil-less lavender color. He wore a traditional, loose fitting robes that was complimented by a long sleeve haori that was brown. His face was set in a constant neutral look that was occasional replaced by a frown. This man was Hiashi Hyūga.

Sitting in the Inuzuka seat, was an animalistic looking woman. She had long, spiky, untamed brown hair, vertical slit-like pupils, elongated canine teeth and nails. She also has the clan fang markings on her cheeks as well as markings over her eyes and a dark shade of purple lipstick. She wears the standard outfit of a Konoha shinobi consisting of flak jacket and a black suit underneath with the sleeves rolled up and bandages around her legs. She is Tsume Inuzuka.

In the seat of the Kurama clan, was a man with long black hair and moustache. He also had light brown eyes. He wore a traditional robe, similar to the one that Hiashi was wearing, but in dark green colors with a brown haori over it. This man was Murakumo Kurama, clan head of the Kurama clan.

In the Nara seat, was a man that appeared to be taking a nap. He had two scars on the right side of his face, which drew attention at first. He had his dark hair tied up into a spiky ponytail, similar to a pineapple. On his chin, he had a small goatee forming. His ears were also pierced. He wore a mesh shirt under his flak jacket, and a deer skin coat on top of that. He wore standard ANBU pants and sandals. This man's name was Shikaku Nara. He was also the jounin commander.

The Sarutobi clan seat was vacant at the moment with the passing of Hiruzen. His son, Asuma would take the clan head position when he was older.

In the Senju clan seat sat Tsunade, who was currently drinking directly from a bottle of sake. She was also representing the hospital.

Sitting in the Uchiha clan seat and sending dark looks at Tsunade was a stern looking man with short black hair and onyx colored eyes. He had creases below his eyes that became more pronounced the more he frowned. He wore a simple kimono with grey pants that had the uchiwa on the back. This man is Fugaku Uchiha.

The Uzumaki clan seat was reserved for Kushina.

In the Yamanaka clan seat was a man who was sending amused glances at Shikaku. He had long ash blond hair reaching into his back, which he wore spiky on top and ending in a long ponytail, blue-green eyes and strong facial features, which included a well-defined jaw line. He wore a black outfit with the standard flak jacket over that. And he topped it with red haori that didn't have sleeves. He also wore hand-guards and his forehead protector. This man was known as Inoichi Yamanaka. He was also the TI head.

The civilian seat was taken by a successful merchant of the village. It was an elderly man, with black and grey hair around his head bald top. He has a small dot on his forehead, like the rest of the family members. He wears a three layered kimono, a light purple, then a cream-white, and lastly a dark purple. This man was Tōbei Kagetsu.

In the elder seats were three people who were known throughout the higher part of the village for always being willing to do what was needed for the village. The first was an elderly woman who had her hair pulled back into a twin bun that was held together with a traditional hairpin that had pearls hanging off of the side. She wore long earrings and a long kimono, closed by an obi, a jacket, and a sash over it. Her eyes were squinted, looking like they were closed. This is Koharu Utatane.

The next person is an elderly looking man with grey hair, a beard, glasses as well as a constant frown that he's always worn. He also has a strong jaw-line a facial structure he has retained even in his old age. He wore the same outfit as Koharu. This man is Homura Mitokado.

The final person in the room was arguably the most intimidating one. He was a frail looking elderly man who needed a cane to walk. He had black, shaggy hair, and his right eye was bandaged. He had an x-shaped scar on his chin. He had a white long sleeve shirt on, that was covered by a grey robe that only covered his right side, and went all the way to his feet. This was Danzō Shimura.

There was some idle chatter going on in the room that stopped once Minato and Kushina walked in. Minato handed Naruto over to Tsunade, who looked only slightly disgruntled at the action, while Kushina took Narumi and Menma with her to the Uzumaki seat. Once he got to his seat, Minato called the attention of the room. "Ok, I want to keep this short. If you have any questions, ask."

Immediately, Danzō shot his question. "Everyone in the room is aware that the Kyūbi no Kitsune was sealed into Kushina Uzumaki-Namikaze, how did it break free?" He asked this with a blank look.

Minato's response was with an equally blank look. "Due to unforeseen events, the Kyūbi managed to escape."

"Care to elaborate?"

"No." Minato still was not sure if the masked man had help with this attack. And if he did, Danzō was pretty high up on his list of suspects. "Next question."

This time, Shikaku spoke up. "Was it truly wise to both split the Kyūbi and reveal to the village where it had gone?" Although phrased like one, it was not a real question, it was a test.

Minato knew this and smiled. Shikaku was an old friend who occasionally would try to make Minato second guess himself. Especially after Minato became Hokage. While this normally would be met with repercussions as it could be considered as disrespectful, Shikaku never took it too far and Minato knew he was only making sure that as Hokage, Minato was solid in his convictions. "Yes, it was. This way, the power is split and it can be put to better use. Furthermore, by taking away the soul, it will be easier to control." Minato reasoned. "And we needed to tell the village as they now knew the Kyūbi was within our walls and it would be better to try and control the response instead of people coming to their own conclusions.

Hearing this, Shikaku had a satisfied look on his face and relaxed once again to try and get some rest.

Minato looked around. "Anything else?"

Danzō decided to speak up again. "Yes, we should begin training as soon as possible. You should give them over to me. I will personally take care of it." This earned a heated glare from Kushina and a suspicious look from Tsunade.

Minato's expression though, turned sub-zero. "Danzō-san, as I have already said, they are still children, no matter the fact that they are jinchurikies. They will be treated as such. Leave their training to Kushina and I." He motioned to himself and his wife. Danzō's single eye narrowed further but he decided it was time to stay silent. "Anything else?" Not seeing anyone else about to speak up, Minato wrapped things up. "Dismissed."

As they made their way out, many people congratulated him and Kushina on the new family they had. Kushina and Tsunade made their way over to Minato. Once she was close enough, Tsunade handed Naruto back over to him. "So what now, brat?"

"Now, Kushina-chan and I finally go home and start our new family." The new parents smiled to each other, causing Tsunade to smile as well.

"Ok, I will swing by within the week to do the routine check up on the brats, then I will be able to tell you my decision on whether or not I will be staying in the village."

This earned surprised looks from the Kushina and Minato. "You mean you are considering staying?" Minato could not help the hopeful look that showed up on his face.

"Yes, _considering._ Nothing is for sure yet." With that, she smirked at the two and walked out.

Minato turned to Kushina, and bringing her into a one armed hug, asked her, "Well, Kushina-chan, are you ready for are family to go home together for the first time?"

Kushina sent a dazzling smile to Minato. "Hell yeah I am-ttebane!" That caused Minato to laugh and the two of them disappeared in a yellow flash, not seeing that they were being watched.

* * *

 **There we go! Chapter 2 is done! Last chapter I said I didn't know if I would continue past this point, but I already have ideas I'm excited to try out, so I _will_ in fact continue this story. The only thing I am super iffy about is if I will add a pairing. I'm not a huge fan of NarutoxHinata, so if I do, then it probably won't be that.**

 **I haven't started on the third chapter yet, but I will get on that tomorrow. As for when it will go up, weeellll, I did not even really expect to post two days in a row, so _if_ I am super productive, then tomorrow. If not, then it won't.**

 **And I'm not totally sure I pulled Gai and Kakashi off well enough. Gai especially, but hey, I'm trying. Same with Danzo.**

 **Any Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	3. Lazy Afternoons

**And we're back! I finished chapter 3. Had some more ideas as well. Looking forward for when the story picks up.**

 **It really helps me relax and work when I have music going in the background. Thank god for spotify, huh. If only they would fix those stupid playback issues when it isn't on your phone, it would be perfect. It is super annoying to be listening to music, when suddenly it stops because it needs to buffer or something. I mean come on... I eventually gave up and started watching some Naruto movies off to the side. Been a while since I've seen the older ones. I couldn't even remember much of the plot for the crescent moon one.**

 **JCB72: I would like to think what I have in mind is reasonable...But we'll see.**

 **amarsh55: The neglect being realistic is something that has always bugged me as well in some other stories. Some of them just plain didn't make any sense. I'm hoping that you will agree with me that what I have makes sense. As for power progression...I'm of course not going to make him a god, and I agree that him in cannon was kind of pathetic. It works for cannon, but this isn't cannon, so I will fix that.**

 **Some more things from Kingdom Hearts will begin to appear in next chapter. Little stuff at first, but then it will increase. If not by chapter 5, then the one after that...hopefully. It all depends on how it goes. That's what I currently have planned, at least.**

 **Any ways, on with the story!**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Diety Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Diety Thinking: **_'Insert witty remark here.'_**

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

* * *

 **Two Months Later**

A certain spiky silver haired teenager was walking down the street on the way to his teacher's house. He was arriving at a satisfactory hour and a half late and was now taking his time to reflect on what has transpired around the village in the aftermath of the Kyūbi attack.

Reconstruction was still going on in various parts of the village, but progress was being made. Following the deaths of hundreds of people, there were mass funerals being held, with many of them being for more than one person, or being held back to back. Those days, and the ones that immediately followed, were the toughest. The entire village was grieving for lost friends and family.

The economy of the village was temporarily stunted as many of the stores were crushed in the attack. Following this, a great number of stands went up in front of the ruined businesses in an attempt to keep the business going until the buildings could be rebuilt. On the bright side, the village's construction industry has been getting a lot of business. Everyone seemed to be in need of the construction companies to come in and rebuild something.

On a more individual level, people were still slightly bitter from the attack. But the scale of the bitterness was nowhere near the level that it was at first. Kakashi didn't have many more feelings of unease about the tension in the village. Especially on the level that it reached for a short time during the village wide announcement two months ago. There was not even any of the previous hostility anymore.

The Fourth Hokage's words really made the difference in reassuring people that they were safe and the children were, in fact, not the Kyūbi. There were even some small talks of the three of them being heroes for holding the Kyūbi. This helped greatly in setting the new parents at ease. Otherwise, they would not feel safe allowing their children to go anywhere in the village. They could not always be there to shadow their kids.

Kakashi nodded back as a shinobi called out greetings to him from across the street. Going back to his thoughts, Kakashi pondered about what he has been getting up to in the past two months. Like he and Gai talked about, they were needed to help reconstruct the village. Although it wasn't that often that they were called in to do that. Those missions went to the genin teams.

So when they weren't called off to do border patrol or something of a similar nature, the two of them would help out around the village. But to Gai's great consternation, Kakashi was always late to get to the places they agreed to meet at. Kakashi didn't know why Gai didn't see that coming yet. Or maybe he did, and was simply playing along. Ah, he got off track again. By far, the place that needed the most work was the ground zero of the attack. The destruction and death that went on there…It was immense.

Kakashi shook his head to clear it of such depressing thoughts, wishing again that he had something else to keep his mind occupied. _'I really should look into finding a good book to read…Mah, I'll worry about that another time.'_ He saw that he was getting close to his destination.

The Uzumaki-Namikaze compound was by no means the biggest compound, especially with other ones out there like the Uchiha compound. That thing was like a miniature town. It was simply a big house with a wide front yard and a large training ground in the back. But that was perfectly fine with Minato and Kushina.

The house was a nice, family oriented house. It was no mansion, but it was still fit for it to be the home of the Fourth Hokage. There were plenty of rooms, enough for each of the kids to not need to share one, complete with guest rooms and a nursery. The nursery was only a recent addition that Kakashi and Minato were commissioned to put together.

Kakashi walked up to the font gate and pressed his hand in the seal that was over the lock. He then pushed his chakra into it to let himself in. He was hesitant at first to do so, but after great insistence, he began to treat this place like a second home. Things would get ugly _really_ quickly if he skipped this step, and he was in no mood to set off traps and to be treated like a hostile. Pushing past the gate, he noted how serene and pleasant the house always looked. It was a good house for a family, and he was happy that his teacher finally got the family that he always said he wanted. Kakashi smiled to himself. Truly, peaceful times were ahea-

"MINATO! WHERE ARE THOSE RATTLES?!"

Ah, strike that notion.

"Right here!"

"AND THE BABY FOOD!"

"I'm on it!"

"AND DON'T YOU DARE FORGET THE DIAPERS-TTEBANE!"

"Of course I won't!"

Kakashi simply watched as Kushina ordered Minato around the house to fetch the various items. Minato was running from room to room, and looking increasingly haggard all the while. Eventually, resorted to using the **Flying Thunder God** to get around, teleporting to the numerous markers he has placed around the house.

Once there was a brief reprieve, he finally noticed that Kakashi had decided to show up at last. Used to his student's habits on never being on time, he simply smiled and walked up to him, allowing Kakashi to get a good look at Minato's current condition.

Minato was wearing his normal blue shinobi outfit, but it was not as neat as it usually was, as if Minato couldn't keep up with keeping it so. He also had a few bags under his eyes, and looked extremely tired. But despite all this, he wore a bright and sunny smile the entire time.

"Kakashi! Finally decided to show up, huh?" He shot his student a look of fond exasperation.

"Mah…There were extenuating circumstances surrounding the reason why I was late this time…"

"Oh yeah?" Kakashi nodded. "Ok then. I'll bite, what are they?"

"What are what?"

"The 'extenuating circumstances' that were the reason."

"Reason for what?"

"The reason that you were-" Minato simply sighed. "Never mind…" Hearing this, Kakashi just eye smiled.

"Did I hear Kakashi-kun?" Came Kushina's voice from the next room over.

"Yeah, he just got here." Minato answered back.

"Good, Kakashi-kun, come over here. I need to talk to you about something." Kakashi sent an inquisitive look to his teacher who simply shrugged and shook his head.

"Ok…" Kakashi headed over to the next room where Kushina was. Seeing her, Kakashi noted that she was back to wearing her normal outfit that consisted of a high-collared, sleeveless blouse that she had on under a long, loose-fitting green dress. She also had on black shinobi sandals and a black wrist band on the left wrist. Walking up to her as she was sitting on the couch, he noted that she had Narumi in her lap and was feeding her with a bottle. "What did you need?"

Kushina looked up and saw him come closer. She got up, calmly placed Narumi in the nearby crib with the bottle on the table text to it. She then slowly walked up to Kakashi with a smile on her face and her eyes were closed.

Kakashi tilted his head in confusion and was about to open his mouth to ask another question. When he suddenly froze as he saw her hair was starting to fly behind her. He broke out into a nervous sweat, and opened his mouth to apologize for whatever he did. But before he got the chance, he was sent flying into the opposite wall thanks to Kushina's fist.

"Next time you're late, at least have the effort to come up with _some_ kind of excuse! I heard that one all the way over here! I overlook it most of the time because I hope you will grow out of the habit, but that is too much-ttebane!" She was standing over his body with a dark look on her face and an even darker aura about her.

Kakashi groaned as he heard this and nodded his head. Seeing this, Kushina's entire demeanor instantly changed and her smile became a lot more real. "Good!" She chirped, and walked over to tend to her children again.

Minato chuckled at the scene, and walked over to Kakashi who was only pulling himself up now. "You completely deserved that."

"I know."

"Will it happen again?"

"Of course."

With a huff of amusement, Minato followed after Kushina, Kakashi a step behind him.

"So what did you call me over for? To help with the kids again? You want me to summon my pack like last time?" Kakashi was curious as to just for what reason he was called to the Uzumaki-Namikaze home.

"That's it, yeah. Naruto especially has a great time whenever you come by." It was at that time that they heard a baby's squeal of glee. They turned to the sight of a Naruto sitting up in his crib, in an attempt to get to Kakashi.

"Hey there, pup." Kakashi smiled as he saw this and walked over to him. When he got close, he picked Naruto up. During the first month, Kakashi was scared witless at the prospect of getting anywhere near any of the three kids, but after being forced to by Minato and Kushina, he was rapidly growing used to it. "How are you doing today, Naruto?"

Naruto just giggled and pat him on the cheek. "That well, huh?" This sight caused Minato and Kushina to smile, relieved that Kakashi was finally showing true signs of moving on with his life after everything that has happened.

Kakashi seemed to truly let down his guard when he was around the kids. That was something only before seen when he was with Gai. Both Minato and Kushina noticed this, and were extremely happy about this shift in attitude in Kakashi. It was a major reason for why they had been repeatedly calling him over to help them with the kids over the last two months. They both thought that this was a very healthy thing for him. They had both seen what happens to shinobi who let the past consume them. Anything that helped him move on was welcome.

Getting free help with the kids from someone they could explicitly trust was an added bonus.

They spent the next couple of minutes simply chatting and playing with Naruto. Narumi was just put down for her nap, and Menma was sound asleep. Their talk was interrupted by a baby's cry. Or at least, Menma _was_ sound asleep.

Hearing this, Kushina swiftly moved over to Menma's crib and picked him up. "Aww, what's wrong sweetie?" She cooed. Upon closer inspection, she noticed a specific smell permeating from the baby. "Oh, I see. Do you want your diaper changed?"

Both Minato and Kakashi heard this and immediately froze in place. They shot each other a nervous glance, before slowly heading for the door. "Oh, _boys…_ " An ominous sounding voice called out to them. "And just _where_ do you think you're going?" The voice questioned. Their distress grew to new heights when they saw the dark aura come back and her hair starting to raise.

"Nowhere, honey. We're right here…"

"We aren't going anywhere, Kushina-senpai…"

They silently cursed their luck as she knew that they had just tried to make an escape. That wasn't the thing that always threw them for a loop though…

She could have her back turned, and still _always knew when they tried to run._

"Good, good. Of course you weren't, how silly of me…" They both chuckled, but if you paid close attention, there was no humor in their laughs. "Decide amongst yourselves who will change Menma-chan. I don't care which of you does it, just get it done." She put Menma down onto the area they have been changing the diapers in, and left towards the kitchen to check on the bottle that was being heated.

Minato and Kakashi watched her leave. Once she was gone, the two of them simply stood there in silence. The tension was building, and it seemed like the silence would stretch on forever. Naruto simply watched curiously from his position in the crib, Kakashi having placed him back in it.

The tension continued to build, and it seemed like a fight could break out at any moment. And then at once, the tension snapped!

"Not it!" "Not it!" The two of them both struck at once. Their fingers touching the tips of their noses at speeds where only a jounin could follow. While Minato is known as the yellow flash, the man who's speed is only rivaled by Kumo's A, this was enough motivation for Kakashi to find newfound speed to match him.

The two of them stared at each other, willing the other to stand down. The silence was broken by Minato. "The usual method then?"

Kakashi solemnly nodded. "Yeah, that should do it."

Minato nodded as well. "No hard feelings no matter who wins."

"Agreed. On the count of three?"

Minato nodded then started. "One." He brought his fist back. "And no sharingan!" Kakashi cursed in his head and pulled his hand away from his headband.

"Two." Kakashi assumed a similar position to the one Minato was in.

"Three!" They yelled together, the both of them bringing their fist forward.

Silence ensued.

"Yes!" Minato cheered.

"No!" Kakashi dropped to his knees." Minato's hand had his index and middle finger extended, while Kakashi had all of his fingers extended. "Two out of three!"

He was quickly shot down by Minato. "No way! You know the rules! One round of rock-paper-scissors, winner take all! You lost, so I take all. You didn't show me any mercy the last time we did this and you won, so no way would I show you mercy."

Kakashi was still lamenting his fate. "Dammit all…"

Kushina had come back right before the conclusion to the argument. She had a deadpan face on. "You're both idiots-ttebane." They chose to keep whatever dignity they had left and not respond to this statement. "Whatever, get on in, Kakashi-kun. Menma-chan still needs his diaper changed."

Kakashi sighed, but got up. Minato placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Hey, buck up. It could be worse."

Kakashi glared at him. "How?"

"There could be two dirty diapers." It was at that moment that Naruto started crying. Naruto was a baby who rarely cried. Only doing so when he was either hungry, or needed his diaper changed. So because he only ate a little while ago, this could only mean…

Kushina looked to her husband, deadpan still in full effect. "Because you jinxed it, you're cleaning him up." This caused Minato to adopt the same look he got whenever a new batch of paperwork was brought into his office. The look of true despair.

Kakashi gave him a smug look. "Hey, buck up." This remark did not earn him any points with Minato.

* * *

 **Ten Minutes Later**

Both Minato and Kakashi were slouching on the couch, seemingly dead tired. Kushina walked by without even sparing them a glance. "You're both pathetic-ttebane." All she got in return were two groans. She shook her head with a small smile gracing her lips. She opened her mouth to speak again but before she could there was an explosion of smoke in the middle of the room.

Instantly, the shinobi of the room were put on guard and sprang into defensive positions with Kushina getting in between the potential hostile and her children. "Who are you?!" Minato called, but when no response came, they tensed. Ready to either attack or defend as needed. But before the smoke was completely cleared, something happened.

Kabuki music started to play throughout the room, and the smoke began to clear to show the form of a very large man. He had waist-length, spiky white hair tied into a pony tail, with two bangs framing his face all the way down past his shoulders. He had two red marks running from his eyes and a wart on the left side of his nose. Instead of the traditional headband, he chose to wear a horned one that had the kanji for "oil" on his head. He had on a green short kimono shirt with pants that matched. There were mesh armor showing from under his pants and shirt. He had on hand guards, a black belt, and old-style getas. On his left palm was a strange tattoo. His outfit was completed with a red haori that had two yellow circles on each side and a giant scroll on his back.

"So you wish to know who I am, huh? I thought you had already knew…but I suppose I can introduce myself to you all again…" He began to hop to the side on one foot. "The title 'toad sage' is merely an alias." He brought the foot that was in the air down in front of him. "I shall tell you my true identity…" He waved his head in circles, causing his hair to do the same. "I am the man who has enemies in the North, South, East, and West…" He threw the scroll up into the air, caught it, and brought his other hand before him in a hand sign. "Even in the heavens! I am one of the sannin…" He quickly summoned an oversized toad below him and made another pose. "White haired toad tamer… Even a crying baby would stop and stare in awe…" He spun around. "I am…Jirai-" WHAM! He lost consciousness for a moment.

His introduction was cut off right before the conclusion thanks to Kushina sending him flying via chakra punch to the face. "YOU MORON! DOES THAT LOOK LIKE BABIES WHO AREN'T CRYING TO YOU?!" She pointed over to her two younger children who began to cry from all the noise he had made. Naruto was starting to tear up as well. Kushina was in full habanero mode.

The toad sage was swiftly attempting to protect himself from the irate woman. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! It won't happen again! I swear!" Even after living through wars, Jiraiya was still utterly terrified by an angry Kushina or Tsunade.

"It better not! Or I will make it so you are missing some important parts that you would need to go to those damn brothels and have a 'good time,' or whatever you call it-ttebane!" she looked disgusted even as she said it.

At this threat, the rest of the color drained from Jiraiya's face and he looked even more terrified of the woman before him.

"Jiraiya-sensei…" Minato sighed at his teacher's antics. Some things never changed. And that wasn't always a good thing. "When did you get back?"

Jiraiya looked over to his favorite student. "Last night, it was too late to come over then, so I came over today the first chance I got."

This made Minato blink. "First chance?" He checked the clock. "It's already 3:30…" He trailed off when he saw Jiraiya's sheepish expression. He quickly caught on, and then sent a deadpan look his way. "Sensei…were you peeping at the bath houses again?"

Jiraiya just smiled sheepishly and rubbed his head. He chuckled a bit. "Ah, well…" But he froze at the sound of cracking knuckles. Slowly, he turned only to freeze once again when he saw the look Kushina was giving him. It was even scarier than the one before! How was that even possible?!

She walked up to him and grabbed him by the front of his shirt and lifted him up. "Jiraiya, I swear to kami…if you turn _any_ of my babies into perverts, _I will end you._ Do you understand that?" The threat was clear. And it was very real. She threatened to do him bodily harm a lot. And she often delivered on that threat. But this one was next level scary.

Jiraiya gulped. And shakily nodded his head. "I understand perfectly. Don't worry, I got it."

With that, Kushina was all smiles again. "Good!" She then dropped him.

Jiraiya took a moment to collect himself. After doing so, he stood up. He looked around the room, inspecting each of the people in it. His eyes lingered on the babies for a while, but when the made it to Kushina, they really stopped. More specifically, on her chest.

A lecherous smile quickly appeared on his face. "I must say, Kushina. Those breasts of yours look marvelous with all that mil-" BAM! And he was out again.

 **Outside the House**

* * *

Tsunade was currently walking down the street towards the Uzumaki-Namikaze household. She was thinking on how these pasts two months have played out. Despite her initial reservations, she was happy that she decided to stay in the village.

' _Plus, things are finally starting to slow down after the Kyūbi attack…I now have more time to drink!'_ That thought brought a smile to her face. She pushed her chakra into the front gate, and entered the compound. After opening the door to the house, she prepared herself to greet the people in it. Before she could though, there was the sound of something large impacting the wall in the next room.

Thinking that something could have happened, she swiftly made her way over. The sight that greeted her isn't one that she expected. Her old teammate, Jiraiya, was slumped against the wall, blood on his face that was leaking from his nose. An enraged Kushina was standing in front of him, with an amused Kakashi and resigned Minato behind her. It didn't take a Nara to figure out happened.

She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, drawing the attention of the room. "This idiot…" She looked up at the other occupants in the room. "I'll get to him in a moment, I need a drink…" She then walked out of the room.

* * *

 **One Drink and Healing Later**

They were all sitting around the room in the couches and chairs. The kids were all put back to sleep again. Minato started the discussion. "Welcome back, Jiraiya-sensei. I assume you're back because of what happened?"

Jiraiya nodded. "Yeah, I couldn't have come back sooner because I was deep into hostile territory at the time I heard. Normally I would have pulled out, but confirmation that everything worked out in the end set me at ease." Here, he paused, a solemn and sad expression taking place on his face. "Is it true that sensei has…?" He trailed off.

Tsunade also took on a sad expression and nodded. "Yes, he used the **Reaper Death Seal** to seal the Kyūbi into the kids. The yin half of the chakra into Narumi, the yang half into Menma, and the soul into Naruto."

Jiraiya nodded. "I see…not that I don't trust you, but may I inspect the seals? Just to sate my curiosity?" When he got the nod of approval from the parents, he went over to do just that. He was careful not to wake any of the babies. "Yes, these are nicely done seals…At least sensei died protecting what was important to him." He sighed. "But how did it happen in the first place?" This was directed to Minato and Kushina.

They looked to one another, before telling him the events of the night.

* * *

 **After Recounting the Night**

They sat in silence for a while, contemplating what was just discussed. After a while, Jiraiya broke the silence. "I see…Well, I'll use the spy network to keep an eye out for this man…You said he had the sharingan?" He looked over to Minato, and seeing his nod, continued. "Ok, if he uses it again, all the easier. How many sharingan users could there be that aren't a part of Konoha?"

"Unless it _was_ an Uchiha from Konoha." This point was made by Kakashi. It brought about another bought of tense silence.

Minato broke the silence this time. "We are not condemning the clan without proof of anything solid…We will treat it as an outside party until proof of otherwise is shown." They nodded at these words. "Anyways, enough with these depressing talks." A bright smile came upon his face. "Jiraiya-sensei, come meet your god children!"

Jiraiya smiled and nodded. The two of them headed over to the crib that the three babies were currently sharing, with Naruto in the middle and the other two on either side of him. It was an incredibly cute sight. "So…These are the brats, huh? Congrats."

Kushina and Minato smiled. "Thank you." They said together.

"They already look like you guys." At this, Naruto woke up. Out of the three of them, he was the lightest sleeper. "Heterochromatic eyes? How rare. And a light and dark combination too…" The baby simply giggled at the man observing him. "Heh, cheeky brat…"

"Will you help with their training?" This came from Minato.

"Of course I will! I will also be around town more. I want to be in their lives after all, not just the uncle they never see…Tsunade, will you help at all?" He looked over to his teammate.

"I don't know…They would need a great amount of chakra control to truly benefit from any training I could give them. Forget being a jinchuriki, just being half Uzumaki could make it harder with those giant reserves…but I sure will give it a shot." She smiled at this, looking forward to it.

"So that means you are staying in the village, then?" He smiled at her nod. "If nothing else, you could offer to let them sign the slug contract, I plan to do that with the toads…" Tsunade nodded in agreement to Jiraiya's words. That was always an option.

Jiraiya turned towards the window. "Sorry, but I don't have any more time to talk, I need to check up on people in the village." Minato nodded.

Kakashi headed towards the door as well. "I'm going to head off too." This surprised Minato and Kushina, he normally stayed longer than this.

"Why, what's the hurry?" Kushina asked him.

He looked back. "I want to head towards the bookstore. In the event that I have a long wait or something, I would like to have a good book to read."

This gained Jiraiya's attention. "You know…" He started. "If you are looking for a good book to read…" A lecherous smile was growing again on his face.

He was shot down by Kakashi before he could even finish. "Rejected." Kakashi continued on his way towards the door.

Jiraiya comically fell to the floor. "Why the hell not?!" He was highly insulted by this little brat!

"I refuse to become a pervert like you!"

"I'm not a pervert!" This earned him stares of disbelief from the rest of the room. Jiraiya made a pose again. "I'm a super pervert!" Naruto giggled at this.

Seeing her child laugh at this scene, Kushina grew enraged again. "Jiraiya! You better not be trying to get Naruto-chan to copy you!" The dark aura was back. She was slowly walking up to the sannin, who was cowering against the wall.

"No! I swear! It was probably how stupid I looked just now!" He didn't truly believe he looked stupid, but whatever to get the habanero away.

Kushina stopped, considering his plea, and then nodded. Relieving Jiraiya immensely. He turned back to Kakashi. "Consider it, brat! You may be surprised." With those parting words, he jumped out the window.

Kakashi scoffed. "Like hell I will." Nodding goodbye to the rest of the room, he left.

Minato looked over to the other people in the room. "Why can't things be normal? Is that too much to ask?"

Tsunade smirked while his wife giggled. "Don't worry," Tsunade started. "The years will soon fly by." With that, she walked over to the kids to start the checkup.

Minato looked at Kushina. "She thinks the years will 'fly by'? I doubt that." Kushina walked over to him, kissed him on the cheek, and then went over to help Tsunade however she could. Minato smiled to himself. "But I wouldn't have it any other way." He followed after the two.

* * *

 **Extra: The Birth of a Pervert (Part 1)**

 **At the Bookstore**

Kakashi was now browsing the isles, looking for a good book to read in his spare time.

' _Hmmm, choices, choices. What shall I read?'_

He wasn't really sure what he wanted to read, so he was looking through the best-seller section. If it was a best seller, then it must have some credibility, right? That only made sense after all.

 _I would prefer something I would not mind reading over and over again…That means it needs to be a really good book…'_

He started to list off the options in his head…

' _ **Hunger Games**_ _? Maybe…'_

' _ **War and Peace**_ _? Nah…'_

' _ **Make ou**_ _-'_ Kakashi froze. His mind screeching to a halt as he stared at the orange book. Once he realized what he was doing, he tried to move on, but his eye kept drifting back. He didn't understand! He wasn't a pervert! So why?! That was when he noticed something that startled him.

He had already picked it up.

He jumped, scared out of his wits. _'What kind of genjutsu is this?!'_ Quickly putting his hands together into the needed hand seal, he yelled out. " **Kai**!" He relaxed, thinking it was over and done with. He decided to just grab **Hunger Games** and get out of there before something else happened.

He walked up to the cashier. The guy working was about his age, and looked bored out of his mind. Kakashi sympathized with him. He wouldn't want to be there as well. Especially so close to closing time… Kakashi walked up to him and handed over the book in his hand. "Just this."

The teen nodded, and look down. He quickly becoming interested in the world when he saw what the book was. "Oh, you just starting the series?"

Kakashi nodded, not really feeling like talking at the moment. He didn't really get the need to make small talk with the customer when you help them out thing. _'Just shut up, take the money, and give me my book. It isn't that hard…'_

A lecherous smile quickly grew on the cashier's face. "You're in for a treat." Kakashi nodded again, getting impatient. "And welcome to the brotherhood, fellow pervert." This caused Kakashi's to snap around as if he had been slapped. He stared down at the book in his hand in horror. It wasn't a black book with fire on it. That's what he had been expecting. It was an orange book with a person on it.

It was **Make out Paradise: Volume 1**

* * *

 **Jiraiya is, by far, one of my favorite Naruto characters. I was really mad when he died. Although one thing that always annoyed the heck out of me about cannon was the fact that he was Naruto's godfather...but he was never there until the chunin exams. I mean, really? Come on! What the heck is that? I plan on fixing that.**

 **Tsunade's history also annoyed me a bit. She totally just moped around the elemental nations for years, dragging Shizune with her. She didn't even try to move on. She needed a genin to come by and knock some sense into her. And if you didn't notice, she doesn't have that fear of blood that she did in cannon.**

 **Kakashi as we know of him is coming! I am enjoying his denial and transformation into the pervert that he truly is...**

 **I don't know if I will keep it up, but I have started posting chapter progress on my profile.**

 **Questions?** **Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	4. Dreams Of The Start

**And we're back! I finished with Chapter 4! There is a time Skip in this chapter, and some Kingdom Hearts Elements finally show up.**

 **I was going to cut this chapter off at about 4,000 words, but then I realized that if this next part was short enough, then I could add it on. So I did.**

 **OmegaDelta: I don't know about OC characters, but he will get some people to help him out. I already have an idea or two on who they will be…** _ **Probably not Naruto character though.**_

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Diety Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Diety Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

* * *

 **Two Years Later**

It has now been two years since the Kyūbi no Kitsune attacked the village. The reconstruction of the village has long since been completed, and the people are enjoying a time of peace.

Despite the initial reservations, nothing bad has happened concerning the new containers of the Kyūbi. In fact, the three children have rapidly endeared themselves to the village. The children of two of the most famous shinobi of the village? And one of them is even the Hokage? It was easy once they got over themselves.

All three of the kids were just little balls of sunshine. It wasn't uncommon for them to be treated with a free item or two when they came into stores with the person with them at the time. The village had even toasted to them on the anniversaries of the Kyūbi attack. The villagers truly had high hopes for them.

* * *

 **Uzumaki-Namikaze Household**

"Kaa-chan, Kaa-chan!" A childish voice called out. Kushina who was in the kitchen fixing up some ramen, looked over her shoulder to her three kids who were at the kitchen table.

"Hmm? What is it?" she walked over to the one that spoke, Narumi. She had shoulder length crimson hair, with violet eyes that were lit up with joy. Her outfit consisted of a baby blue dress with the Uzumaki swirl on the back of it. "Have you finished your drawing, sweetheart?" Narumi giggled and nodded, pushing forward the drawing that was on the table in front of her.

"Yeah! Look it!" She demanded.

"You mean, 'Look at it, please?'" Kushina had taken to often correcting her children when they spoke. It was the small things, like grammar and word usage. But they were learning quicker with her doing that.

Narumi smiled brightly and nodded her head eagerly. "Yeah! Look, at, it, please!" She spoke slowly, making sure she got each word. She pushed her drawing forward again, eager for her mother to look at it.

Kushina smiled at her daughter and looked at the drawing. It was a simple drawing with five stick figures. A blond one, three redheads, and a figure that had a mix of blond and red hair. They were each crudely labeled. The blond one had "tou-chan" under it. The tallest redhead had "kaa-chan" under it, while the other two had "Menma" and "me." The last figure had "nii-chan" under it.

Kushina smiled. "This is our family, it looks good!" Narumi, hearing this, was immensely pleased. She giggled.

Kushina was distracted by a second childish voice. "Kaa-chan, me too!" Kushina looked over to see her youngest son pushing forward his own drawing. His crimson hair was in a style that was a copy of Minato's. He had on orange shorts and a black t-shirt. On both of his shoulder was the Uzumaki swirl. Kushina smiled and looked at the new drawing.

There were a bunch of houses, with people walking around outside of them. In the middle was a red building. In the background was a mountain. But the mountain had four faces on it. The four faces had numbers above them ranging from one to four.

Kushina smiled down on her youngest. He looked excited to hear what she had to say about it. "And this is the village? Wow!" She looked between Menma and Narumi. "When did you become such artists? Your kaa-chan wishes she was that good…" The two of them giggled more at this.

"Kaa-chan! Look please!" Having her attention drawn for the third time, Kushina saw that her oldest had finished his drawing as well. Naruto's hair was cut a great deal shorter than his father's. Another difference was that while his hair was predominately blond, he also had some red mixed in. His outfit consisted of black shorts and a white t-shirt with the Uzumaki swirl on the front. He was eagerly waiting for his mother to look at his drawing as well.

Kushina smiled at him before looking down at his drawing. What she saw confused her. It was a door. It was a tall, white double door that was floating in an endless black abyss. It was intricate in design. It had elegant grooves and golden studs in the doors. Both of the two doors had stained glass in them that had a multitude of colors. It seemed to lack a knob or handle. The top of the door frame also had stained glass. In the center of this stained glass piece was a heart.

Although she was highly confused as to what she was looking at, she tried not to let it show on her face. "Naruto-chan…" She began. He looked up at her. "Your kaa-chan is so silly…she doesn't know what this is." Naruto giggled at that. "Can you tell her what this is?"

He nodded eagerly. "A door!" He chirped.

Kushina nodded at this. "A door to what?"

Naruto seemed to consider her words. He turned silent and looked at his drawing. After a moment, he smiled and looked back at her. "A door to the hearts!"

Kushina was growing increasingly confused. A door to the hearts? What did he mean by that? "What do you mean, sweetie?" She didn't want to question him too much, but she was really curious about it. "Your kaa-chan just isn't getting it. Isn't she silly?" He smiled and nodded. "Can you help her understand, please?"

He nodded eagerly and took up a thoughtful expression, as if trying to figure out how he was going to explain it to her. Kushina waited patiently, but grew concerned as the moment of contemplation continued to grow. Eventually, Naruto started to look confused as well. He looked up at her and spoke something he did not quite expect.

"I don't know, kaa-chan…" This surprised her as she figured that he would have some idea behind why this door led to hearts.

"Ok, then where did you get the idea for this door, Naruto-chan?" She questioned.

Naruto seemed to think about it before he smiled upon remembering where it came to him. "A dream! I see it in Dream from last night! There was this door, and it was surrounded by a bunch of hearts. Like a bunch, bunch!" He made gestures with his arms to get his point across on just how many hearts there were.

Kushina nodded her head at this. It made sense after all. The mind of a two year old is bound to be an active place. He probably has had a bunch of dreams that were far out there. She smiled. "Oh! That makes sense-ttebane. Well, it is still a good drawing." She smiled brighter as he seemed pleased at her praise. She looked at her three children. "Well how about we put them on the fridge-ttebane?"

They smiled and ran after her as she walked over to the fridge. They even cheered when she stuck them on with the magnets. She turned and smiled at them. "Ok, who wants ramen?" She already knew the answer to this question. She and Minato had decided to introduce their kids to ramen a few weeks ago. They had instantly taken to it as if it was the best food in the world.

"Me!"

"No me!"

"I do!"

She laughed at this and ushered them back over to the table. The ramen was just about done.

* * *

 **Later that Day**

Minato appeared in a yellow flash in the living room. He was dead tired after that long day of paper work but a lot of his fatigue left him when he saw who else was in the room. The kids who were playing a game nearby on the floor looked up when they saw this and ran over to greet him.

"Tou-chan!" The three of them tackled his legs, and despite the size difference, it actually took some effort to stay standing.

"Hey there, you three." Minato smiled down at them. "How are you doing?"

Menma immediately replied. "Good!"

Narumi quickly followed his example. "Good, tou-chan!"

Minato smiled at hearing this. Not hearing an answer from his oldest child, Minato turned to him. "And you, Naruto-kun, how was your day?" he questioned.

Naruto smiled up at him. "Good! Kaa-chan was silly!" He giggled at the remembering the earlier event.

Minato chuckled to himself, thinking that Kushina was clumsy for a bit or something similar. "Oh, was she now?" Naruto nodded his head. "And how was she silly?"

Naruto's answer slightly surprised him. "Cuz she didn't get my drawing!" He giggled some more at the thought. How silly that was of her!

Minato was now very amused. "Oh, that is silly of her!" He smiled down at his children. "Ok, kids. I think your mother is nearly finished up with dinner. Why don't you three go wash up?" They nodded and quickly ran off.

Minato chuckled at their eagerness before heading over to the kitchen to greet his wife. He found her humming to herself while at the stove. For a moment, he entertained the thought of scaring her. Then he remembered two things. First, she was a shinobi. Second, she would be furious at him for doing so. Deciding to value his continued existence, he announced his presence. "I'm home." He said.

She turned her head and smiled at him. "Welcome back." She said.

He nodded at her with a smile. "How was your day?"

She smiled and shrugged. "Pretty good. I'm starting to get a little restless though. I think I'll take a mission to get out for a bit soon. Nothing big, a B rank should do…" He nodded. That was normal for shinobi who were still fit for duty. They eventually grow semi-restless and request some sort of mission to get out for a while. "I will probably get Kakashi-kun or someone to watch the kids for a bit…"

Minato nodded again. He wished _he_ could get out there on a mission. _'But if I leave for even an hour, the paperwork will multiply…'_ he shivered at the thought. It was then that he remembered what Naruto had told him. "So you had trouble understanding a drawing made by a two year old?" he asked her with a smirk.

Kushina threw him an unimpressed look. "Well, why don't _you_ tell me what you think it is?" She pointed at the fridge. "Go on, they are all on the fridge."

Minato walked over to the drawings. He smiled at what he saw. They were each labeled with their names so they would know who drew what. He looked at each of them, smiling all the while. But his smile froze when he got to the third one. Slowly, it turned into a confused frown. "A door?"

Kushina walked up next to him. "Yeah, that stumped me as well."

Minato looked back to her. "A door to what?" he questioned.

"He said it was a 'door to the hearts.'" He threw her a confused look.

"What does that mean?" How does a door lead to the hearts?

"I'm not sure…He said that it came to him in a dream so there probably isn't that much to look into. Just the overactive imagination of a two year old-ttebane."

Minato agreed with this logic. "Well, did they he at least have fun drawing it?"

Kushina smiled. "Yeah. All three of them had fun with drawing. They will probably begin asking me for the art supplies more often."

Minato smiled as well. "If this was his first drawing, I wonder what else he will come up with…"

Kushina shrugged. "Who knows? He probably start drawing things like the family and village like the other two soon."

* * *

 **Two Months Later**

Kushina was now growing slightly worried. As she had expected, Naruto, Narumi, and Menma had begun to ask her for the art supplies more often following the first time two months ago.

Since then, Narumi and Menma have made many drawings. Sometimes they drew the something they already had, like the family or village. But other times they drew something new like a forest with animals in it. That wasn't what had her worried though.

It was Naruto.

Since the first drawing he made, he was the one who asked her for the art supplies the most often. The thing that worried her was that he had yet to draw something that was similar to his siblings. All of his drawings were things that he said came to him in dreams.

At first, he only drew that same white door that he drew at first. But recently, he has started drawing three people. The same three people. He drew them in various situations, but it was always them. Because he was only two, his drawings were still crude, but she knew they were the same people every time. She even asked him.

The first one was a young woman with blue hair that went down to her shoulders. She wore a black, sliver, and blue outfit with silver and black shoes. Although she had silver sleeves, she was missing shoulders in her outfit. When asked who she was, Naruto gained a thoughtful look before smiling and claiming she was "water."

The next person was a tall teenage guy with dark brown hair. The top half of his outfit was a black shirt with a red x on it. He wore some kind of armor on his left shoulder and a black gauntlet on the left hand. The bottom half of his outfit was slightly unusual when compared to the rest of his outfit. They were a sandy colored hakama pants. He also wore black and gold shoes. When questioned, Naruto would say he was "earth."

The last was a boy with blond hair. At first, Kushina had thought that it was Minato, but then she noticed the color was more of a blondish-brown. His outfit was predominately made of variants of black and white. The right side of his shirt was white, while the top left part was black. His pants started off as a dark grey, before turning into a silver color, then it turned white, and finished with black. His shoes were a mix of gold, blueish-silver, and black. There was some kind of ornament on his left shoulder. Naruto said this was "wind."

Naruto still liked to draw the door a lot, but these three were beginning to show up more often. The thing that confused her though was what they were doing in some of the pictures. Sometimes they were simply relaxing, other times they were holding colored stars. The colors were always the same too. They were orange, green and blue. But the last one really confused her. They were holding giant keys. And they were fighting with them!

What kind of weapon was a key? Could a key even do damage? When she brought this up, asking if a sword would be better, Naruto gained a confused look again. It was if he knew she was right, but this made sense too, which he couldn't understand.

And then there were the things that they were fighting. They were fighting these strange creatures that all had the same symbol on them.

She was growing increasingly nervous as Naruto seemed to be obsessing over the things in his drawings. And he always said that they came to him in dreams, but where did the dreams come from? It got so bad that she went to talk with Minato about it. In fact, that's what she was doing right at that moment.

* * *

 **Uzumaki-Namikaze Dining Room**

The two of them were in their dining room, Naruto's drawings spread around the table. Kushina started the conversation. "I'm starting to get really worried-ttebane…I mean, what could be causing all this?" It didn't make any sense. He does everything with his siblings, so whatever he encountered, so have they, but they haven't drawn anything like this. "Do you think it could be the Kyūbi's soul causing this? I don't think it is, but what do you think?"

Minato shook his head before he answered. "No, I don't think it is either. Plus, what would the Kyūbi get out of this? Causing us stress?" He quirked a small smile at the thought of stress being the Kyūbi's form of revenge on them.

Kushina smiled a bit before continuing. "What do you think…of taking him to see Inoichi-san?"

Minato looked surprised at the thought before considering it. "You think he could figure it out?"

Kushina hesitantly nodded her head. "Yeah, he can do mental evaluations for just about anyone…he doesn't normally do two year olds, but I'm sure he can do it."

Minato thought about it. "Yeah…he probably could…will you take him?"

"Yeah, I have some free time tomorrow… I will do it then."

* * *

 **Yamanaka Flower Shop (The Next Day)**

It was the day after her talk with Minato, and Kushina was now leading Naruto into Inoichi's home.

"Welcome!" A voice called. Looking over to the counter, Kushina saw a woman around her age that had brown hair and pupil-less light brown eyes. Her hair was tied into a bun with a red ribbon. She was wearing a dark teal dress with an aquamarine gem below the collar. This was Sachi Yamanaka, Inoichi's wife.

Kushina smiled and greeted the woman. "Hi, Sachi-san, we are just here because I wanted Inoichi-san to see Naruto. We talked about it before?" The end was phrased as a question to see if she knew about the meeting.

Sachi smiled and gestured towards the door that lead towards the home part of the building. "Yes, I heard about that, he should be in the dining room right now. Go ahead and enter."

Kushina nodded her head with a smile. "Thank you." With that, they headed in.

The dining room was an elegant room that had a long table with enough seats to fit at least ten people and a chandelier hanging from above. Sitting in one of the chairs near the center of the table was Inoichi who was looking over some photos he had out. At the sound of them entering, he looked up and smiled at them.

Gesturing towards the seat in front of him he spoke up. "Welcome, Kushina-san, Naruto-kun. Kushina-san, did you bring the drawings like I requested?"

She took them out of the bag she had brought along. "Yes, they are right here." She handed them over to him.

He took a minute to look through them. "Hmm…yes, I see what you mean…Ok, are you ready to get started now?"

Kushina nodded and looked down at Naruto, who until then had remained silent as the adults were talking. She got his attention. "Naruto-chan…" He looked up at her. "Inoichi-san here wants to ask you some questions. They are just some things about your drawings and the dreams you have been having, ok?" He nodded his head with a smile, excited to talk about his drawings again.

Inoichi started the session. "Ok, Naruto-kun, your mother has been telling me that you have been drawing a lot lately, is that right?"

Naruto smiled brightly at the man. "Yeah!"

Inoichi smiled back at hearing his enthusiasm. "She even brought some of your drawings for me to look at, do you mind if I ask you some questions about them?" He requested.

Naruto shook his head. "That's ok…"

Inoichi nodded and reached for the first drawing. It was the very first drawing that Naruto made. "Can you tell me what this is?"

"It's a door!" Naruto giggled at the silly question causing Inoichi to smile.

"Ok, but a door to what?"

Naruto was used to this question by now. "A door to the hearts!"

Inoichi quirked an eyebrow at this. "But Naruto-kun, how does a door lead to hearts? Shouldn't is be to a room? Or a place? And why hearts?"

Naruto pondered this a bit. His expression getting more and more scrunched up as he thought. If it wasn't something she wanted the answer to, Kushina would have cooed and hugged him right there for being so cute. "I don't know…but it is!" Naruto was adamant at that point.

The conviction in his tone set Inoichi aback a little. "Well, if you're sure…" Naruto nodded. Of course he was! "…then what about this?" He brought forth a picture of the three people. In this one, they were holding the stars.

Naruto quickly proclaimed what this drawing was. "It's water, earth and wind!"

This made Inoichi raise an eyebrow again. "Like the elements? Are they jutsu?" He asked.

Naruto rapidly shook his head in response to this question. "No! They're people! How a person be a jutsu?" That couldn't happen!

Inoichi nodded again. "Ok, then what are they holding? They look like stars, are they?"

Naruto scrunched up his face in thought again. "They help find your way." He explained.

This made Inoichi pause. "So…they use them when they get lost?" Naruto nodded. "Ok, would you two mind giving me a few minutes, I need to prepare for the next part." After getting the consent, Inoichi gathered the drawings and left to the next room over.

When he returned, it was with a bundle of drawings and photos. "Ok Naruto-kun, I am going to show you some pictures. Some will be drawings, some will be photos. A couple will even be your own drawings. I want you to tell me the first thing that comes to your mind. Ok?"

Naruto nodded again. He was eager to start, this sounded like a game!

"Then let's start. What do you think when you see this?" He held up a picture of a door.

"A door." That's what it was, right? Was there another answer to that?

"What about this one?" He held up a drawing. It was a drawing of the door Naruto made, but by Inoichi. He had just made it in the other room.

"A door to the hearts!"

Inoichi didn't look surprised to hear this. "And this?" He held up a drawing of a door again. But it was just a normal white door.

"Another door." What was special about it?

Inoichi nodded yet again. "This one is next." He held up a drawing of a green star.

"The thing that helps you find your way."

"This?" A picture of a star in the night sky.

"A dot? Oh! A star!" That was close, he almost lost the game.

* * *

 **10 Minutes Later**

"Ok, Naruto-kun we are done now. Why don't you go play with my daughter, Ino-chan? She is in the next room.

"Ok!" He was excited to get a new playmate. He quickly ran off into the next room. When he was gone, Inoichi turned to Kushina.

"I see what you meant, he is slightly obsessed with those drawings…"

Kushina agreed. "Yes. Were you able to figure anything out from that?" She would like to hear his input on the entire thing. She couldn't figure it out.

"While I would have like to enter his mind to view these dreams directly, I can't because that would run the risk of coming across the Kyūbi…So I am forced to rely on whatever I can gather." Kushina nodded at this, the risk of entering a jinchuriki was too high when it comes to the mind. While Naruto may not have the chakra, the soul is the dangerous part when it comes to this.

"While I am not 100% sure if it was an outside stimulus that started it all, I am fairly certain that it is simply the over active imagination of a two year old. It should pass with time. If you really want him to stop thinking about such things, then you should keep him busy with other things. Have him play with kids, tire him out, request specific drawings, it should all stop after a while. I've seen this before, in adults as well. It all passes given the time."

Kushina was visibly relieved at this. She nodded. "Ok-ttebane. Anything else?"

* * *

 **Later that Day**

Minato and Kushina were sitting at the dining room table again. "So he said it should pass?" Minato was asking her how the session with Inoichi had gone.

"Yeah, he said that eventually, he should grow out of it. And that, if we were really worried, we should keep him preoccupied with other things." This really was a load off of Kushina's mind. She didn't want Naruto obsessing over such things.

Minato relaxed as well. While it hadn't been getting to him as much as it had been for Kushina, it still made him a bit nervous how fixated his oldest son was on these drawings. "Well, let's give Naruto-kun a little bit longer before we start dumping activities on him." Kushina agreed. "*sigh* I still can't believe our kids are already two years old… It seems like just yesterday they were only two months old…"

Kushina giggled at this. "You make it sound like we're already old people-ttebane…"

Minato was indignant at this. He wasn't old! "We are not old! I'm just saying Tsunade-sama was right. Time really did seem to fly by.

Kushina got up and gave him a kiss on the cheek as she walked by. "Watch, time will seem to fly by again soon, and another two years will have suddenly passed…"

Minato sighed at the thought. "I sure hope not…time is passing too quickly." He got up and followed after her.

* * *

 **Two Years Later**

It has been two years since Kushina took Naruto to get a mental evaluation with Inoichi and four years since the Kyūbi attacked. Just like Inoichi had said, Naruto soon stopped drawing things like white doors that led to hearts and people named after the elements. Kushina was relieved that it had ended so simply. Not that she didn't trust Inoichi's word, but she still worried about it.

Minato had finally got a break from the office, and after leaving the kids with Kakashi, he took Kushina out into the village. Upon leaving the house, he asked her where she wanted to eat. Being the Hokage came with some perks. Reservations in the places around the village were never needed. That's how the two of them wound up at…

* * *

 **Ichiraku Ramen**

"Ramen, Kushina-chan? Really? Out of all the places we could have gone. You chose ramen. You know how rare it is for me to get a break in all of the paperwork I am constantly doing!" Minato was both amused and exasperated with his wife. She would do something like this…

"Whatever-ttebane! Ramen is awesome! This is the perfect place to bring a date. Naruto-chan and Menma-chan better take this as a lesson and bring a girl here when they start dating!" She was adamantly defending her decision.

The two of them walked into the ramen stand. Upon seeing the man behind the counter, Kushina called out "Teuchi! Hey there-ttebane!" She smiled over at the friendly ramen chef.

He grinned back. "Kushina! Minato! Welcome! You two on a date?" Upon seeing their nods he continued. "Well, I'm flattered you would come here, but really Minato? Ramen for a date?" He shook his head. "You're the Hokage! You should have had plenty of options!"

Kushina blushed at this. "Actually" she started, getting his attention. "…it was me. I wanted to come here-ttebane." She rubbed her head sheepishly.

Teuchi laughed at this. "I should have known! Ayame, take their orders, please." He turned back to the pot he was working on.

A little girl with brown hair walked up to them. She had on a child version of the uniform that Teuchi had on. "Umm…Hello! Welcome to Ichiraku Ramen...um, what comes next?" She seemed to hesitate a bit. "Oh yeah. Um, what would you like to order?" She questioned them.

Kushina practically fell in love with her. She was only just holding herself back from hugging the girl to death. Or maybe it was Minato holding her back with the hand on her shoulder? Minato was the one to respond. "We will both have a bowl of miso ramen, please." The girl nodded at this and went off to inform her father.

Minato turned to his wife. "If you had randomly hugged her, she would have been scared to death."

Kushina sighed at this, but relented. "I know, I know…our kids are cuter anyways…"

Minato smiled at this. It really was amazing how much they have grown. And they're only four! Time really seemed to fly when you didn't pay attention. Soon they would be off to the academy. Speaking of which…

"When do you think we should start training them?" He asked her.

Kushina looked slightly surprised at this question, but she then took on a thoughtful look. "I don't know-ttebane…We aren't in a time of war…but we should begin before the academy in two years…But not now…that means…" She trailed off.

Minato nodded. "In a year then?" Age five was a good age to start. The chakra coils have developed enough to begin training, not that they would start with chakra work right away.

Kushina added on to that. "And we need to decide when we will start Narumi-chan and Menma-chan on their training with the Kyūbi chakra. Not right away, of course."

This made sense to Minato. "Well, we can decide during the training. That isn't as important right now. They need the basics first."

"The Ramen is ready!" And indeed, the ramen was served to them just then. Kushina took on an excited look as she took her first bite.

"Delicious-ttebane! It feels like it has been forever since I had some of your ramen Teuchi!" She could make really good ramen, but it always tasted better here for some reason. But that was just her, the rest of the family liked her ramen better.

As Minato and Kushina dug in, they never noticed the man who left the stall…

* * *

 **Unknown Location**

In a secret facility, somewhere in Konoha, there was a meeting going on.

"So they are planning the training now?"

"Yes."

"They did not give a specific time when they will start?"

"No"

"No matter, I can make this fit my plans…"

* * *

 **Hokage's Office (One Month Later)**

Minato was sitting in his office, working on the endless pile of paperwork. He had been working on this pile for a few hours now, and it was nearly time to go home.

' _This never ends…Why is it that whenever I turn around, a new pile is added to the one I already have…A good fire jutsu woul-'_ POOF!

His thoughts were interrupted by an explosion of smoke in the center of the room. Immediately, Minato and his guards sprang into action, surrounding the intruder.

They let their guards drop when a familiar voice broke the silence. "Never fear! Jiraiya-sama is here!" And indeed, the smoke cleared to show the form of the toad sannin.

Minato sighed and pinched his nose. He then gestured for the ANBU guards to stand down. "Jiraiya-sensei, must you always do this?"

Jiraiya scratched the back of his head in a sheepish manner. "Sorry, brat. Couldn't help it."

Minato decided to just move on before he got a headache. "Fine, fine. What are you here for?"

Jiraiya quickly turned serious. "I need you to clear the office first."

This surprised Minato. Jiraiya has returned with sensitive information in the past, but hasn't asked for the office to be cleared in a long time. Something big must have happened. He quickly turned serious as well. He signaled for the hidden guards to leave the room.

Once the guards left, Jiraiya turned back to Minato. "The toads recently reverse-summoned me."

That was unusual, Minato noted. The toads don't normally wish to reverse-summon the summoner unless something that could change many future decisions happened and they need to bring it to his or her attention. "What did they want?" He asked.

Jiraiya seemed to pause, as if thinking. "You remember the prophecy I told you about? The one concerning the child of prophecy? A second prophecy relating to that one has been foretold."

This immediately grabbed Minato's full and undivided attention. "The one concerning the fate of the world?" Seeing his teacher's nod, Minato continued. "What did it say?" Jiraiya took a breath.

" _The worlds shall soon be brought,_

 _Into an ancient battle that must be fought._

 _And when it seems like the final hour is near,_

 _Only the heart can persevere._

 _But alas, alone the heart will fall._

 _However with the chosen, it shall stand tall._

 _When light and dark come together as one,_

 _That is when the war shall be won."_

They sat in silence for a while, pondering the prophecy. Minato eventually broke the silence. "You have had more time to sit on this than I have, what do you think?" Minato had an idea, but he wanted to hear his opinion.

"I think that it is talking about Narumi and Menma. 'Light and Dark,' Yin and Yang. They are synonymous in a way." After spending hours dedicated to this, Jiraiya had come up with this outcome.

Minato nodded. "And as for the battle…The man that attacked that night four years ago claimed to be Madara Uchiha. I don't know if I would call it ancient…but the prophecy could be referring to his fight with Konoha. And the heart…that could be the will of fire? It has often been said that everyone here has the will of fire in heart." That was always a possibility.

Jiraiya agreed with this. "But…it said 'worlds,' as in more than one…what does that mean?"

Minato shook his head. "I have no idea…the other villages maybe?"

Jiraiya nodded. "Possibly…but anyways you know what this means, right? We need to take the training of your kids a lot more seriously."

Minato took a moment to think. Eventually, he opened his mouth. "I would like to get Kushina-chan, Tsunade-sama, and Kakashi in here. They each are going to take part in the training."

* * *

 **30 Minutes Later**

The requested group had now made it into the office and spent the last few minutes being caught up on what happened.

Kushina was slightly distressed. She didn't want her babies to have to fight in that kind of thing! "I don't like this, one bit-ttebane! Why does it have to be our kids?!"

Minato was also slightly depressed at the idea. He has been trying to find another way, one that didn't push everything onto Narumi and Menma. "Sensei, are we sure that we translated this correctly?"

Jiraiya sighed. "I think so brat…What else could it mean?" He looked over to his student. "The best we could do is start training them. Maybe around their fifth birthday? Narumi and Menma will need it."

It was then that Tsunade chose to speak up. "Aren't you forgetting something? What about Naruto?"

Jiraiya attempted to placate his old teammate. "Don't worry about it, I haven't forgotten him. He will be right there with the other two, learning alongside them both.

Tsunade nodded, and opened her mouth to speak again. But before she could, there was a knock on the door.

Minato sent an annoyed look at it before allowing the person in. "Enter."

* * *

 **Unknown Location**

"The plan has been set. Checkup periodically on them. Report back to me when you do."

"Yes, sir."

"Good. You're dismissed." The sound of a body flicker filled the room.

' _Now everything will begin to fall into place.' Bandages were taken off to be changed, revealing a lone sharingan._

* * *

 **Extra: The Birth of a Pervert (Part 2)**

A certain teenager was sneaking from building to building, trying to get back home without being seen.

' _Ok, Hatake…this is the most dangerous mission you have taken, and it is more dangerous than any mission you will take.'_

He ducked into a stall selling sweets when he saw a shinobi coming from the other direction. While he ignored the angry shop owner, he went over his options.

' _Rooftops are not an option, too easy to be seen. Can't use the body flicker, too far…Only option is to use stealth.'_ He looked both ways before ducking out of the stall and making a break for the next street. If he could just-

"YOSH! IS THAT MY HIP RIVAL I SEE?!"

' _Of all the times…'_

Kakashi turned around to look at the annoying teen in front of him. _'You and your stupid challenges. Ruining my stupid day, every time. Why can't you just, for once, see me and not make a scene?_ Kakashi glanced around. Indeed, they were now the center of attention for everyone on the street. It was now impossible to get away without being seen. The civilians weren't a problem. The problem were the shinobi in the crowd as well.

' _I'm in danger of being exposed here. If they catch me with this book, then my reputation is finished…'_ Indeed, Kakashi had bought **Make out Paradise: Volume 1** , despite his initial reluctance to. He had already paid by the time he had noticed, and he didn't want to say, "No, I didn't mean to buy this."

' _That cashier wouldn't believe me if I did. It would only sound like I was in denial or trying to hide it like a closet pervert or something…'_

So, with his only option to save his dignity being the vacating of the store, Kakashi did just that. It was then that Kakashi noticed Gai was still yelling at the top of his lungs about something.

"Hm? Did you say something?"

This instantly made Gai stop talking. He looked frustrated.

"OH, IT HAPPENED AGAIN, KAKASHI! YOUR HIP ATTITUDE GOT THE BEST OF YOU, YET AGAIN! A YOUTHFUL CHALLENGE SHOULD HELP YOU WITH THAT!"

"Ah, no I don-"

"I WON'T TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER! LET US BE OFF!"

With that, Gai grabbed Kakashi and sped off.

' _Damn it…'_

* * *

 **I have no idea how fast a person develops. So I did what I have gathered from some other stories. Don't know if is right, but it's what I've got.**

 **Things are starting to pick up now.**

 **Not sure how well it came across, but the door was the Door to Darkness from Kingdom Hearts. The three people were Aqua, Terra, and Ventus.**

 **That prophecy was both easy and annoying to write. Easy for how quickly I was able to write it, annoying because I wanted it to rhyme. It is no haiku masterpiece…but I like it.**

 **Another time skip in the next chapter.**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	5. Destati

**And we're back! Congratulations! We broke 1,000 views! That's some kind of milestone, right? If you're reading this, that means you've put up with me and my writing enough to get this far! You're a real Spartan at this, huh?**

 **I would like to say that this is when the story finally gets good…but that would mean that this is a good story at some point…I don't get that lucky.**

 **Amarsh55: I plan for Naruto to be more skilled than Sora. How skilled? That remains to be seen. That is all I am willing to say at this point.**

 **I just realized I haven't put disclaimers in the last two chapters. But don't worry! Nothing has changed! I'm still broke, still a college student, and still don't own Naruto or Kingdom Hearts…**

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Diety Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Diety Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

* * *

 **Last Updated: 4/6/17 (Minor improvements)**

* * *

'… _This feeling…'_

A pair of blue and violet eyes crack open to look at the surroundings. A black abyss.

' _Am I…falling?'_

The eyes attempt to close once more as a feeling of immense fatigue washed over them. The owner of the eyes fought off the feeling in order to look in the direction they thought was up.

' _No…I'm sinking?'_

The fatigue was back with a vengeance, but the owner fought harder to stay awake. The eyes observed that yes, it did look like the surface of what appeared to be water was getting further away…

' _Yeah, I'm sinking…but…where does it end?'_

The eyes moved into the direction that the owner was sinking towards.

' _I must be dreaming…'_

The feeling of fatigue was back. This time, the owner didn't fight it, causing the eyes to begin closing.

' _I haven't had a dream this weird in a while…'_

And the world turns black once more.

* * *

Blue and violet eyes opened once more. A groan escaped the lips below the eyes.

' _Have I stopped sinking?'_

Upon closer observation, the owner of the eyes decided that the sinking feeling had stopped, and therefore the sinking had stopped. And not only that…

' _I've stopped sinking and am now laying on the floor.'_

He pushed himself to his feet and looked around again. But he was still in a black abyss.

' _Where the heck am I? I'm obviously still dreaming…'_

Looking around, he saw that he was still in the dark abyss, and that he was so deep into it that he couldn't see the surface of the water anymore.

' _Wait…the water! It doesn't feel like I'm under water anymore…so is this the same dream?'_

He looked around some more. Deciding he wouldn't get anywhere by standing still doing nothing, he decided to take a step forward. But when his foot made contact with whatever the floor was, the entire thing lit up. He quickly covered his eyes to shield himself. When he looked back, he was surprised at what he saw.

The entire place was lit up. He was still in the black abyss, but there was plenty of light that was originating from somewhere unidentifiable. This allowed him to observe himself and see what he was wearing.

' _What is up with this outfit?'_

He wasn't wearing his normal clothes. What he had on was a black shirt with a silver collar. Over that, he wore a short sleeved hoodie that was left unzipped. It was majorly a silvery-white color, but it had black going around the edges and black flames. It also had an orange Uzumaki swirl on the back.

His pants only went down to his mid-shins and were of the same color scheme as the hoodie. It was silvery-white in most areas but was black in the pelvis. The color changed from silvery-white to black towards the ends of the legs, and on those were white flames.

His shoes were predominately black, but had some silvery-blue that matched his belt. He also wore fingerless gloves that were black with a silver x on each. He wore a silver chain necklace that was of a heart with a pointed bottom and the point where the heart was made curled in on itself towards either side.

' _What a weird outfit. But…I kind of like it.'_ He was always been a fan of duality of black and white for some reason. Just aligning with one or the other never felt right with him. Like everything needed balance. He couldn't explain it, but just picking light colors over dark colors or dark colors over light colors made him feel uneasy. It was at this point that he noticed the floor he was standing on.

It was a giant circular platform. The majority of it was either brown or orange. It had some very intricate patterns going around it. One of the patterns was a repeating circle that had some sort of mark on it. The mark almost looked like a heart, but the bottom came out it three spikes, with two going off to the sides. In the background, there was some sort of white castle. There were also a few of those weird star like things he used to draw, some were even the same colors. But while that was weird, the weirdest part was…

' _It's Earth, Water, and Wind!'_

And indeed it was, those same people that he used to dream about were in the artwork. Only the heads of water and wind were visible in the background. A major part of the foreground was taken up by earth. In his hand was one of those giant key looking things.

' _Ok…so this is one of_ those _dreams. I haven't had one of these in a while…'_

After he was done looking at the three people on the floor, he took another look around.

' _ **But forget the fancy floor…Where am I? I was in a tree, then I was in water, then I am in darkness standing on something so fancy I almost feel bad for walking on it.'**_

 **"You haven't gone anywhere…"**

He jumped at the voice. Quickly looking around, he failed to see anyone.

He decided to call out to the voice. "Hello? Is anyone there?" No response. "Great…now the weird dreams come with voices. And the voices don't like to make it a two-way conversation…Nice going, Naruto…you would have a dream that ignores you-ttebayo." Why did he have to put up with this?

He was about to speak up again, but was cut off when the floor started to shake. Not knowing what would happen, he prepared himself for anything.

Three pedestals rose up from the ground around him. They appeared to be made out of marble and were nearly as tall as he was. Once all three of them were fully above the ground, he got a good look at them. They weren't that complicated, just marble pedestals with swirls and a crown on them. The top corners had spikes as well.

 **"Power of Twilight sleeps within you."**

Suddenly, in a flash of light, an object appeared above one of the pedestals. It was a shield. It had a black base color, with a red outline. In the center were three red circles. Two smaller ones, and a larger one. The two smaller ones were both touching the larger one. The shield was just floating there.

 **"If you embrace both of the sacred powers…"**

Another Flash of light appeared above one of the other pedestals. This time, when the light faded, some kind of weird rod was floating there. The majority of the handle part was green, with gold coloring on either end. On one end however, the gold gave way to another shape. It was the three-dimensional version of those red circles on the shield. But it was blue this time.

 **"It will give you strength."**

A third flash of light. A sword appeared, floating above the last pedestal. It had a blue handle and golden hilt. In the middle of the hilt was a red circle. Inside the red circle was the same pattern that was also on the shield and rod. It was black this time. All three of the objects had light coming down on them from above, illuminating them.

 **"Choose well."**

"'Choose…' I'm meant to choose one of them?" Naruto waited for an answer, only to not get one. "Right I forgot, you don't like answering questions…" He looked around for a bit. Then, that deciding there was nothing to lose, decided to walk up towards the shield.

He jumped up onto the pedestal and grabbed it. The voice returned. This time, he listened closer to try and make out some details.

 **"The Power of the guardian.**

 **Kindness to aid friends.**

 **A shield to repel all.**

 **Is this the power you seek?"**

Once you listened closer, you could make out that it was actually _two_ voices. They were just extremely synchronized with each other.

"Well, if you're providing details… No, I want to learn about the others before I decide." No response. Again. "I don't know why was actually expecting a response…" He put the shield back down and jumped off the pedestal.

He walked up the rod. Jumping on the pedestal, he picked it up.

 **"The Power of the mystic.**

 **Inner strength.**

 **A staff of wonder and ruin.**

 **Is this the power you seek?"**

It was strange. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't make out a gender. Shaking off the thought. He put down the rod and walked over to the sword. Picking it up, the voices rang out again.

 **"The power of the warrior.**

 **Invincible courage.**

 **A sword of terrible destruction.**

 **Is this the power you seek?"**

He thought about it. Which of the three did he want? He thought for a few minutes before he decided. Nodding his head, he called out. "Yes! I choose this power!"

A flash of light. The sword in his hand had vanished.

 **"Your path is set.**

 **Now, what will you give up in exchange?"**

"Of course it wasn't that easy…What was I thinking? It's never simple…" he muttered sarcastically.

 **"You catch on quickly."**

"Whoa! So you _can_ hear and respond to me-ttebayo!" Nothing. "But you won't do it when I want, of course." Shaking his head, he walked up to the shield.

 **"You give up this power?"**

Naruto thought long and hard about it. "…I don't need a shield to protect what's important to me…That would mean I wasn't getting any stronger. Eventually, I will need to fight back. And that is another way to protect something...To fight for it. Yes, I will give up this power."

 **"** … **Well said."**

He smiled when he heard this. The shield vanished in a flash of light as well.

 **"You've chosen the power of the warrior.**

 **You've given up the power of the guardian.**

 **Is this the form you choose?"**

"Last chance to back out, huh?" He thought about it some more. He probably would not get another chance. "…Yes! I choose this form!" He replied.

Suddenly, the pedestals started to sink into the ground. Including the one he was standing on. Jumping off, he looked around, preparing himself for whatever happened. But what came next caught him off guard. The floor was crumbling! With nowhere to go, he could only stand there as the floor he was standing on disappeared.

"Oh, _craaaa-"_ He fell into the abyss.

* * *

Soon, another platform came into sight. This one was designed in a similar manner as thon one before, but with more blue to the color scheme. It had that same heart like pattern going around the circle, and a castle in the background. But this castle was different, or maybe the same? It was hard to tell because this castle was colored black.

In the background were faces, like before. But there were more. While there were earth and wind, there were three other people as well. An old man with no hair except for his beard, a man with black hair with a strand coming in front of his face, and some kind of weird animal with its head shaped like that circle pattern. The old man looked slightly sinister to him.

This time, in the foreground was the woman he knew as Water. She too was holding some strange key-looking thing.

The platform was rapidly approaching, and he was sure he would hit. Suddenly, his descent slowed, and he was able to gain control of his landing. Flipping over so he landed on his feet, the touchdown was feather light.

"Ok…now what?" He was hoping that would be one of the times that the voice decided to answer him.

A flash of light appeared in his hand. Once it died down, he saw that the sword had returned.

 **"You've gained the power to fight."**

The sword cut through the air in an experimental swing. Light enough to be fast, heavy enough to cause damage…perfect.

 **"Use this power to protect yourself and others."**

"Of course…But protection from what?" Suddenly, he noticed something strange. A shadow had formed on the ground nearby. It was shifting around as if it was alive.

 **"There will be times you have to fight."**

The weird shadow suddenly grew out of the ground! It looked like some kind of bipedal giant ant. It had clawed hands and feet. There were antennas coming out of its head, where two glowing yellow eyes were. There wasn't anything like a mouth or a face. Another ant-thing soon joined it.

 **"Stay strong."**

He was now outnumbered five to one. The shadows lunged at him!

"Whoa!" Naruto quickly rolled out of the way, only to see another shadow coming at him from the side. Deciding that he wouldn't get anywhere by just dodging, he swung his sword at it. It connected, but did not kill the shadow.

He felt another claw scrape against his back. _'Ow! That actually hurt! What kind of dream is this?!'_ Quickly spinning around, he hacked at the one that had gotten behind him. Not giving it a chance to recover, he cut at it twice more, causing it explode into black smoke.

Seeing their ally perish like that caused the others to back off. They faded back into the ground, and out of view. Looking around, he saw that he was alone. He never saw one of them reappear behind him.

 **"Behind you!"**

Naruto quickly spun around again, dispatching the enemy. _'That was a close one…'_

 **"Always be aware of your surroundings."**

"Thanks for the tip-ttebayo…" He muttered sarcastically. He snapped back to full alert when he saw it wasn't just one shadow, it was many. He destroyed three others before they decided to retreat again. This time when they did, they didn't simply fade into the floor. Pools of darkness formed around their feet.

The darkness quickly spread to engulf the entirety of the platform that he was standing on. When it reached him, he began to sink into it. Struggling, he attempted to pull himself out. But where would he pull out to? The entire platform was black. Eventually, his entire body had sunk into the abyss…

* * *

Jerking awake, Naruto saw that he was still in the strange dream. He looked around, no shadows, and no darkness spreading across the floor. Looking down at the platform, he saw that it had changed again.

This platform made him feel slightly uneasy. It was a mix of two color schemes. On the right, it was predominately green with a light-blue secondary color. The left was a mix of red and dark-blue. This time, instead of one person in the foreground there were two. The one on the right was wind, he had one of those key things, but in a reverse grip. That wasn't what made him uneasy. It was the other boy in the picture.

He had spiky, black hair, and you couldn't see the color of his eyes because they were closed. His outfit was extremely strange. It was entirely black and red, and looked skintight. It almost looked as if it was made up of muscles, with the pattern design. It was black everywhere except for the hands, boots, and knees. The pattern on his chest was also lined in red, but you couldn't make out what the pattern looked like. He wore some kind of ragged skirt that was a dark blue color outlined in red. He too, had some kind of giant key in his hand.

He was floating in a reverse position to wind. No matter how you looked at it, he just screamed "evil!"

After getting his fill of the platform, he observed his surroundings again. This time, he noticed there was a door.

' _Was that there before?'_ Walking up to it, he saw that was a purple double door with an intricate design. It was also transparent.

' _How am I supposed to open this?'_ The door suddenly flashed. When the light died down, it wasn't transparent anymore. "Oh…" Shrugging his shoulders, he grabbed the handles and pulled. The world was suddenly bathed in light.

* * *

When the light finally died down, he rubbed his eyes to help clear his blinded vision. After his vision cleared up, he looked around and was surprised at what he saw. He was standing in the middle of a glass clearing. Off to the side a few hundred feet away was a cliff. He could see the great view of the village from where he was standing. There were also numerous sculpted rock protrusions sticking out from the cliff. This told him exactly where he was.

' _I'm on top of the Hokage monument? How did I get here? Didn't I fall asleep somewhere else?'_ He took some time to think about it. _'…I must still be in the weird dream then...'_

 **"Hold on.**

 **The door won't open just yet.**

 **First, tell us more about yourself."**

Deciding to just shrug it off and go with the flow, Naruto looked around. He saw three people. Three of the people that he just saw on the platforms. Before him were Earth, Wind, and Water. "Finally! People who talk that I can actually see!"

He walked up to Earth. He was a lot taller in person. "Hey, I know that you are only part of the dream, but can you tell me what's going on?"

The reply he got wasn't what he expected. "What's most important to you?"

"Hey! What about my question?" He got no reply. "Fine then, what's most important to me?" He crossed his arms and answered. "My bonds with others."

Earth tilted his head. "Are bonds really that big of a deal?"

Naruto grew angry with that response. "What does that mean? You asked me a question, I gave you an answer! Yes, they are! What's the point of everything if you spend all of your time alone-ttebayo?!" After stating this, he turned and walked over to Water.

He stood in front of her. "Will _you_ answer any of my questions?" Nothing. "…Guess not, huh? That would be too easy, after all…"

"What are you afraid of?" She asked him.

He considered the question. After a moment of thought, he had an answer. "To lose myself."

She cocked her head. "Is that really so bad?"

Naruto expected such a response after Earth. He nodded. "Yeah, if I were to lose myself…that would mean that I have also forgotten what I was fighting for." She nodded. He turned and went over to wind.

He stopped in front of him. "Ok, what is your question?" He asked him.

Wind smiled. "Which would you rather walk? The path of the light, or the path of the dark?"

This question caught Naruto off guard. It was a tough one. After thinking for a minute, he had his reply. "Neither." Wind actually seemed surprised at the answer. "One cannot exist without the other. Every light creates a shadow. If there is a shadow, there is a light. They are inseparable. The path I walk will be the middle one."

Wind smiled again. "The path of Twilight."

Naruto considered this, before nodding with a smile. "Yeah…I guess that's it." Suddenly, those voices were back.

 **"You cherish your bonds with others.**

 **You're afraid of losing yourself.**

 **You wish to walk the path of light and dark.**

 **Your journey begins at twilight.**

 **You will grow at a steady pace,**

 **Gaining strength all the while.**

 **Is this acceptable?"**

Naruto considered what he just heard before nodding. "Sounds good!"

 **"The day you will open the door is both far off and very near."**

The world was bathed in light again.

* * *

Naruto reappeared standing on a platform in the black abyss. And like usual, it was a new platform.

This one was covered mostly by purple, and it also had those heart things going in a circle. There wasn't any single person taking up the majority of the foreground for a change, just three circles. The three circles were brownish-orange, blue, and green. In the background of each colored circle was one of those star things he used to draw. In the foreground of the circles were earth, water, and wind.

Naruto walked forward towards the center of the platform. There was some light shining down towards the center. Once he reached it, he noticed that some shadows were shifting again. Looking around, he saw he was surrounded by shifting shadows.

He quickly got into a defensive position, wondering where his sword was. As if responding to his thoughts, it appeared in a flash of light in his hand. _'Now that's a cool trick…'_ Quickly shaking this thought off and focusing back on the enemies, Naruto waited for them to make the first move.

After a moment, the shadow ant to his left lunged at him. He jumped over it, hitting its head as he passed. Once he landed, he slashed it in the back, making it disappear into black smoke.

Seeing this, another two jumped in to attack him, only to miss as Naruto jumped back. While they were regaining themselves to try again, Naruto initiated the attack this time by lunging. He ran the one on the left through, killing it. The one on the right used this chance to slash at his arm.

"Argh!" Naruto retaliated by kicking it away. A fourth shadow then attacked from the other side. Naruto dodged it and made a quick combo, defeating it. He then turned back to see the shadow he just kicked was lunging at him. He swiped the sword horizontally, killing it.

Turning, he saw the last three were moving in to surround him. Deciding to try out something he saw a shinobi do to some genin in a training session, he crouched. When they all jumped at once, he spun around, cutting all three of them. They disappeared.

The only drawback was that he lost his balance and fell to the floor. "That was so much better with a real sword…but that jounin-sensei couldn't exactly use one of those on genin-ttebayo." He got back up. "While I have no training with a sword…these things are so weak and dumb, it really doesn't matter all that much." It was then he noticed something.

Another platform had appeared in the distance. Walking closer to the edge, Naruto observed how far it was. "I guess that is where I need to go next…but how do I get there?" There was nothing but black abyss between here and there. He couldn't fly, so how?

As if answering his silent question, floating tiles appeared. They were each identical with the multiple colors. And they created a slightly winding path.

"Oh no. I am _not_ walking on floating tiles over an endless black abyss! This is my dream, I demand a bridge-ttebayo!" Nothing happened. "Damn it all…" With a sigh, he walked over to the closest one.

Hesitantly, he tapped it with a foot. When it didn't fall, he applied more weight. Nothing happened. "Ok, this is easy. It's just a dream. Just don't look down, Naruto…" He slowly applied the rest of his weight before adding the other foot.

With nothing happening, he drew confidence. He quickly broke into a light run across the tiles. Soon, he made it to the next platform. He saw it was a new one.

What he saw surprised him. While all the other platforms had people on them, this one didn't. Most of the platform was taken up by a single thing. A door. But not just any door, it was _the_ door. As in, the door that was in the first of the weird dreams he had when he was younger. He would never forget what it looked like, no matter how young he was. That door was on his mind for months!

It was in the center of the platform, and just like his drawing, it was surrounded by multiple hearts. There was some path leading up to it. The circle was made up of, instead of those normal heart looking things, keys. As in, those weird keys he also dreamt about in the past. The same ones that wind, water, and earth were holding. There were so many of them! And they were each different from one another.

That was when he noticed something else. In front of the door was another key thing. But this one was different from the others. It seemed to be made up of _two_ of the keys. These two keys were some of the more normal looking ones. They were each silver with a golden hilt and black handle. They crossed each other, forming an x. There was also some sort of blade coming out of the tip of the two, elongating the entire thing. It made it look much more like a sword than the others.

Naruto walked closer to the center of the platform. Once again, there was light shining down from above. As he got closer, the voices came back.

 **"The closer you get to the light,**

 **The greater your shadow becomes.**

 **Balance is needed."**

' _The greater my shadow becomes? ...What does that mea-'_ Reading between the lines, Naruto quickly spun around to get a look at his shadow.

He saw what he was hoping he wouldn't. His shadow was now moving, regardless of how his body moved. After a moment, it began to rise. It took on form that looked like a mix of the shadow ants and himself. Once it formed, it began to grow. It just got bigger and bigger. Naruto started to take a few steps back.

 **"But don't be afraid."**

The shadow just kept growing, by the time it was done, Naruto was only as tall as its foot. Not wanting to fight that, he turn around and ran. That was when he remembered that he was on a platform that was in the middle of a black abyss. Skidding to a stop, he looked around for an escape.

"Ok, Naruto…you can wake up now-ttebayo…" He looked back the shadow was approaching. "This _is_ a dream… _right_?" He honestly didn't know anymore. He has never had a dream that felt this real before. He looked again at the shadow. "Fine then, nowhere to run…guess I gotta fight!"

He ran at the shadow, sword in hand. It sent a punch at him. He was easily able to dodge it, and it impacted with the floor. "Ha! You're too slow!" Taking the chance, he began to hack and slash at the hand.

After a few moments, a whirlpool of darkness formed around the hand. Out of the darkness, more of the shadow ant things appeared. Naruto decided that they would get annoying if not taken care of, so pulled away from the hand to kill them.

While he was fighting the ants, the giant shadow pulled its hand back. Got on its knees, and seemed to be bracing itself. Naruto, who just finished killing all of the smaller shadow ants, noticed.

"What is it doing?" Not missing a chance, Naruto began to hit it again. After a moment, a sphere of darkness appeared, floating in front of its chest. "What is that?" He got his answer as dark missiles were fired from there, aiming right for him. "Oh crap!"

Naruto ducked and dove, dodging most of them. But a few got in towards the end. They didn't hurt too badly, but it would be bad if he took too many of them. When the missiles stopped, Naruto went back in to get some more hits in. After a while, he jumped back to get a break. That's when it happened.

His sword suddenly disappeared! "What?!" He looked back at the giant shadow, only to see a punch coming at him. "Crap!" He jumped back. He had to repeat the action as the other fist came down at him. He didn't know how he would fight back without a weapon. He was really tired too. That was when he tripped, falling on his behind.

Another pool of darkness formed, and began to drag him in. Naruto panicked at the sight, and began to struggle. Attempting to break free.

 **"** ― **But don't be afraid."**

The voices were back, but more broken up than before. Like there was some sort of filter in between him and them.

 **"** ― **You are the one who was chosen by the hearts."**

The darkness was spreading over his body. He fought all the while, trying in vain to break free.

 **"And remember,**

 **For every light, there is a shadow."**

"'For every light there is a shadow?!' Whatever! Just get me out of thi-!" He cut himself off. _'For every light, there is a shadow…One cannot exist without the other. Balance is needed. I've been fighting all these shadows…I wonder if…'_ He calmed himself and stopped struggling.

He felt himself begin to sink further, but refused to panic. He just accepted it. Then suddenly, there was a flash of light, and the world turned completely black again.

* * *

A pair of blue and violet eyes opened and looked around. He was back on the platform with the door. No shadows in sight. He stood up off the floor.

"It worked." He let a relieved smile break across his face.

 **"Yes, it did.**

 **You have passed the test and have gained the power of twilight."**

He was growing frustrated again. "Look, I don't know who or what you are, but why don't you come out and talk to me face to face?! And what do you mean by 'power of twilight?!'"

 **"Not very observant, are you?**

 **Look down at yourself."**

"What was that?" He growled, but complied. What he saw surprised him.

There was some aura coming off of him in a flame like way. It was changing between two colors. It would be silvery-white for a moment, and stay like that for a bit. Then after a moment, it would change into a mix of purple and black. The same darkness that made up the enemies he had been fighting. After a minute, the aura flared, and became a mixture of the two, before fading away again.

"What was that?"

 **"That was the power of Twilight.**

 **You have been chosen to wield it.**

 **Congratulations."**

"Congratulations, my butt…I just wanna go home..."

 **"And you shall,**

 **It is now time for you to return."**

"Wait! Just answer one question." There was one thing he now desperately wished to know.

 **"** … **What is it?"**

"…Is this real? Or is all of this just happening in my head?" That has been bugging him for a little while now. This was just too real to be a dream. Or at least, any dream he has had before…

 **"Of course this is all happening in your head."**

Naruto deflated at this.

 **"But why should that mean it is not real?"**

"Wait…wha-" And he woke up.

* * *

"…That turned out well…"

"…Yes, it did…"

"I _knew_ he would pass."

"Was there ever any doubt?"

"Hehe…I guess not…I'm glad I picked him."

" _I'm_ the one who picked him."

"Same thing."

"…I suppose it is…"

* * *

 **Extra: The Birth of a Pervert (Part 3 Finale)**

Kakashi sluggishly put his key into the door.

' _Dammit Gai. I did not want to have those competitions…'_

It had taken _forever_ to shake him off and get home. For some reason, he refused more than usual to just get lost.

"Whatever, I'm glad I finally lost him."

Once Kakashi had gotten away, he was able to finally go home. It took him a while, as he still needed to sneak back home, lest he get caught with that perverted book.

Deciding to just take a shower and go to bed, Kakashi placed the book on the table by the door and went into the bathroom.

20 minutes later, Kakashi walked out and entered the bedroom, ready for the day to just end. He got into bed and laid down on his side. What he saw scared him.

On his night stand was a book. The book that he had left by the door.

Kakashi sprang away. "What, how?!" That made no sense! He knows exactly where he had left it. He was sure of it!

Deciding to just ignore it, he turned the other way and got back in bed. He was there for about 20 minutes. He wasn't making any progress in falling asleep either. _''I need something to help'_ …He would occasionally read when this happened. Just to pass the time until he got tired.

The problem was, he was bored of reading all of the books that he had. That only left…

He looked back. It was still there. It couldn't hurt, could it? And nobody would have to know…it would just be a onetime thing, then he would be done with it. He would be clean after that, he would move on with his life. Nodding to himself, Kakashi grabbed the book and began to read.

10 minutes later, perverted giggling filled the house.

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 5. There was meant to be more, but this part took longer than I thought it would. It was a lot smaller in my head…Because of that, I don't know how long the next chapter will be. I could have messed up in my estimations there as well.**

 **I heavily referenced the beginning of Kingdom Hearts for this chapter.**

 **I'm terrible at descriptions, so I'll just tell you here. I made his outfit is Sora's Final Form. With the necklace being the kingdom hearts logo, minus the crown. Unoriginal, I know. But I like it.**

 **The floor patterns were Station of Awakenings with Terra, Aqua, Ventus, Vanitas, and the Door to Darkness. In front of the Door was the x-blade. Here's a link to one of the designs. I know it's annoyingly long, but yeah. I'll try putting up the others when I get permission from the artists. (Remove spaces and replace "dot" with ".")**

 **img3 dot wikia dot nocookie dot net/_cb20110831022907/ kingdomhearts/images/3/31 /Station_of_Awakening-_Ventus_and_Vanitas_(Art)_KHBBS dot png**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	6. Final Moments Of Ignorance

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 6! Shorter chapter this time. Chapter 5 was longer than I expected it to be.**

 **You know something both cool and slightly surprising? It took about 3 and a half days to get over 1,000. And then we cap off yesterday with 2,483…caught me off guard. I guess more people read on the weekend or something? Or maybe the story is catching on that much? Whatever, I'm not complaining.**

 **You know the sucky part about college? Needing to pay for it. I have to get a job…Damn it all…**

 **Does anybody even read these? Am I just talking to myself?**

 **TheNinjaTurtle00: Chill out, I got this. I am not committing to any pairing yet,** _ **if**_ **I even put one. Just keeping my options open. Look up Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep: Blank Points. It's the secret ending of BBS that shows Aqua talking to Ansem the Wise. She hasn't aged, and he gets there right before the conclusion of Kingdom Hearts 2. Since she hasn't aged and is still a teenager, she is fair game. Even if she** _ **had**_ **aged, I've read NarutoxTsume fanfiction on this site…NarutoxAqua isn't as bad, age wise.**

 **Also, I** _ **do not**_ **plan on stealing Sora's spotlight. But that is a ways off…**

 **amarsh55: I have another reason I chose this outfit…If I use it remains to be seen, though.**

 **Darkjaden: Now there's an idea…We shall see!**

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

* * *

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else, I'm just a broke college student...**

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Diety Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Diety Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

* * *

 **Random Training Ground**

A pair of blue and violet eyes cracked open. The owner of the eyes sat up and yawned. Looking around, they took in their surroundings blearily. A pair of shoulders shrugged. _'Whatever…'_ And the head laid back down to catch some more sleep…

If it wasn't for the fact that the blue and violet pair of eyes were now looking into a yellow feline pair. "Gah!" Rolling out of the way, the owner of the eyes fell down from where they were laying down. Unfortunately for the owner, it happened to be a tree.

Landing in a bush, the owner cursed. "Damn it…" He looked back up. "You know, if it wasn't for the fact you are a cat…I would say you are laughing at me in your head, Kuro…" And indeed, the black cat looked like it was smirking, mirth dancing in those yellow eyes.

He shook his head. "*sigh* First that weird dream, and now this…" After a moment passed, he froze. Kuro just watched curiously as the blond and crimson haired boy jumped out of the bush and to his feet.

The boy started to pat himself down. Not feeling anything out of the ordinary, he chanced a look. He was relieved with what he saw. "Black pants with an orange stripe on each side, white t-shirt with the Uzumaki swirl, and blue open-toed sandals. Yeah, this is the trademark outfit of Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze-ttebayo!" He made a pose with his finger in the air and the other hand on his hip.

Naruto then looked around. "And no shadow ant-things, keys, doors or platforms in sight. Just the training ground I fell asleep in." He crossed his arms and nodded his head. "Yep, I'm back-ttebayo!" He heard a cat's meow behind him.

Turning, he saw that Kuro had vacated the tree and made it over to him. "Hey, Kuro. You will not _believe_ the dream I just had…" Another meow was the response that he got. "Well, you remember how I told you that when I was younger, I dreamt all this weird stuff? About these three people and giant keys?"

He paused. It was hard to describe what he wanted to say. "Well, I had a dream about them again. It has been forever seen I had the last one, but I had them again." He looked back down at the cat. "This one was probably the weirdest part, though. I actually had to fight shadows!"

He stopped talking for a moment, thinking back on the dream. "There were so many of them, too. They just kept on coming…" He was now gesturing with his hands. "And there were these voices too."

He frowned at remembering the voices. "They were _super_ annoying too. They kept on talking about light and dark, along with the balance between them-ttebayo! But that wasn't all! There were these shields, and magic rods, and I got a sword! That's what I used to fight the monsters."

"Meow…"

"I know, cool right? Earth, Water and Wind were also there. Like, I talked to them this time…sort of. They asked me these questions, and I had to answer all three of them before I moved on. The questions were things like, what is important to me, what am I afraid of, and if I would rather walk with the light or dark…"

He scratched his head in confusion. "The voices came back after that…They told me things like 'your journey will begin at twilight' and 'the day you will open the door is both far off and very near…'" He hung his head and made a face. "What is the world coming to if I am confused about my own dreams-ttebayo?"

"Meow."

"Yeah, thanks…" He shook his head in order to clear his thoughts. "Anyways, at that point I was on another one of those platforms, but instead of one person being the focus of it, all three of them were. Earth, Water, and Wind. Each of them had their own spot, and the stars I drew were there too. At that point, more of those shadow things attacked me…" He rubbed his arm. He could still remember the feeling of pain despite him waking up…

"I was getting more and more confused. The dream just kept going! And it kept feeling so real, too! After I got rid of these guys, I had to get to the next platform. But here's the kicker, I had to go over this floating bridge to get there! And the entire place was in this abyss, remember? I couldn't see the bottom-ttebayo!"

He shivered. That was a long fall! "But when I got there I had to fight again…but this time I had to fight a really big one." He stood up. "You see how tall I am? I only came up to this thing's foot-ttebayo!" He sat back down. "This one was so strong too, I kept hitting it over and over again…but it never went down. It didn't help when it started to summon a bunch of the smaller shadow things to help it…"

Naruto frowned as he remembered what happened next. "Then it got even weirder. If that was possible…My sword just vanished. One second I'm holding it, then the next I'm holding air. I had no way to fight back without it, so I had no dodge."

"Meow."

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, it did suck. Eventually, I fell down." He shivered again. "I was scared at this point, I wouldn't wake up and the monster was about to finish me off…And then it got worse. The darkness started to spread across the ground where I was. It was sucking me into it! I tried to fight it, but I couldn't!"

He paused, seemingly distressed.

"Meow…" The cat head-butted his hand.

Naruto smiled and pet Kuro. "Thank you Kuro…Anyways, then the voices were back. They said something about there being a shadow for every light…It turned out that was a hint-ttebayo! They were telling me I needed to calm down and accept the darkness. I had been fighting against the dark the entire time. This time, I needed to learn how to accept it. And that's exactly what I did! I just calmed down, and waited."

A grin form on his face at the memory. Before a confused frown replaced it. "There was a flash of light, _again,_ and when it died down, I was left standing on the platform. There weren't any enemies in sight. After that, the annoying voices were back." He gained an irritated expression.

"They were so irritating-ttebayo! At first, it was fine. But as it went on, and all they would do was tell me what to do, give me riddles, and add the occasional snide comment…I just got tired of them!"

"Meow."

"Exactly!" He sighed in frustration at the next part. "They told me I had 'passed the test and gained the power of twilight…'" He sighed in exasperation. "I then got irritated at them. Like I said, they were annoying-ttebayo! When I told them to come out and talk to me, and asked what they meant by power of twilight, they just said I wasn't very observant and to look down."

"Meow."

"I do too pay attention! Who's side are you on-ttebayo?! But anyways, I did what they said and looked down. I was on fire!" He paused. "Well, not hot fire, but aura fire…if that makes any sense. It was so badass-ttebayo! It was kind of like when a shinobi pushes out a large amount of chakra at once, it becomes visible. But this one wasn't normal, _or_ chakra…It was changing colors. It went from silvery-white, to purplish-black. Then it would change back again."

"Meow."

"I know, weird-ttebayo. It went away after a little bit. When I asked what it was, they said _that_ was the power of twilight. It was then they told me that it was time to go home…But I asked them a question first. I asked them if any of that was real or if it all happened in my head.

A scowl formed. "They told me it was all in my head, but that it could still be real! What the heck is that-ttebayo?!"

"Meow."

Naruto shook his head and sighed. "Well whatever, it was just a dream…The weirdest one yet, but still a dream. But you know, it made me realize something…" He looked up at the sky, lost in thought. "It made me realize, that the training I have been doing…isn't good enough. I mean, I already knew that, after all, how far could a near six year old doing pushups and running laps go? But I wasn't strong enough to beat that giant shadow…"

He sighed yet again. "I wonder, Kuro…Why won't they train me…like they do Narumi and Menma? Kaa-chan, tou-chan, Kakashi-nii, Ero-sennin, and Tsunade-baa. It has been like this for a while now…" Kuro looked up as the voice got quieter and quieter. The cat actually seemed surprised at the sight of tears.

"What did I do, Kuro? I mean…they just come home one day and tell us that Narumi and Menma needed to start training once they turn five. And when I ask when I will start, they tell me that they need it more because of the Kyūbi chakra." He snuffled a little. "I can get that, I could start training in a couple weeks when we start at the academy…but why have they slowly started to avoid me?" Tears were starting to leak out now. "It has been going on like this for over a year and a half now…"

"Meow…" Kuro licked his hand.

Naruto smiled at this. "Thank you, Kuro…" He rubbed at his eyes. "You know, it really is nice how you always are here to listen when I talk…People always tell me I act mature for my age…but I don't feel like that when I am alone with you Kuro…"

He relaxed, propping himself up with his arms behind him, feet splayed out in front of him. "I can really relax and act more childishly. I wonder why…"

"Meow."

"Well…whatever." He looked at the darkening sky. "Well, Kuro. I have to go home, now." He seemed sad at the thought of home, and who was waiting for him there. "Maybe it will be different this time? How it used to be?" Sighing, he stood up.

"Well Kuro, I'll see you around?"

"Meow." Waving with a smile, Naruto walked out of the training ground.

"…That boy has the strangest dreams…" A voice muttered.

* * *

 **Streets of Konoha**

On the way home, Naruto reflected on the last year and a half. _'They really did suddenly come home one day saying that Narumi and Menma needed to start training once they turned five…'_

He turned onto the next street. _'That made some sense…but then it was like they were trying to distance themselves from me…but why would they do that?'_

"Hey Naruto-kun!" Called out a vendor he was on friendly terms with. He waved in response.

' _I wonder if they really will start training me too when I start the academy…Most clan kids begin before…but I know that isn't going to happen. And the academy is only three weeks away…'_

He was coming upon the Uzumaki-Namikaze household now. _'I can only get so far without any form of instruction…'_

All three of the youngest Uzumaki-Namikazes had their chakra entered into the security seal matrix once they unlocked it after they turned five. That was actually the only form of formal training that Naruto had received so far.

"*sigh* Home sweet home…" Looking around, he determines that his dad hasn't made it home yet and his mother was in the living room. _'I don't know where Narumi and Menma are…'_

Walking into the living room, he sees his mother going over some papers. "I'm home."

She didn't even glance up at him. "Hm? Oh, that's nice…" She went back to what she was doing.

Naruto sighed again. "Well…I'll just be in my room, then…"

"Ok…stay out of trouble…"

' _How would I even do that once I get home?'_

Shaking off the thought, Naruto walked up to the stairs and went to his room. But before he could enter, he heard the front door open again.

"We're home!" Walking back over to the top of the stairs, Naruto had a view of the front door. He saw his little brother and sister walk in and his mother rush up to greet them.

"Welcome home! How was your day with your friends?"

"Fun-ttebane!" Narumi chirped.

"Good-ttebasa." Added Menma.

Kushina frowned a bit. "I wish you two didn't inherit that stupid quirk…I have nearly given up on growing out of my own…but I had wished it would never take hold in you…"

Naruto frowned at this. _'I say "ttebayo" too. It isn't just them two…'_

Narumi giggled while Menma laughed. Kushina smiled at hearing this. "Well, I need to finish some dinner preparations, so just spend the time how you like."

Seeing their nods, Kushina walked off to clean up her things in the living room and then go to the kitchen.

The two smaller redheads walked further into the house. While Menma was wearing much the same style outfit as when he was younger, Narumi had changed her outfit to be more suitable for running around. It was a bark brown pair of pants and a light blue t-shirt that had the Uzumaki swirl on the back. They noticed him at the top of the stairs.

Narumi instantly brightened. "Nii-chan!" She called and ran over to him. Menma was following behind her.

Naruto smiled slightly. While he was a little jealous of all the attention they got from their parents and the others, he still loved them both. However, he hoped that this differential treatment would end soon. He wasn't stupid. Even at the age of almost six, he knew that chances were he would eventually grow to treat them differently. He could try to not do that, but it would be the small things he didn't notice at first. And then it would work its way into more direct manners.

"Nii-chan, why didn't you come with us to play? You never do-ttebane!" Narumi pouted.

"Ah, well…I just didn't feel like it."

"But Aniki…if you didn't feel like playing, what did you do all day? You were gone the entire time!" Menma questioned.

"Well, I just relaxed for a bit. I fell asleep." He rubbed the back of his head in a sheepish manner, a slight smile stretching across his face as he did so.

Narumi and Menma both frowned. A nap? That sounded like a boring way to spend the day! Menma voiced this. "You can sleep when it is night time! Day time is for playing-ttebasa!"

Naruto just laughed slightly. "Sorry." He recalled the dream again. "But I had this _really_ weird dream. Like those ones I told you I used to have."

Narumi instantly grew interested. "Oh! I liked hearing those! They are like stories-ttebane!"

Menma on the other hand, deflated a bit. "I don't want to hear them…They are just dreams-ttebasa." With that remark he walked off.

Narumi frowned and stuck out her tongue. "Well I wanna!" She turned to her older brother expectantly.

Naruto smiled and walked back to his room with Narumi. They walked in and sat on the bed. Both of them were sitting with their legs crossed and facing one another. "Well, it started like this-ttebayo…" And he went on to recount the strange dream he had. _Again._

* * *

 **One Dream Retelling Later**

Narumi was frowning at him. "That dream wasn't like the ones you told me about before…"

"Don't I know it?" Naruto muttered in a sarcastic manner.

Narumi quickly grew excited once more. "But you sounded so cool, nii-chan! Fighting monsters with a sword, getting super powers!" She stood on his bed and made a pose as if she was pointing a sword into the air. "I bet you were like 'Ha! Hyah!" She made the motions of swinging the sword, slaying invisible enemies.

Naruto sweat dropped. "I don't think that it was _quite_ like that…"

Narumi wasn't to be deterred though. "But it sounded so cool! Especially when you were on fire-ttebane!"

"You like the fact that I was on fire?"

"Well, when you say it like that…"

Naruto smiled. Although it dimmed after a bit. "But it made me realize something…" He began, getting her attention. "…I am not strong enough yet. I could have died in that dream…I didn't because it was apparently all a test…but what if it wasn't-ttebayo?"

This caused her smile to dim as well. "Well…Our birthday is next week," She began. "Maybe…kaa-chan, tou-chan and the others will begin to train you as well soon…and if not then…maybe when the academy starts in three weeks?"

Naruto looked like he wanted to agree, but wasn't too hopeful. "Maybe…Hey Narumi, are you sure you don't know why they have been distancing themselves with me? Maybe they have mentioned it during one of your training sessions?" He looked at her pleadingly.

Narumi just shook her head sadly. "No, sorry nii-chan. I don't know why-ttebane…"

Naruto just sighed hearing this. "That's ok…Who knows maybe they will allow me to join in next week…"

* * *

 **Unknown Location**

"He wishes for training?"

"Yes, sir."

"Those were his words?"

"Yes. He was talking to the cat again when the agent arrived. The beginning of the conversation was not heard, but it appears he had some sort of dream that caused him to desire training."

"Interesting…We will approach him soon."

* * *

 **Uzumaki-Namikaze Training Grounds. October 10** **th** **(One Week Later)**

' _It really was too much to hope for...'_ It was a week later, and there had been no invitation from his parents or anybody else for him to join in on the training.

Currently, the other four members of the family were in the center of the training ground. As it was their birthday, their parents had decided to teach both Narumi and Menma a new chakra control exercise. The four of them were standing in the center of the training ground.

Off to the side, under the shade of a tree, was Naruto. He wasn't allowed to join when he had asked. They said he did not need it yet. He had a depressed look in his face as he looked at them. They seemed happy.

' _Maybe I could do this on my own later…'_ He was about to let his mind wander on the training possibilities.

" **GRAAHH!"** Naruto's head snapped around when he heard his sister's scream. At least, he thought it was his sister. It sounded so demonic, it was hard to tell.

' _What was that?!'_ He froze at what he saw. In the middle of the training ground was his sister. But that wasn't what caused him to freeze. It was what was surrounding her.

Surrounding her form was some strange orange aura. It was bubbling as it grew more and more. Eventually, her entire body was covered in it. It formed into a shape that resembled a fox. But that wasn't all, her whisker marks had thickened and elongated. Somehow, Narumi's nails had grown into claws. Her eyes had gone from violet to a crimson color. Her pupils have even turned into slits.

It did not take long at all for Naruto to figure out what was going on. "The Kyūbi…" He said fearfully. That was when he noticed. Some of her skin was starting peel off.

' _It's hurting her!'_ He could see that his parents were trying to get close, but she wasn't letting them. Eventually, they tried to jump in with force, but it didn't work. Naruto could only assume that in her current state, her senses were enhanced.

When Minato and Kushina lunged at her, she was easily able to dodge, winding up between them and where Naruto was. Minato and Kushina seemed surprised at her speed. It was probably because this has never happened before. In all of the training sessions so far, Narumi and Menma have always had control. This was the first time either have lost control. And it was pretty scary.

Naruto shook his head. _'Now isn't the time for those thoughts, Naruto! You have to help her!'_ This thought in mind, Naruto ran forwards.

"Narumi!" He yelled. Instantly, her feral eyes turned to him. He stopped about fifteen feet away from her.

"Naruto! Stay back!" He heard his mother, but he ignored her and kept his eyes on his sister.

Raising his hands out in front of him to show he was unarmed, Naruto slowly approached. "It's me, Naruto. You know, your older brother." He took a slow step forward. "You can hear me in there, can't you?" Another step. "You need to calm down, Narumi." One last step. He was now five feet away.

Suddenly, her body seemed to relax. Naruto smiled seeing this. "Good, you're calming down…We were worr-" BAM!

Naruto was cut off as Narumi swiped her claw. Slashing diagonally down his chest. From the left shoulder to the right hip. Naruto went flying back as blood sprayed everywhere.

Right before the darkness completely consumed him, Naruto noticed two things. The first was there were three people crying out his name.

The second was that he was looking into the shocked violet eyes of his sister.

The world turned black.

* * *

A muffled groan rang out across the platform standing in the abyss. Blue and violet eyes slowly cracked open to take in their surroundings. When he saw where he was, he let out another groan.

"Damn it all…I'm back here again." That was when Naruto realized that he was still on the ground. Pushing himself up, he looked around. "The black abyss from my dreams…So I'm dreaming…again."

Looking down, he took in the platform he was on. It was the one with the white door and all the keys. "Well, this is the first time there has been a repeat in the platforms-ttebayo."

Taking another look around, he noticed that there wasn't anything nearby. No enemies, no swords, no doors…not even Earth, Water or Wind. Deciding his best bet was hoping that the voices would respond, his next course of action was decided.

"Hello?! Annoying voices?! Are you there-ttebayo?!" He called out.

" **Are you referring to us?"**

Naruto jumped, only halfheartedly expecting a response. Rubbing his head sheepishly, he answered. "Sorry about that." Looking around, he still failed to spot anyone nearby.

" **It is fine. While we are glad you have returned, we did not expect it to be in such a manner."**

Naruto was confused. What did they mean by that? It was then he remembered the events leading up to coming back here. "Oh yeah! Narumi!" He looked around. Hoping for some form of exit to appear. "Can you let me out now-ttebayo?! I need to go check on Narumi!"

" **Your body is in no condition for you to be active right now. It is actually beneficial for you to be here as that allows us to talk."**

"Talk?!" He did not have time for this!

"Yes, talk." This time the voice was easily located. It was right behind him. Not only that, it had sounded like only one voice. He spun around to see who had spoken.

* * *

 **There we go! All done with chapter 6. Like I said above, this was meant to be part of chapter 5, but I had underestimated how long they were. Everything is smaller in my head.**

 **In case you hadn't noticed, the neglect started! There** _ **is**_ **a reason for this. It will be shown. Maybe next chapter, maybe the one after. Or maybe in a few. Or maybe later than that. I haven't worked out** _ **all**_ **the details yet.**

 **No detailed descriptions were needed this time. I am extremely thankful for this.**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943.**


	7. How it Began

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 7!**

 **I pace…a lot. And I do it even more now that I write this story. When I get stuck on a part, I just get up and pace my room. And when I'm thinking hard while pacing, I snap my fingers. It is always the same beat. It goes "Snap snap! Snap snap!" and then repeat. After that, I repeat again. Good right?**

 **No really.** _ **Does**_ **anybody read these? I mean, I could be insulting you people and most of you would probably never even notice…**

 **Rutaxon: What do the big-time neglects do?**

 **Anyways, on with the Story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else, I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Diety Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Diety Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

* * *

"Yes, talk."

' _Whoa!'_ Naruto spun around. That time it sounded like it was coming from right behind him. Turning around, he was surprised at what he saw.

It was a woman. She looked to be around the age of nineteen or twenty. _'She is really pretty!'_ Naruto thought to himself. She had pale blond hair that went down to the middle of her back, baby blue eyes, and pale skin. She had on a white short sleeved kimono that ended a little past her knees and a blue trim. On the front was a golden sun. On her face was a small smile.

"Welcome, to the Station of Awakening. It may also be called the Dive to the Heart." She shrugged. "Either one works. Just pick one." She said.

That momentarily stunned Naruto. "Station of Awakening?" He looked around. "Is that what this place is called?" At seeing her nod, he spoke again. "Where…exactly is this?"

She just gave him a look. Suddenly feeling stupid, Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "Right…'Dive to the Heart,' that was a stupid question. This is my heart?" Looking around, he only had one thought. "It is kind of creepy here-ttebayo…"

"Ha! You said it, not us!" A second voice popped up behind him. Startled, he snapped around to look at who had spoken.

It was another woman. She appeared to be about the same age as the blond one. She had black hair that also went to the middle of her back and tan skin. Her eyes were an unusual yellow color. She also had on a short sleeved kimono that went to around her knees, except it was black this time with a yellow trim. On the front of it was a moon.

She seemed to enjoy his reaction. She smirked as she walked up to the other woman, who seemed to be resigned to the black haired ones antics.

Naruto was annoyed as he watched the smirk appear on her face. "Ok, whatever. I don't care where we are. This is just a dream, and I want to wake up-ttebayo!"

This made the tan woman smirk even more. "Just a dream? _Where_ did you get that idea? This is so much more than that!"

"It can't be! There are no such things as shadow ants and giant keys that you can fight with! Or powers that come from twilight! And certainly not two voices that annoy the heck out of people and test you!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!" It just couldn't be real.

The black haired woman shrugged. "But people having a second circulatory system that allows them to have super powers like breathing fire and super strength makes so much more sense?" She asked sarcastically.

This caused Naruto to falter. After a minute of silent contemplation, he could only respond one way. "Dammit…" He muttered. This really could happen, couldn't it? Why did this crap have to happen to him? "Ok, you've made your point…this is possible, after all-ttebayo…" It seemed to physically pain him to admit that. "But why am I here? I mean, this can't be a normal thing, right? Or it would be better known, right?"

The pale woman nodded again with a smile. _'I will call her Shiro for now…'_

"Yes, you are here because you are special." Shiro began. "You are the chosen wielder of twilight, the champion of Kingdom Hearts."

Naruto felt something in him stir at the name, but wrote it off as his imagination. He tilted his head in confusion. "Wielder of twilight? Champion of Kingdom Hearts?" He shook his head. "Ok…which explanation would be better to start with?"

The other woman smirked again. That smirk was getting annoying. _'I will call her Snarky…'_

"Kingdom Hearts is the better spot to start." Snarky said.

Naruto nodded. "Ok then, what is Kingdom Hearts?" He asked them.

It was Shiro who answered the question first. "Put into the most basic terms…it is light."

Snarky shot her a look. "It is also darkness." She corrected.

These answers confused Naruto greatly. "Light? Darkness? How does that make sense-ttebayo? How can something be light or darkness themselves? Do you mean representations of them? And even then, what would that mean?" How was it possible to _be_ light and darkness?

The both of them shook their heads. "No." Shiro answered. "Kingdom hearts is _actual_ light and darkness."

That stupid smirk was back on Snarky's face. "But it is so much more than that…It is also the amassed hearts of all the worlds…"

This brought all of Naruto's thought processes and brain functions screeching to a halt. "…Wait…What? 'Worlds?' As in… _more than one-ttebayo?!"_ They were not seriously telling him that there were other worlds out there now?! That was now breaking all realms of logic with him. "There _aren't_ any other worlds. That's it, this really must be a crazy dream…"

Shiro silenced him with a single question. "You refuse to accept the existence of multiple worlds, but you accept that scrolls with fancy writing and marks on them can create a pocket dimension to store things in?" She tilted her head to the side as she raised this question.

After a few moments, Naruto slumped his shoulder and hung his head. " _Damn it…_ "

Snarky whistled. "Pretty narrow minded aren't you? You're six, you should have more of an imagination. What the heck is wrong with you?"

Naruto was really getting tired of this woman.

Shiro shook her head and continued. "Anyways, just like people, every world has a heart. The heart of the world though, is hidden. On every world, there is a door that often appears as a simple keyhole. Beyond that keyhole is the heart of the world."

Naruto was seriously tempted to deny everything he was hearing, but tried his best to keep an open mind. "So…if every world has a heart…then of course this one does too-ttebayo…" Both of the women nodded.

"Yes." Snarky continued. "The worlds are currently separated, unable to interact with one another. You need special means to travel between worlds. Whether it be a specially designed ship or a corridor of some sort. But this was not always the case."

Shiro picked up the story. "Long ago, the worlds were one. The inhabitants were able to interact much more freely with one another. Back then, the worlds were filled with light. Darkness was not nearly as strong as it is now."

Here, Snarky started to talk again. "But as with all light, there is a shadow. Darkness soon formed in the hearts of people who wanted the light for themselves. That light…was Kingdom Hearts."

Naruto took a moment to think. "But Kingdom Hearts isn't _just_ light, right? It is also darkness?" They had said so themselves.

The two of them nodded again. "Yes," Shiro said. "It is also darkness. But these people were not able to comprehend this. Even today, for the few people who know of Kingdom Hearts…many of them believe that Kingdom Hearts is only a single entity. Whether it be light, darkness, or hearts. They are unable to comprehend that Kingdom Hearts is so much more than that."

Snarky picked up the story again. "War soon erupted. Both sides wanting Kingdom Hearts for themselves. But they would never reach Kingdom Hearts. To reach that goal, you need a specific key."

Naruto tilted his head to the side. "A key-ttebayo?" Suddenly remembering all the keys he had dreams about, he spoke up. "Like those keys I have seen in my dreams? The ones that Earth, Water, and Wind wield?" He looked down at the Station of Awakening. "Like one of those?" He pointed to the keys that went in a circle around the door.

Shiro smiled slightly. "Close, but no. What we mean, is _the_ key." They pointed to the center one, the one that looked like it was made up of two of the other keys. "We are talking about the χ-blade."

That feeling was back. But this time, Naruto wasn't as sure that he was just imagining it. He could figure out what it was later though. "The χ-blade?"

Snarky smirked. _Again._ "Yeah, the χ-blade. You see all those other keys?" She waited for his nod before continuing. "Those are shams."

Naruto, who wasn't quite expecting such a response was slightly taken aback. "They are shams? What does that mean-ttebayo?"

Shiro answered him. "Yes, they are not the true χ-blade. They are manmade attempts so create it. And when that failed, they turned to simple giant keys that were shaped like the χ-blade. But no one has achieved it. They hold power, yes. But not the power of the original."

This caught Naruto's attention. "'Original?' What do you mean by that? Is the χ-blade the first one? Ever?" He questioned.

Snarky had to open her mouth again. "Hey, would you look at that. He _can_ be observant." If this woman kept opening her fat mouth… "Yes, the χ-blade is the original. When the shams were created, they were given the name 'keyblade.'"

Naruto memorized the term. "Keyblade, huh?"

Shiro began to speak at this point. "Back to the war, both sides kept on fighting over Kingdom Hearts with neither willing to give in. The worlds who wished to have nothing to do with the war found it brought to them. No one was safe."

Naruto scowled. "That's typical behavior-ttebayo. Some power hungry fools always have to ruin it for everybody else. Trying to one up each other in their greed." It made him sick.

The two women took on looks of surprise. After a moment they smiled and looked to one another.

Naruto was getting curious how the war turned out. "So how was a victor decided-ttebayo?" He asked.

Snarky answered. "It wasn't."

"What?"

"A victor was never decided. The war caused the worlds to be cast into darkness. That is how it ended. With no winner. The worlds were bathed in darkness, scattered, and the χ-blade was destroyed into twenty pieces."

This was not what Naruto was expecting. At all. That's how it ended? The worlds were scattered into darkness and the χ-blade was destroyed?"

Shiro nodded. "Yes, but there was still some light remaining. As there can never be darkness without any light. Do you know where it was? Where there was still purity in the dark?"

Naruto crossed his arms over his chest and thought about it. If the worlds had been separated due to war and bathed in darkness, where could it have been? It must have been in someplace the war didn't reach…Did anyone not fight in the war? Who would that have been?

' _Wait…Someone who doesn't fight in wars…Could it be…?'_

Naruto looked back at the two women. "Was the remaining light…In the hearts of the children?" Shiro's smile and Snarky's smirk were their responses.

Snarky was the first of the two to answer verbally. "Yeah, the children remained pure, despite everything that had happened. The darkness was unable to reach them."

Shiro continued from there. "As they were not part of the war, the light was able to remain within them. It was that light which revived the worlds into what they are today."

Naruto nodded. "You said the χ-blade was shattered as well? Into twenty pieces?"

Snarky nodded. "Yes. The χ-blade was made up of both light _and_ darkness in equal amounts. There were twenty pieces total. Thirteen of darkness and seven of light."

This confused Naruto. "Thirteen of darkness? Seven of light? How is that even-ttebayo?" It wasn't really, was it?

Shiro answered. "Due to the properties of both light and darkness, this ratio was the one that worked. With seven of light and thirteen of darkness, the χ-blade was stable. Anything else would not work."

"Ok…not sure if I get it-ttebayo."

Snarky had to join in again. "I doubted you would anyways…"

' _Control, Naruto. Remain calm…'_ But he couldn't stop his fist from clenching. "Ok then, what happened to Kingdom Hearts? The χ-blade was the key, right?"

It was Shiro's turn to talk. "Kingdom Hearts disappeared to the darkness. You see that door?" She pointed to the door in the center of the Station of Awakening.

Snarky picked up the tale. " _That_ is the Door to Darkness. Beyond that, is Kingdom Hearts. Kingdom Hearts has remained unobtainable since the conclusion of the war. That brings us to the next part of the story."

Naruto slightly deflated. He wanted to leave! But he couldn't deny his interest in what he was hearing. "There is more to this?" He questioned.

Shiro answered him. "Yes, there is more. First you must understand that after the worlds were restored, there were people who decided to defend that light. The weapon of choice was again the keyblade. But these keyblades were different from the others. They were created from the hearts of people. This granted them more strength than the manmade predecessors."

Snarky picked it back up here. "And not only that, keyblade wielders are chosen nowadays. Either by their strength of heart, or by a keyblade master."

This caught Naruto's attention. "Keyblade master?"

Shiro nodded. "Yes, those who wield keyblades may one day become a keyblade master. The keyblade masters are tasked with the protection of the worlds. They act as guardians. It is their job to ensure the balance." A frown then appeared on her face. "But sometimes…Even a keyblade master will fall into darkness…"

Snarky also adopted a frown. "A few years ago, there was a keyblade master who sought the power of Kingdom Hearts. He betrayed others and slayed his fellow master in his bid for power."

Naruto was disgusted by this. Betrayal was one of the lowest things a person could do in his book. "What happened? Who was it?"

Shiro answered him. "It was a man called Xehanort."

"Xehanort…" Naruto muttered. Just saying the name made him feel uneasy.

Snarky nodded. "Yeah, this guy was seriously bad news. He is the old guy that was bald with a beard you saw on the other station. As a keyblade master, he was able to take on pupils. A while back, he abandoned his pupil, Ventus, on a world. Ventus' heart was fractured and therefore useless to him. You know Ventus as 'Wind.'"

Naruto looked over to her. "'Ventus?' That is his name-ttebayo?" It sounded almost familiar to him…

Shiro nodded. "Yes. His heart was saved when a new heart came and helped to fill in the void. A few years later, in a world that has been defended by a long line of keyblade wielders called the Land of Departure, he met two others. Their names were Terra and Aqua. Or as you call them, 'Earth and Water.'"

Naruto looked down in thought. "Terra, Aqua, and Ventus, huh?"

Snarky continued the tale. "They trained under Master Eraqus to become keyblade masters. Master Eraqus is the older dude with the black hair you saw. After a time, both Aqua and Terra were tested to become masters. While they both should have passed, Master Xehanort interfered. This caused Master Eraqus to perform a test known as the Mark of Mastery exam. An exam that Terra failed. This caused tension to begin forming between the three of them."

"Keep in mind that at this time, nobody knew Master Xehanort had other dark intentions planned. Ventus could not recall any of this, so he did not know either. Around this time, creatures known as 'unversed' began to show up. These creatures were flourishing under negativity. The monsters you saw Terra, Aqua, and Ventus fighting in your dreams were these creatures. It was also around this time that Master Xehanort broke off all forms of communication." That was Shiro joining back in.

When she stopped talking, Snarky continued. "Terra left the Land of Departure in order to investigate both problems. Ventus followed after him. Master Eraqus asked Aqua to watch Terra and bring Ventus back."

This surprised Naruto. "He asked her to watch him? How come?"

Shiro answered. "Wherever there is light, so is there darkness, remember? Master Eraqus was concerned that Terra would lose himself to the darkness. And he was right to be concerned, but little did they know it was not entirely Terra's fault. Master Xehanort had been twisting him. Destroying all sense of ethics in him. He also tried convincing him that light and darkness were equally important, and that balance must be kept."

This caught Naruto's attention. "But…they _are_ equally important…Balance _has_ to be kept…"

Snarky was smirking again. "You're right. Balance must be kept. But what you must understand is that it is nearly impossible for a person to achieve balance in their heart. They are either entirely dark, entirely light, or some uneven mixture."

Naruto nodded at hearing this before pausing. "Entirely light? Entirely dark? How is that possible-ttebayo? Where there is one, the other exists as well…"

"Those who are made up entirely of one are few and far in between. They are those who have been touched by pure darkness or light in some form. Often times, it is due to the shards of the χ-blade. But we will talk about that later…" Was the tan woman's response.

Shiro continued the story from that point. "While that was happening to Terra, Ventus had met the apprentice of another keyblade master. This apprentice is named Mickey. The two of them fought against a dark keyblade wielder named Vanitas. Vanitas is the boy you saw across from Ventus in one of the other Stations."

Naruto nodded at this. He recalled the boy dressed in black.

Snarky began to talk again. "After a while, the three of them met up again in a world known as Radiant Garden. Aqua attempted to mend their relationship, but too much had occurred. Terra was feeling betrayed by Master Eraqus and Aqua, and so left to join Master Xehanort. Ventus, who didn't know any better, followed after him. Aqua was left alone with the feelings of guilt and concern."

Naruto was growing annoyed by what he was hearing. "So the three of them were breaking apart all because this old guy was growing power hungry…typical-ttebayo."

Shiro agreed with this assessment. "Yes…Later on, Master Xehanort confronted Ventus. He told him about the χ-blade. And Xehanort told Ventus that he had the power to achieve it, and that was the reason why Master Eraqus never let Ventus leave the Land of Departure. Xehanort twisted Ventus into going and seeking out Master Eraqus for answers."

Naruto was confused again. "But wait…how would Ventus get the χ-blade?"

Snarky was the one to respond. "There is a way to achieve it. To create the χ-blade, a heart of pure darkness and a heart of pure light must clash. Both hearts must also be at equal strength for this method to work."

Naruto was beginning to catch on. "So Ventus must have had a heart of pure light then-ttebayo…And the heart of pure darkness…Vanitas?"

Shiro congratulated him. "Yes, well deduced. That is indeed what happened. You see, Ventus had a fractured heart because Master Xehanort extracted all of his darkness. This gave birth to Vanitas, who became the new apprentice to Master Xehanort. This is also the reason that Ventus was able to have a heart of pure light and Vanitas a heart of pure darkness."

Naruto was disgusted by this. "That's awful-ttebayo. I'm hating this Xehanort prick more and more…"

Both of the women smiled when they heard this. "Yes, we don't like him either." Snarky said. The smiles quickly died at the next part of the story. "Master Eraqus, fearing what could happen if the χ-blade was created, decided he needed to seal away Ventus' heart."

Naruto scowled when he was told this. "That's wrong-ttebayo. There must have been another way…"

Shiro smiled sadly. "People fear what they cannot understand. And fear may lead to rash decisions. Even as a master, Eraqus was not immune to this. Terra, who was still being misled by Master Xehanort, arrived to intervene. After a short scuffle, a weakened Eraqus was slain by Master Xehanort. It was then that Terra realized he had been tricked…"

Naruto lowered his head. "But by then, it was too late…"

Snarky nodded. "Yeah, it was too late, Eraqus was dead. Terra moved Ventus to another world. But he did not know that Vanitas was waiting for him there. It was then that Ventus realized what Vanitas was. That he was the missing darkness from his heart. Terra, Aqua, and Ventus met up in the keyblade graveyard following this event."

Naruto tilted his head at the new term. "Keyblade graveyard? What is that?"

"The keyblade graveyard is where the keyblade war took place. It is now a wasteland that is scarred and filled with the keyblades of fallen warriors." Shiro answered. Upon seeing Naruto's nod, she continued the story. "Soon after they arrived, so did Master Xehanort and Vanitas. A battle ensued, with the results being less than preferable."

"How so?" Naruto asked.

Snarky took on a bitter smile. "Terra had his body taken over by Xehanort and Ventus destroyed himself and Vanitas when they fought. Ventus chose that outcome over the χ-blade being made. Following these events, Mickey rescued Aqua and Ventus. Ventus of course, who lost his heart, would not wake."

Shiro also took on a bitter look. "Aqua, attempting to keep Ventus safe, took his sleeping body back to the Land of Departure. Upon putting him down in a safe location, she used Master Eraqus' keyblade to alter the world. She transformed it into a castle that was like a maze on the inside in order to protect Ventus. This was how Castle Oblivion came into being."

"Castle Oblivion…" What a name that was.

Nodding, Snarky picked up the slack. "Ventus' heart had been nearly completely destroyed, but it sought out refuge in another. A boy named Sora. Sora was the same heart that helped him heal all those years ago after being abandoned by Xehanort." She gave Shiro a chance to speak.

"Aqua confronted Xehanort, who was still possessing Terra's body. In the end, in order to save Terra who was being swallowed by the darkness, she dove into the darkness and sacrificed herself. Effectively being banished into the realm of darkness."

Naruto was silent as he waited for the next part of the story. When it never came, he got impatient. "Well? What's next-ttebayo?" The sooner they were done talking, the sooner he could leave.

Snarky gave another bitter smile. "That's it."

This greatly surprised Naruto. "What?! What the hell do you mean 'that's it-ttebayo?!' What about Ventus, and Aqua! Ventus is still in a coma because he has a damaged heart and Aqua is still in the realm of darkness! What happened after that?! How did Aqua escape and how did Ventus get his heart healed?!" That could _not_ be the end.

Shiro shook her head sadly. "No, there is no more. Aqua is still in the realm of darkness and Ventus is still in a coma. Terra's current condition is unknown."

That was a blow to Naruto. What a messed up ending. "Ok, then…"

Snarky spoke again at this point. "Following this, Kingdom Hearts made a decision…"

Naruto started a bit. " _Kingdom Hearts?_ It is sentient?"

Both of the women took on offended looks. But how come? Snarky growled. "Yes, _she_ is. Remember that Kingdom Hearts is so much more than most people think."

Naruto looked surprised again. "'She?'" He parroted. "Kingdom Hearts is a female? I mean, yeah ok, I'm not saying that I am surprised that it is a girl over a guy…more like I'm surprised there is a gender at all."

Shiro shook off her frown. "Yes, well…Kingdom Hearts decided that she needed someone to act as her champion. She would choose this person and bless them. This person would have both the powers of the light…"

Snarky finished. "…and of the dark."

They then spoke together. "This would be the chosen wielder of twilight."

Naruto froze. _'Wielder of twilight? They have been saying repeatedly that I am the one who wields the power of twilight…they couldn't be trying to say…'_

Snarky smirked, _yet again._ "Oh? I see you are starting to understand what is going on…"

Naruto began to shake his head in denial. "No…no…you've got the wrong guy…I can't be the wielder of twilight…I'm just…just Naruto-ttebayo…" That couldn't be right!

Shiro smiled. "I'm sorry, 'just Naruto,' but you _are_ the chosen wielder. We wouldn't be talking if you were not. Those dreams you had when you were younger? Those were visions of the past and of the door to darkness."

Naruto took a few deep breaths. "Ok…assuming what you are saying is true…then what does that mean for me-ttebayo?"

Snarky answered him. "It means that you are the true one to insure the balance remains. Xehanort will return, that much is for certain." Naruto snapped his head around to look at her. "When he does, you will need to help in the fight."

Shiro moved back into the conversation at this point. "But do not worry, you should have some time yet. A few years at least…"

Naruto took another deep breath. "Ok…call me insane…"

"You're insane." That damn woman!

Glaring at Snarky, Naruto continued. "…I am actually starting to believe everything you are saying…What do I need to do?"

They looked at each other before turning back to him. Snarky was the one to answer the question, though. "You are weak." Naruto nearly popped a vein. He couldn't refute this point though as it was true. "You need training. The next few years will be dedicated to training. You will go about your days, doing whatever, but at least four times a week you will come here in your sleep and train. You will learn how to use darkness."

Shiro shot her another look. " _And_ light. You will learn how to manifest both. When you have trained enough, you will do what Xehanort failed to do. You will create the χ-blade."

Naruto nearly choked on the air he was breathing. "What?! How will I do that-ttebayo?! You said it needed either two hearts, one of light and one of darkness, or I would need to reconstruct it with those twenty pieces! I doubt you have them!" He couldn't really forge the χ-blade could he?

Snarky shook her head. "Are you even listening? You are the wielder of twilight chosen by Kingdom Hearts herself! Even those clothes you are wearing are a manifestation of this fact! Your heart is evenly split between light and darkness! Because of these facts, you can construct the χ-blade."

Shiro put on a reassuring smile. "But do not worry. This is a _long_ ways off. You will not need to learn how to form the χ-blade for years. But you _will_ get a keyblade."

Snarky grinned in a predatory manner. It set off warning bells in Naruto. "In fact, because your body is in no condition to be moving around, we will be working on this now…" She chuckled darkly.

Naruto was extremely put out by the fact he would not be waking up soon, but he understood. "Fine then, how will we be doing this?"

Shiro smiled apologetically at him. "Keyblades first manifest in times of great distress. When the wielder's state of mind enter a certain state, then the keyblade is summoned." She snapped her fingers. Suddenly the Station of Awakening changed. Instead of a platform in an abyss, they were now in a grass clearing. There were many different types of terrains in the surrounding area. From mountains to a forest. Naruto even spotted a desert and wasteland off in the distance. It was almost as if they were outside again.

Snarky strode forward. "Now, to make you work harder and quicken the process, you will need to succeed in a task while you are doing this." She snapped her fingers as well. A bucket hat appeared on her head. It was white with green stripes going down it. It cast a shadow over her eyes. "You will have to knock off my hat." A keyblade manifested in her hands from darkness. It looked like the typical silver one in design, except for the fact that the blade part was golden.

Naruto began to back up. "Wait! Wait! Don't I get some sort of weapon-ttebayo?!" How was this fair?!

Snarky paused, before shrugging. Another snap resounded through the area. In her hand appeared a wooden dagger. She tossed it at him.

"What the heck is this?! It looks like some kind of toy some kids would have-ttebayo!" How was this going to stand up to a keyblade?!

Snarky shrugged in an unrepentant manner. "Whatever…If you want a better weapon, hurry up and summon your keyblade…"

"Son of a…" Naruto cursed long and hard in his head. "Ok, then…What is the time limit?" She smirked again. This one was scarier than the others.

"Until you summon your keyblade…or die trying…"

"Wha?" He misheard her, right? He must of have. She did not just say until he died. There wouldn't be that kind of risk, would there? "You're joking, you wouldn't kill me…then Kingdom Hearts wouldn't have a wielder of twilight-ttebayo…"

Snarky simply shrugged. "If that happens, it happens. Kingdom Hearts will simply choose someone else. Someone more capable this time…in fact…" She swung at him. He quickly dove out of the way. "That would probably be better. You don't seem that reliable…"

He grew angered when he heard that. "I am too!" He said. "Fine then, bring it on! I will pass this test-ttebayo!"

Her eyes took on a feral glint. "Good! Until you get your keyblade, you won't eat, you won't sleep, and you won't rest. It will be nonstop combat. Ready?" He jumped back, gaining some distance. "Go!"

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 7.**

 **Let me say this now.** _ **THIS IS NOT A GOD NARUTO FIC.**_ **He will have both light and dark powers, but not be unbeatable.** **I just had to say that.**

 **If you didn't get the reference with the bucket hat, I'm a fan of Bleach.**

 **This one is all about some background and it builds up to Naruto getting his keyblade! Which one should it be?**

 **I enjoyed writing this chapter. While I admit I didn't need that much original content because I was simply saying what happened in Birth by Sleep and other lore in a big part of it, I had fun making Naruto get pissed off every time the tan woman talked. A lot of it though is information I gathered from various wiki pages.**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	8. Unlocking the Key

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 8!**

 **It's our one week anniversary! I really did not expect to keep this thing going this long. But hey, here we are. Our current story stats are: 4,714 Views! 70 Favorites! 80 Alerts! 32 Reviews! and about 50,000 words! Thanks for following/favoring/reviewing/and viewing! I am honestly surprised it is doing this well!**

 **Do writers normally have some kind of outline for how they want their story to go? I just have some things I want to have in this story written down. Besides that, it's almost as if I make it up as I go…**

 **That moment when a reviewer totally steals your thunder…**

 **OJKing: I could drop the catchphrases. I don't really care either way. I will bring it up in the ending AN. And he is six, not sixteen. How smart do you want him to be? I already feel like I'm pressing some sort of limit…**

 **Rutaxon: I will do my best to make him not suck.**

 **OmegaDelta: The χ-blade will come up later. Like** _ **later**_ **later. Don't worry about it. This story is based in-between Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts 1. There was a decade or so in between the two. We will be stretching that a bit to fit our needs…**

 **Anyways, on with the Story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else, I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Diety Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Diety Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

* * *

"Go!"

Naruto had to dive out of the way again when Snarky lunged at him. A couple of hairs were cut off the top of his head.

' _Holy shit! She isn't joking around!'_

* * *

From her spot on top of a nearby boulder, Shiro sighed. "She really might kill him…I hope she doesn't. That would just be too troublesome to deal with. I really don't want to…"

* * *

Naruto dodged again as another swipe came at him. "Hey! Aren't you taking this a little too seriously-ttebayo?!"

She just cackled manically. "No way in hell! I said you need to work hard or you would die! Why would I go easy on you?! The sooner we get this done, the sooner some of the real training can start!" Another stab.

Another dodge. "Screw that!" Despite his words, Naruto wasn't running away. After a few more evaded attacks, Naruto saw an opening. Lunging for it, Naruto brought the dagger up.

' _Yes! It's going to hit!'_

This hope was swiftly crushed mercilessly. Snarky batted away the arm holding the dagger. She had an annoyed expression on her face. "You really are too weak…" She kicked him in the gut, sending him flying across the clearing. Naruto landed sprawled on the ground.

Snarky had a scowl on her face. "If that is the best you can do, then we should just quit now. If you ask nicely, then I will stop." She said in a condescending tone.

This irritated Naruto to no end. _'Damn it all! Why won't she just shut up?!'_ He glanced around, trying to formulate some kind of plan. _'It's not like she is even a master with the thing! I can tell that while she knows how to handle herself, she isn't on the level of some of the shinobi I've seen! She is just faster than I am!'_ And it was true. Snarky seemed to be able to use a sword, but she wasn't a kenjutsu master. The only reason she was dominating so much was because Naruto had such a hard time keeping up with his six year old body.

Naruto's eyes landed on the forest nearby. _'Ok, I need to get some distance between us. Then, I will have to wait for the right moment to strike. That should work…'_ Nodding to himself, Naruto almost didn't see the slash coming right at his face. _'Gotta move fast!'_ And with that, he ran into the forest.

"Hey! Where you going?! The fight is back here!" Snarky called after him in sadistic glee. She quickly pursued him into the forest.

* * *

From her spot, Shiro just watched the events unfold. "Ah, there they go…I hope they will be ok…"

* * *

"Ok, Naruto. You've got this. All you need to do is dodge her strikes and stay out of sight until you can knock that stupid hat off her head..." Naruto paused while he was hiding behind a tree. "…Damn it. This is going to suck-ttebayo."

"You've got that right!" A voice called from above. Not even stopping to look, Naruto rolled to the side. Narrowly dodging as the keyblade stabbed into the spot his body had previously been occupying. "If you're going to hide, at least do it well…" Snarky told him.

Naruto threw on a smirk that he hoped looked more confident than he looked. "Don't worry about that! I won't need to hide for long! I will knock that hat off your head soon-ttebayo!"

* * *

 **Three Days Later**

"Shit! This is taking forever-ttebayo!" It is now day three of hell. Naruto had spent the last three days doing nothing but dodging, hiding, and getting his ass kicked. He was hungry, tired, and irritated beyond all sense of thought. His clothing was frayed and torn in places, he was covered in dirt, and he was hurting all over. They were now fighting in a rocky terrain.

He has tried everything. He tried ambushing, he tried tricking, and he tried bribery. Hell, he even asked her nicely on the second day! Suddenly, he hears footsteps coming from behind him. "Here we go again." He ducked without even looking back.

That was the only advantage he had gained so far. It seemed that Snarky was not fond of coming up with new plans of attack. There was a good chance that if she was coming from behind, she was going to try and take his head off, like she had just attempted to do.

He quickly rolled forward and spun around to face her. Following this, he immediately had to use his dagger to deflect the blow that was coming for his chest. That was another plus. He was learning how to deflect, as opposed to outright dodging and blocking. He couldn't always dodge, and he was unable to block because she was stronger.

At first, he was hating the fact that he had only been provided a wooden dagger to work with, but eventually he grew used to it. The shorter size did give him a shorter reach compared to the keyblade that he was up against, but it also allowed him to get under her guard more. Like he was now doing.

After deflecting the keyblade Naruto stepped closer to her.

' _This is it! She's open!'_ Naruto thought to himself. He swiped the dagger up, right at the hat. He looked at her face while he did so. This close, Naruto was able to see her facial expressions that she had on under the hat. What he saw surprised him. It was boredom. WHAM!

Naruto never expected her left hand to shoot out and deliver a punch straight to his face. He went tumbling back into another boulder. He clutched the side of his face, wondering if bruises that he gained here would show up on his body when he finally got back to it.

"Are you taking this seriously at all?" Naruto looked up at her voice. She was simply standing there, looking down at him. Her left hand was on her hip while her right held her keyblade loosely at her side. On her face, what he could see in the shadow anyways, had a heavy frown on it. "Is this really all you can do? That's it?" She questioned him.

Naruto grew irritated hearing this. "What the hell do you mean by that-ttebayo?! Of course I am trying!"

Snarky shook her head. "No you're not. I don't think you understand what is at stake here. Let me spell it out for you. Every. One. You. Know. And. Love. Will. Die." These eight words caused Naruto will freeze. "Xehanort will return. There is no questioning that. It is a _fact._ This time, he will come back and he will probably have help. We don't know who yet, but he will probably form some kind of group that will help him meet his goals. They will achieve those goals, and the worlds will be plunged into ruin. I can tell that you are reluctant to both accept this, and reluctant to fight."

Naruto heard this, but it was like his mind was working slowly. Like it was trying to deny with all it had what she was telling him. _'The worlds will be ruined? That would mean this one too. Everyone will…'_ His face contorted into a pained expression.

"Oh you're getting it now. There _are_ a keyblade or two out there that will be able to join the fight against Xehanort, but they aren't enough. This is why Kingdom Hearts chose you. She needed someone else to act on her behalf. But if you can't make the cut, that's it."

She leaned towards him. "You know the reason you have been having those dreams since such a young age? It's because Kingdom Hearts needed to start young, before you were exposed to the world. Too much interference from your experiences would have made it impossible for your heart to be split evenly between light and dark. Your heart was blessed by Kingdom Hearts from the moment it was created."

She stood straight again. "This means that if another was chosen, it would be have to be someone else whose heart was just created. This would mean it would take _years_ for that person to get to this point. Kingdom Hearts would give it a shot, but it may be too late. We do not know exactly when Xehanort will return. A few years from now yes, but you yourself will probably be young when it happens."

Snarky let out a frustrated sigh. "This is why it is preferable for you to succeed. If you don't and another has to be chosen, then it could be too late. The worlds will be ruined, forced to live under whatever rule Xehanort wishes. _All of them._ And at this rate, it will be because _you were too weak._ "

This statement caused Naruto's blood to freeze. _'It will be my fault? No it couldn't be…I'm just one person…They said there are other keyblade wielders out there…they could do it…'_

Naruto raised this point. "Aren't you exaggerating a bit? I mean, yeah, Xehanort is bad news and all, but there are others to fight him off. You said so. They can't finish the fight on their own?" He asked. He didn't really play that big of a role, right?

He heard more footsteps behind him. He turned and saw Shiro there. "We aren't saying that it all comes down to you, Naruto…We are only saying there is a risk of the remaining keyblade wielders failing. They need all the help they can get…Kingdom Hearts chose you as that help. They very well could do it on their own…but we do not know at this point in time. Is it not better to be safe than sorry?" She asked him.

Naruto looked down in thought. Snarky chose this chance to talk again. Let me ask you this. You know your family? Your siblings? They, and others, will be forced to live in a future where darkness rules. I myself would not totally be against darkness ruling, but not like this. Your family would probably not survive that long in a world like that. In fact, they may try and fight against it."

Naruto stopped breathing when this possibility was presented to him. They would be in danger? They couldn't! Sure the shinobi life was dangerous, but this was something from another world! They didn't have to be involved in this! It wasn't fair! He couldn't live with himself if he let that happen. Unknown to Naruto, he was beginning to glow.

Both of the women saw this and knew what it meant. Shiro took the chance. "They could very well rush straight into their deaths if this happens. And not just your family. Your entire village. Your friends, the shinobi, the civilians, everyone. As well as everyone in the elemental nations." The aura was back. Flaring from silvery-white to purplish-black.

' _No! They don't need to worry about that! It isn't fair!'_

Snarky broke back into the conversation. "Remember. All this could have been avoided if you had just taken this more seriously. But don't worry, if we kill you now, Kingdom Hearts can chose someone else to be the wielder of twilight." She shrugged. "Who knows? We may get some kind of super prodigy who can fight very well as a child? It's possible. But unlikely. They will probably fail and Xehanort will win. But hey, maybe your friends and family will be able to hold off for a while before they are killed."

SNAP!

The aura flared! No longer switching between the two colors. It was now a solid mixture of the two and came to life like a roaring flame. "NOOOO! SHUT UP! I WON'T LET THAT HAPPEN!" The sheer intensity of it all stunned the two women. They were caught off guard so much that Snarky was unprepared for Naruto lunging at her with newfound speed. He brought his hand back, ready to strike at her with the dagger. When suddenly the dagger vanished and a new form took its place!

That was all Snarky was able to see before she was sent flying backwards into a boulder.

* * *

The blond woman was shocked. _'Wow! We knew he would have power but this is amazing!'_ After watching her counterpart get sent flying, she looked back over to Naruto. It was then she noticed what he was holding. _'He did it!'_ In his hand was a keyblade.

It had a checkered handle that went from black to white and had a black guard. The blade was a silvery-white color that came into a pointed tip before it suddenly changed direction back down. They key part of it was made up of black and white spikes. The keychain was silver and ended in an x shaped emblem. On the guard was a silver heart. It was the same heart that Naruto wore as a necklace. Except this one had a crown on top of it. She recognized the keyblade instantly.

' _How fitting…'_ She thought with a smile. It was then that Snarky stumbled back into the clearing, rubbing at her stomach. She had dismissed her keyblade and her hand was now clutching the ruined hat. Once she saw what was in Naruto's hand, she paused.

Slowly a smile appeared on her face. But this one wasn't like the others. It was less of a sardonic or cruel smirk. It was more of a gentle and proud one. Shiro smiled at this scene. But once Snarky noticed that she was being watched, she quickly erased the smile. Looking her way, Snarky glared. Shiro simply chuckled to herself.

Shiro decided to move things along. "Great job, Naruto." He looked her way. "You have successfully completed both tasks. Not only have you knocked off the hat, but you have also summoned your keyblade." Naruto simply stared at her.

' _What is she talking about?'_ It was then that he looked at his hand. What he had been expecting was to see his hand gripping the wooden dagger. What he wasn't expecting was there to be a keyblade clutched in his hand instead. He held it up, marveling at it.

Snarky gave him a moment to take in his keyblade before speaking. "You would get that keyblade. Its name is 'Two Become One.' It is a mixture of both light and dark. Honestly, I am not surprised that you summoned that keyblade as that is a nice even mixture of light and dark. It is a manifestation of you and your heart."

"Two Become One…" That name brought a feeling of completion to him. He suddenly had a thought. "Um, how do I get rid of it?" He put it on the ground and stepped away. Only for it to reappear in his hand.

Shiro was the one to respond to his question. "You must simply will it away. Picture it disappearing in a flash. Most people both summon and dismiss their keyblades in a flash of their alignment. As your alignment is a mixture of light and dark, try to picture a flash of both mixed together.

Naruto nodded and concentrated. After a moment, his keyblade disappeared in a flash of darkness and light. Trying to recall it, it reappeared in an identical flash. "Hehe…that's pretty cool…"

Snarky had her smirk again. "Well…now that you've unlocked your keyblade…" She summoned her keyblade back to her hand and got back into a battle stance. "…shall we continue?" She asked him.

This surprised Naruto. "Wait! Why should we continue? I have the keyblade, and I also knocked your hat off! It has been three days! I should be able to wake up by now-ttebayo!" At least, he hoped so.

Snarky nodded her head. "Yeah, you can wake up anytime now." Seeing that Naruto opened his mouth to speak again, she cut in. "But this will only be a quick fight. Not a three day one. Plus, it is better to get some practice in with your keyblade…"

Naruto thought about it. It has been three days…and he was eager to try out his keyblade…He sighed. Then after a moment, he nodded and got into a ready stance of his own. He still wasn't used to using a sword, so he got into whatever felt right.

Seeing him take up a ready position, Snarky started them off. "Ok. Ready…Go!" She lunged for him again. Naruto automatically raised his keyblade to deflect. Seeing an opening he went for it. She frowned and batted his strike to the side.

Jumping back for a moment, Naruto simply observed her. After forming a plan of attack in his head, he went back on the offensive. She simply stood there and blocked all of his attacks. Frowning some more, Snarky quickly took advantage of an opening and started to counter attack. She attacked relentlessly, blows coming in from all directions. Naruto was having trouble keeping up. The frown on her face transformed into a full on scowl.

Eventually, she got tired of the game they were playing. She kicked Naruto in the gut, sending him tumbling a few feet away. As Naruto picked himself up, she spoke. "What do you think you are doing?" She growled.

This caused Naruto to pause. A confused look appeared on his face. "What are you talking about-ttebayo? We are sparring."

Snarky shook her head. "No…I am trying to spar, _you_ are messing around. Are you still not taking the situation seriously? After all that?" She questioned him.

A frown came to Naruto's face. "What?! Of course I am!"

Snarky instantly denied this claim with a shake of her head. " _No_ you're not. There is no weight behind your strikes. You won't be able to beat anybody like that."

"What does that even mean?" Did she mean he had to put more force behind her blows? He was only six! How strong did she think he was?!

Snarky's scowl grew even fiercer. "You're too scared. You have too much fear." She rushed him again. Naruto quickly blocked her strike with his keyblade. But it wasn't enough. She broke through his defense and cut his arm. "When you block you think 'I'm afraid to get cut.'" Naruto attacked her. She easily blocked his blow and sent a kick at him again. "When you attack, you think 'I'm afraid of hurting someone.' And when you protect someone, you're thinking 'I'm afraid to let them die.'" She shook her head. "You're thinking with too much fear."

She got into a battle stance. A dark aura slowly formed around him. "That kind of thinking will never cut it." She stepped towards him. "When you dodge, think 'I won't let them hit me!' When you protect someone, think 'I won't let them die!'" She paused as her aura suddenly spike. "And when you attack…'I will cut them!'" She swung her blade and a wave of darkness sped past his head, narrowly missing him. Shiro simply looked onto the scene in silence.

* * *

' _Is what she saying true? Will I…really not be able to do anything like this?'_ Naruto questioned himself. It was true, everything she had said. He was afraid. He was afraid of a lot. He was afraid to get hurt. He was afraid to hurt someone else. But most of all…

' _I'm afraid of not being strong enough…I don't want the people I care about to get hurt when I could have done something…'_ But was it really that simple? He doubted that it was. Even after all they had told him, even after summoning a keyblade…he still wasn't sure he was the right person for this. There _had_ to be another way. Someone else who could fight. Someway to stop Xehanort from gaining control. Maybe those other keyblade wielders would be enough…They had said there was a chance they actually were…

 **Play Bleach OST - Number One Instrumental Version**

' _No! I won't take the chance! I won't let them die!'_ Before he even knew what was happening, Naruto was slowly getting back to his feet. A small whirlwind was swirling around his form. _'I will protect them! No matter what!'_ The multicolored aura was beginning to form around him again. It started off subdued, but it slowly rose up in power. Naruto's eyes were shadowed by his blond and crimson hair.

' _Oh? Is he gaining the will to fight? It probably won't be enough…It really was too much to hope for…'_ "Just give it up…The sooner we can choose a new wielder of twilight, the better."

Suddenly Naruto's aura spiked! It was even greater than earlier!

Naruto shifted back into a battle stance while he was in the maelstrom of power. He slowly lifted his head to meet her shocked gaze. She was surprised at what she saw.

His eyes were now glowing. The blue one was radiating a silvery-white light while the violet one was giving off a purplish-black color. None of the earlier fear or hesitation were there anymore. Only the resolve to do what he needed.

Another smirk formed on Snarky's face. This one however, lacked any form of malice. "Oh? Are you ready to fight?" His response was to tighten the grip on his keyblade. "Ok then…one final clash…Are you ready?" She got back into a battle stance.

Silence engulfed the area. Shiro was standing there, her full attention on what was about to happen. The tension continued to rise. Then all at once…

"Grahh!" The two of them lunged at one another and their keyblades met. The area was engulfed into a flash of light and darkness.

 **End Music**

Shiro had to cover her eyes because it was so bright. _'What the heck was that?! He is already able to go that far?!'_ She was shocked. While she had expected him to be able to channel some power into his strike, she did not expect him to be able to do that. A small smile formed on her face. _'We chose well…'_ Once the light and cloud of smoke died down, she was able to get a look at the result.

Naruto was on the ground with the tan woman standing above him.

The dark keyblade was stabbed into the ground next to his head. Only a few inches away from impaling him. Naruto was extremely tired. There was sweat pouring down his face and his breathing was extremely labored.

"Ha…Ha…Damn…it…" He cursed. "I'm still…not strong enough…I won't…be able…to protect anyone…like this-ttebayo…" The thought tore him apart.

Snarky gave him a smile. Not a smirk, a smile. "What are you talking about, moron?" She asked him.

"Ha…I wasn't…able to…beat you…"

She rolled her eyes. "No, of course not…but you did well…Much better than I expected." She congratulated him. "You are not strong enough now…but you will be. You will train and grow stronger. Strong enough to protect those you care about."

Naruto was slowly regaining control of his breath. He looked her way. "You think so?"

Her smile widened a bit. "I know it. Now get up. You look pathetic like that." She helped him to his feet. This was when Shiro came back over with a smile on her face.

"Nicely done. That was very impressive." She said. Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Thanks, but I still lost…" That really bummed him out.

Shiro only smiled some more. "Well…we never really expected you to win…"

This surprised Naruto. "You didn't? Then why would you…" He paused. After a moment his shoulders slumped. "It was another test, wasn't it?" He was getting tired out all of their stupid tests…

Shiro smiled apologetically at him while Snarky laughed. "I'm sorry, but it was necessary. And it worked out for the better, didn't it?"

Naruto had to give them that much. "I guess…" He hated to admit it though. Sighing, Naruto dismissed his keyblade and looked from one to the other. "Well…what now?"

Snarky had that damn smirk again. _'One day, I will punch that thing right off her face…'_

"Now, I have a present for you." She held out her hand and snapped her fingers with the other. In her outstretched hand appeared a sword. It was a daitō that had a pitch black blade and a dark blue star for a hand guard. She handed it to him. "This is for you. Too many questions would come around if you used your keyblade whenever. This is less suspicious." She shrugged her shoulders. "You can use the keyblade instead if you want and sell this sword. I really don't care. Your keyblade is more powerful of course, but it also draws a lot of attention."

Naruto looked at it with wide eyes. "Thank you so much…but I have a question." All she did was raise a single eyebrow. "Why is it black?"

Shiro spoke up then. "Yes, _why_ is it black?"

Snarky threw a challenging smirk at the blond haired woman. "Because black is better than white or any other variants of white." Was her response. Shiro opened her mouth to respond, a frown on her face. But she paused before she had said anything. After a few moments, she closed her mouth and sighed.

"Whatever…"

Snarky's smirk grew wider. She turned back to Naruto who was just watching the interaction with a confused expression on his face. "Now, your body is ready for you to wake up, so you can do that now. That sword will not be there when you wake up. Just imagine it in your hand when you want it and I will materialize it from here. But you can only do that once. Once you call for it the first time, that's it. You cannot put it away like a keyblade. It will stay out there at that point. You got it?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, I understand. Thanks."

Snarky smiled a bit. "No problem. Now we will allow you to go. But there is something you must do when you get the chance."

Naruto tilted his head. "What is it?" He asked.

"As you may have noticed during the last couple of days, I am no kenjutsu master…" She waited for his nod. "Neither of us are, actually. We cannot teach you kenjutsu. You will need to find someone. We will be teaching you more along the lines of learning how to control the light and dark and possibly some magic. So swordplay is on you. Got it?"

"Yeah, I will be sure to get on that."

The two of them nodded. "Good." Shiro said. "We will see you in a week or two. We want you to fully heal before you come back." The two raised their hands towards him. He suddenly started glowing. Naruto knew this meant he was about to wake up. But something suddenly occurred to him.

"Wait!" The two women stopped, surprised at the interruption.

"Yes, what is it?" Shiro asked him.

Naruto rubbed his head sheepishly. "Two questions. First is that…You wouldn't have really killed me, right?" The only answer Snarky gave him was a smirk and a shrug. Naruto sweat dropped. "Right…The other is that… well, it's just that…I never got your names…" The two women looked surprised at this. "You never really told me them, and it never really came up-ttebayo…"

Shiro and Snarky looked at each other. After a moment, they looked back at him. "Well…to be honest…we never really needed names before…" Shiro answered.

"Yeah…there has never really been anyone who we had to introduce ourselves to. So it kind of slipped our minds…But if you need names…"

The blond woman started. "You can call me Hikari." Hikari said.

The tan woman nodded. "Call me Yami." She said. The two of them raised their hands again to wake him up.

Naruto nodded. "Light and Darkness, huh? It fits." The two of them nodded and continued what they were doing. All of a sudden, Naruto froze. His eyes widened to impossible proportions. "…H-Hi-Hikari and Y-Ya-Yami?" He stuttered. "Do-does th-that mean that you t-two ar-" He woke up.

Hikari and Yami looked at one another. After a moment of silence, they both broke into laughter. "Did you see the look on his face?!" Yami asked her counterpart.

Hikari could only choke out her reply as tears of laughter formed at the corner of her eyes. "Y-yes! That was so funny!"

"I know, right?! I knew it would be hilarious when he figured it out!"

* * *

 **Konoha Hospital (Three Days After the Accident)**

In a single hospital room, attached to the respirator for support, was a comatose Naruto. He hadn't woken up since he was hurt. The doctors weren't sure when or if he would.

Sitting in a chair off to the side, was a puffy eyed Narumi. She had been spending a great deal of time here. She had come to her senses the moment she had struck down Naruto. And she had been feeling incredibly guilty ever since then. She even had a few nightmares.

"Nii-chan…" She muttered. What would she do if he never woke up? It would be all her fault! If she had just stayed calm and kept better control over herself…She shook her head.

' _No! He will wake up! And I will apologize for what I did!'_ She nodded to herself as she confirmed her resolve. She looked out the window. It was getting pretty late. She stood up to leave.

"I'll see you tomorrow nii-chan…" She walked towards the door, but paused as she heard a groan behind her.

* * *

' _Why does everything hurt?!'_ He had just been given the shock of a lifetime, and then all he knew was pain. He let out a groan. _'How did this even happen?'_ He thought back to what could have caused all of the pain he was in. _'…Narumi!'_ With a startled gasp, he shot up. Only to clutch his stomach in pain with a grunt. "Son of a…"

"Nii-chan! You're awake! And you shouldn't move like that-ttebane!" He heard. Looking up through tears of pain, he looked at who had spoken. He visibly relaxed once she saw it was his sister fretting over him. He took off the respirator.

"You're okay…"

Narumi looked shocked at this. "You were worried about me? What about you?! You've been out for the last three days-ttebane!" Tears returned to her eyes. "I-I thought that I had…" She broke off. Unable to complete the thought.

Naruto sent her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry about it. I'm just glad you are fine…" It would be more convincing if he wasn't still clutching his stomach.

Narumi simply frowned some more. But she dropped the subject as she knew that this argument would never end if she pursued it. "Fine-ttebane…Well, how are you feeling?" She asked him.

Naruto grimaced. "Fine, all things considering…Do you know when they will let me out of here-ttebayo?" He was not a fan of hospitals.

Narumi frowned more. "Not until you're healed! You can't rush these things! That's what kaa-chan told me when I asked when you would be better." She nodded her head in a sage like manner.

Naruto quirked a smile at her behavior. He looked out the window and was surprised to see the sun setting. "Narumi…how long have you been here?" Her sheepish look was all the answer that he needed. Naruto sighed. "It is getting late…you should go home-ttebayo."

Narumi was instantly protesting. "But nii-chan!" She didn't want to leave yet! He just woke up!

Naruto was firm on his stance on the matter. "No, Narumi. Go home." He smiled at her. "You and the others can come tomorrow in the morning. It is time for you to go home, now." Narumi opened her mouth to protest but paused. After a moment, she slumped. "Fine-ttebane…" She headed for the door. "See you tomorrow…"

Naruto nodded. "See you. Can you please tell the nurse that I'm awake as well?" She nodded and left. Naruto waited a moment before clutching his stomach again. "Dammit this really hurts-ttebayo." He looked around the room. Spotting what he was looking for, he got up and walked to the other side of the room.

In front of him was a mirror. "Ok then…Let's see the damage." He took off the blue hospital shirt. And took a look at his chest.

It was nothing he wasn't expecting. He had a big angry scar going across from where he was hit. It went from his left shoulder to his right hip. He supposed that he was lucky he wasn't awake for the last three days. That would have sucked. Sighing again, Naruto put his shirt back on and waited for the nurse to show up.

* * *

 **Uzumaki-Namikaze Household (One Week Later)**

It was a week later. Naruto had recently been released from the hospital. He had been fully healed, but he would always have that scar. The only reason he was up and about so soon was because Tsunade worked on him herself and he was half Uzumaki.

Naruto was now trying to figure out who he could get to train him to use a sword. There was only one person who immediately came to mind.

"Hey, kaa-chan…" He began, getting her attention.

"Hm? What is it?" She was currently fixing some lunch up.

"Can you…maybe teach me some kenjutsu, please?" He tried not to get his hopes up, but he couldn't help himself. It would be great if she was willing to teach him…

"Sorry, honey. All my time is taken up training your brother and sister…Plus, you won't need that for a while…" He didn't even have a sword, did he?

Naruto hung his head. "Ok…I'm going out now…Don't worry about my lunch, I will figure something out…"

"Ok…Have fun…" She said absently. Naruto sighed and headed out the front door. He wasn't paying attention to where he was going as he was lost in his thought.

' _Great, now what? I need to find someone who is willing to teach me kenjutsu…I doubt I could ask a random shinobi and actually expect them to teach me.'_ He pondered the problem for a few more minutes as he walked. Eventually he stopped when he heard something that pulled him out of his thoughts.

"Meow."

Naruto blinked in surprise and looked down. When he saw what had caught his attention, he smiled. "Hello, Kuro. It has been a while." He looked around. He was in the training ground from two and a half weeks ago. "Oh. I'm back here." He thought some more about his problem. "…Maybe if I just walked around the training grounds, I could find someone who knows how to use a sword. Maybe one of them will be able to teach me…"

Kuro who had been silent up until now, looked up at him. Kuro tilted his head, as if in thought. After a moment, Kuro seemed to come to a decision.

Naruto looked down when he felt something rub against his leg. "Meow." Kuro was trying to get his attention. Once Naruto was looking, Kuro walked off. After a few feet, he looked back. "Meow!"

Naruto quickly caught on. "You want me to follow you?"

"Meow!"

Tilting his head to the side, Naruto thought about it. After a minute, he shrugged. "Ok, why not?" He followed after Kuro.

The two of them walked the streets of Konoha, cat leading boy. They quickly reached an area Naruto had never been to before. Just when Naruto was about to stop following Kuro, the cat ducked into a building. Naruto looked up at the sign. "A candy shop?" He was seriously confused now. Why would Kuro lead him here? Deciding he had nothing to lose, Naruto went in. Looking around, he saw that there were a bunch of isles of sweets. No one was in sight, but a voice soon called out.

"Welcome! How may I help you?"

Turning around, Naruto froze. He was absolutely shocked at what he saw.

Behind him was a man. He was a tall man with a lean frame and light blond hair. He also had some chin stubble. His hair was messy and strands framed the sides of his face. He was wearing a dark coat that had a white diamond pattern along the bottom half, and dark green shirt and pants combo. On his feet were traditional geta sandals. He hid the bottom half of his face behind a paper fan he was holding. But none of this was what caused Naruto to freeze. It was what cast a shadow over his grey eyes.

It was a bucket hat that was white with green stripes.

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 7!**

 **So, what do you think? I may have gone overboard a little with the Bleach stuff, but I could only picture that scene playing out that way.**

 **Naruto has his keyblade! It is Two Become One! A certain reviewer totally called it though…Oh well.**

 **I say "Damn it all!" as a replacement for "God damn it!" I don't know if people would be offended by that. Am I worrying too much?**

 **I have to ask. How are the fight scenes? I feel completely unconfident in my ability to write them, so I feel the need to ask. Are they turning out alright? I know I haven't really put too many of them yet, but…**

 **On another note, should I drop the catchphrases like "ttebayo?" I don't care wither way. I can do with or without them. If enough people ask, I will drop them.**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	9. Meet The Average Boring Everyday Genius

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 9!**

 **...100 follows? Holy crap. Is this story actually a thing?! When did that happen?!**

 **But really, thank you for all the support!**

 **Ok, so here is why I didn't upload yesterday despite the fact that I have done it every other day. I was writing the chapter, and got a good ways into it, but I had noticed that I was forcing myself to do it. That isn't how I want to do this story. If I write this thing, I don't want to make myself do it. I don't enjoy it that way and the quality of the work gets shot to hell. And that means you won't enjoy it as much. So I stopped writing for the day and took a break.**

 **Bad news. I got a job! I haven't started yet, they want me to come in on Monday to give some information though. I have no idea when I start, but it will probably cut into my fanfiction time.**

 **I have received a comment or two about my Bleach inclusion. Remember this, Kingdom Hearts is pretty much a super crossover. What is the point of doing something like this and limiting myself to only the worlds in the game? That's no fun. I plan on adding other crossovers as well.**

 **I will try and do better on the fight scenes. I don't know how much I can improve them, I may simply not have the talent, but I will try.**

 **I like the idea of keeping the catchphrases for when he is excited. Props to LordGhostStriker for that.**

* * *

 **Jbrew123: Great minds think alike, huh? :)**

 **LordGhostStriker: No, no, and nope. Read this chapter and find out. I reveal it here.**

 **HeartlessNobody13: You read my mind! I totally agree with you. Why limit myself to just the typical worlds in the Kingdom Hearts series? I plan to do those, but why only those? As for the elemental nation training, that is coming up. Keep reading to find out! Kurama is something I still need to plan out a bit more, but I** _ **do**_ **have an idea for summoning. I plan to have this story go all the way up to the time skip. Like I said in a previous chapter, there was a decade or so in between Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts 1. This story takes place then. I may have to add a year or two to make it fit, but that's when this happens. I will probably end this story then and make a sequel as the Kingdom Hearts story begins. From there? Wait and see.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the Story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else, I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Diety Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Diety Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

* * *

"Welcome! How may I help you?"

' _Hm?'_ Naruto turned around to get a look at the person who was working the shop. But while he was expecting the person to be a man based off the voice, he was shocked to see what was on top of the man's head. _'No…no…no! That's impossible! I destroyed that damn hat! And even then, it was something Yami had made in the Station of Awakening for unlocking my keyblade!'_

While Naruto was suffering from a small breakdown, the man was simply observing him with his head tilted to the side in a curious manner. "A boy?" Looking around, he didn't see anyone else with the boy. Just when he was about to speak up and pull the boy out of whatever crisis he was suffering from, the man seemed to notice the black cat that was next to the boy.

Instantly, the man's demeanor changed. "Yes! It's Yoruichi!" he ran up to the cat and picked it up. "I _knew_ you would come back to me! I've been so lonely without you!" He danced around in circles with the cat. "Do you know how annoying it has been getting this shop set up? The least you could have done is stuck around to keep me company!" Tears were beginning to form. "It was so mean of you to disappear like that three months ago right when hard work was needed! I didn't even have Ichigo around to sucker into it! Or Tessai!" The tears were now streaming down his face.

Naruto, who had snapped out of his depression when the man had first yelled, was simply watching the scene, dumbfounded. _'What the heck is wrong with this guy?'_ If it wasn't for the chance that the cat had led him here for a reason, then he would have left the moment the man started acting like an idiot. He started to listen again when the man started talking.

"Well, it is all ok now! You're back! And eventually, we will be able to get back home!" The cat seemed to grow irritated with his behavior because it chose to then claw his face. The man instantly dropped the black cat and clutched his face in pain. "Ow! Why would you do that to me, Yoruichi?!" It was then that he remembered they weren't alone. Looking back around at Naruto, he tilted his head in thought. "But hey, who is this? You know him, Yoruichi?"

' _He only now remembered that I'm here?'_ Naruto shook his head to clear it of this thought. "Hello, I'm Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze."

The man titled his head the other way and hid his face behind his fan. "Uzumaki-Namikaze? You the kid of the Hokage?" He asked him.

Naruto let out a conflicted smile. The man's eyes sharpened as he noticed this, but Naruto didn't notice the change. "Yeah, I am." He looked around again. It just looked like a normal candy shop to him, even if it did seem a little shady. He looked back at the cat who was now on the floor again. "Hey, why did you lead me here?" He seriously doubted he would get an answer though.

This question seemed to surprise the man a great deal, if the widening of his eyes were any indication. "Yoruichi led you here? Really?"

Naruto blinked at the unfamiliar name. "Yoruichi? Is that his name?"

For some reason, the man paused. Then his eyes glinted with something that appeared to be amusement. He glanced at the cat who was looking away, as if unwilling to meet his gaze. The man then looked back to Naruto. "Yes. That is… _his_ name…"

Naruto only blinked at the man in slight confusion. _'Why did he say it like that?'_ Shrugging to himself, Naruto continued the conversation. "Yeah. Yoruichi and I have met a few times in a training ground a little ways from here. Today though, he led me here. Do you have any idea why?"

The man fanned himself as he thought. "Did you happen to say anything in particular? Yoruichi is a smart cat." He gained a smirk as he said this last part. "He probably figured there was something I could help you with…" He looked at Naruto questioningly.

Naruto closed his eyes and thought back. "Hmm…Oh!" He opened his eyes back up and looked to the man. "I was thinking out loud. I have been looking for someone to teach me how to use a sword. I was wondering if I could find someone to help me learn by looking around the training grounds. But why would that cause Yoruichi to lead me here?" He asked.

The man looked slightly surprised. "What? You want to learn how to use a sword? And Yoruichi actually led you here to help you?" He looked at the cat again. This time, the cat met his gaze and held it. The two of them simply stared at each other for a minute. After the staring contest they both looked at Naruto. "Well," the man began "…I suppose I could teach you some Zanjutsu…or something." He said.

Naruto frowned. "What is Zanjutsu? I want to learn kenjutsu!"

The man only waved Naruto off with his fan. "It is the same thing, really. Or at least, similar enough to not matter…"

Naruto nodded when he heard this. "Ok then…wait. You know how to use a sword?" Wasn't he just a candy shop owner or something?

The man blocked off sight of the bottom half of his face again, but Naruto could detect the smile on his face by the tone of voice alone. "Oh? I'm just a humble business owner…" Naruto's eyebrow twitched at this claim. "…but I also happen to dabble here and there in my free time…"

Naruto sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Another irritating person he had to deal with. "Fine, can you help me learn how to use a sword or not?"

The man nodded. "I can at least see if you have potential with a sword…Yoruichi must have seen something in you or he wouldn't have even led you here." The man turned around abruptly. He was now facing towards the interior of the shop. "Follow me! We are off to a training ground!"

Naruto was confused. "But wait, if we are going to a training ground, why are you facing that direction? Shouldn't we leave and go to one?" It wasn't like there was one here, right?

The man gained a hidden smirk. This was always a fun part! "You have little faith in me, my young student! Just trust in your genius mentor and follow me!" He led Naruto to one of the back rooms of the store. As he left they left the room they were in, the man grabbed a cane that was leaning against the counter. After making sure that Naruto was following, he walked over to one corner of the room.

Naruto watched curiously as the man knelt onto the floor. He then began to gape as a floor mat was moved out of the way to reveal a hidden trap door. "You have hidden trap doors in your house? What are you, some kind of paranoid veteran shinobi?!" He didn't look like any shinobi he has ever seen…

The man only laughed as he opened the trap door to reveal a ladder that led underground. "No, of course not! Like I said before, I am only a simple business man…" With those parting words, he descended down the ladder. Naruto sweat dropped at this remark. Figuring he had nothing to lose, he followed the man down the ladder with Yoruichi hitching a ride on his shoulder.

* * *

 **Underground Training Ground**

After a minute of descending, they came upon an opening. They had entered a wide open area that was brightly lit. All Naruto was able to see of it though was a blue wall because he was currently descending the ladder still.

Soon though, Naruto's feet touched upon a rocky terrain. "Rocks? What are they doing here?" Naruto muttered to himself. Turning around, he was absolutely shocked at what he saw. They were in a giant training ground! The entire area was filled with a barren wasteland sort of place that even had some cracks in the ground and dead trees in a few places. _'Hell, there is even a sky painted in!'_ And it was true, there was a sky painted on the ceiling and walls, complete with clouds.

"What the hell is this?" Naruto couldn't stop his jaw from dropping slightly. Naruto looked over to the man who was standing in front of him and facing the other direction.

"No way! This place is amazing! Who would have guessed that all this time, there was this huge subterranean training ground under my store?!" The man called out.

' _This jackass…He and Yami might get along…'_ The eyebrow was twitching again…

The man whirled around to face Naruto. The bottom half of his face was covered again with the fan. "Well then, shall we get started?" He paused after a moment and blinked. "Um…do you even have a sword?" He questioned.

Naruto nodded and raised his hand out in front of him. Closing his eyes as he did so, he imagined his black blade appearing in his hand. A hum of interest from the man and a weight appearing in his hand told him he had managed to make it appear. He opened his eyes again. The sword was indeed in his hand now, except now it was in a white sheath that had black flames.

"That's a neat trick…I wonder if it is a common ninja thing…" The man muttered to himself.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "No, not really…Plus, I can't do it again…Now that I have the blade out, it is here to stay." He was able to attach his sheath in a way that held it on his back. He was still too short to put it anywhere else.

The man only nodded. "Well, that is interesting…" He looked as if he was lost in thought for a moment, but quickly recovered. "Well, no matter." He gripped the handle of his cane and pulled. Naruto was shocked at what he saw. It was a blade! "Who the hell puts a sword in their cane-ttebayo?! Are you really just a business owner?!" That was beyond all forms of common sense!

The man only grinned. "Ah, don't worry about it…this is only for self-defense…" He trailed off with a chuckle.

Naruto sweat dropped. "I seriously doubt that." He drew his sword.

It was then that the man got a good look at the sword. He tensed, but after a moment he relaxed again. The changes were so small that Naruto never noticed. _'For a moment there, I thought that blade was Tensa Zangetsu…'_ The man held his blade loosely by his side. "We will keep this short. It isn't a fight. I won't fight back. Only a few strikes for me to get some kind of basis of your fighting style." Naruto nodded at this. "Well then, come at me whenever you are ready!" He called to Naruto.

Naruto nodded and got into a ready stance. The man's eyes narrowed a bit. _'Weak form. Full of holes. Not enough support. Too rigid…'_ He listed off in his head. He made no attempt to get into a ready stance himself.

This confused Naruto. "Um, aren't you going to get into a battle stance as well?" He questioned.

The man only grinned. "I may only be a humble business owner, but I _do_ know a bit about swordplay…" The man's entire demeanor changed in an instant. Gone was the foolish business owner with a goofy air about him. In his place was a serious and hardened warrior that had seen countless battles. "Come at me. If you don't come at me with the intent to kill, you will never stand a chance." He said seriously.

Naruto tensed when he heard this. _'What is this? Everything about him has changed all at once!'_ Not that he really believed him that much in the first place, but Naruto was dead sure now that this wasn't just a humble business owner that he was dealing with. _'Who the heck is this guy?'_ He turned to the cat that was still on his shoulder. "Hey Kur…I mean Yoruichi, you should probably find somewhere else to watch."

The cat looked at him for a moment before _it nodded_ and jumped off his shoulder _._ This temporarily stunned Naruto. _'Did that cat just nod in reply? No…it couldn't have. I must just be really tired or something.'_ Shaking his head to dispel the ridiculous notion, Naruto looked back at the man. He didn't really mean come at him with the intent to kill, did he? _'No! Don't forget what Yami told you, Naruto!'_ He couldn't hold back if he wanted to be able to protect those he cared about. His blue and violet gaze hardened. He would give this all that he had.

The man noticed Naruto's determination. _'Oh? What's this? It looks like he really will come at me full force. Good. That saves some time…'_

There was a minute of silence in the training ground. It stretched on while the two fighters stared one another down. Eventually, the moment was broken.

Naruto sprang forward, swiping his blade from the left at the man's chest. It was easily blocked however. He pushed Naruto back. "You telegraph your moves when you strike." Naruto came back at him. This time, it was a stab to the stomach, but when that failed, he sprang up and over the man to try and land a blow on his back. "You are too slow. And your strikes aren't powerful enough." Naruto tried to feint, but this too was stopped in its tracks. "Even when you try and trick your opponent, it is too easy to ready your movements by your eyes." This process went on for a few minutes. Eventually, the short spar was called to an end. "Ok, that's enough."

Naruto stopped in the middle of his charge. Nodding and panting slightly, he stood up straight and walked over to the man. "So what do you think?"

The man took on a thinking pose. "Well honestly…there is only one thing that truly comes to mind when I watch you fight…" Naruto nodded, prompting him to continue. "You suck!" Could a twitching eyebrow be some kind of sign for something worse? Like chronic muscle spasms or something? "What the heck was that? Were you serious the entire time? No, of course you were! I could feel your resolve through your blade. But it was so poorly used!"

Naruto grit his teeth during this onslaught. "Ok then. What would you suggest I do? How could I improve my sword skills?"

The man hummed and covered his face with that fan again. The silenced stretched on for a minute. Then with a snap that startled Naruto, he closed his fan and used it to point at him. "I will take you on as my student! We will improve your speed! We will improve your power! We will improve your technique! We will improve your discipline! We will even cure you of that crappy personality!"

Naruto who had been nodding along the entire time with a feeling of eagerness, suddenly felt the urge to punch something come back. _'Bastard!'_

"When we are through with you, you will be the proud protégé and student of Kisuke Urahara!" The now named Urahara exclaimed.

Naruto could only look on at the scene and feel mixed feelings. _'I don't doubt that he will be able to help me…but I wonder if dealing with him on a regular basis is worth it…I could find someone else.'_

As if he read Naruto's mind, Urahara suddenly ran over to Yoruichi and picked the annoyed cat up. "Yoruichi, isn't it great! I have a minion again! Someone to help out in the shop and do my bidding!" He danced around with the cat like before.

This caused Naruto to pause. "Hey! Hold on! I never agreed to all that-ttebayo!" He did _not_ want to deal with this guy more than what was strictly necessary.

The man only smiled and simply replied. "Well, you didn't think that these lessons would be _free,_ did you? That would be crazy! All you need to do is help me out when I need it. And what a deal that is. Man, if I could get someone to give me lessons that would probably take months if not years to complete, I would be extremely grateful. If that teacher would have wanted me to become their slave for years to come, I would have had to do it! That could very well have happened! But all this poor man wants is for the nice young man to help him out. Isn't that an easy choice?"

"Things would never have gone that far! Stop being a total idiot!"

Urahara immediately hunched over with a cloud of depression above his head. _'Is that even possible?'_ He looked over at Yoruichi who had been simply watching the interaction in silence. If it wasn't for the fact that Yoruichi was a cat, Naruto would have again thought there was amusement dancing in those eyes.

"Yoruichi! Isn't Naruto-kun so mean?! Here I am, willing to teach him in my free time, when I could very well have denied him any chance to learn at all. All I asked was for him to help me out as needed. You know, man the register, check the stock, and maybe pick something up in town…" There were tears forming in his eyes again.

' _Damn it all.'_ Naruto sighed. Why did this crap have to happen to him? "Fine…I will help you ou-"

He was interrupted as Urahara swiftly grabbed his hand in a hand shake. When did he even move?! Naruto didn't see him. "Great! You start next week! I look forward to working with you! Please take care of me!" He gave a formal bow. WHAM!

Naruto couldn't stop himself from punching him that time.

Urahara was on the floor clutching his face. "Ah! You are so mean! You are just like Ichigo-chan! You both suck! Why would you punch the candy store owner?!" He cried.

"Shut up! You are so freaking annoying-ttebayo!" Why were all the eccentric people attracted to him dammit!

Urahara was up an instant later completely unhurt. He opened his fan again to cover the bottom of his face up. "It is very good that you have all that energy! You can channel it into your training. We have a couple hours left in the day, we will start it right now! Prepare yourself!"

"*sigh* Fine then. How bad could it be if an idiot like you comes up with it?"

Urahara's eyes gained a sadistic glint. "Oh my? Well, I will have to try my best if a young man like yourself will be doing it. We don't want it to be too easy for you, now do we?" He let out a dark chuckle that caused shivers to go down Naruto's spine.

Urahara led Naruto back up the stairs and into the main building. They went into what seemed to be a storage room of some sorts. "Wait here, please!" He said in an overly joyful manner. Following this he began rummaging through boxes, muttering to himself all the while. "Now where did I put that thing? I know it was around here somewhere." Naruto and Yoruichi simply watched him in silence as this was going on.

After a while, he found what he had been looking for. "Aha! There you are!" He pulled out a box from one of the lower shelves. Once the box was out in the open, Urahara opened it up and began shifting through the contents. After a minute of looking, he pulled something out and handed it to Naruto. "You will be using these for training." He said with a grin.

Naruto looked at what was in his hand. It was a black and white wristband. He would have dismissed it right away if it wasn't for the fact that they were surprisingly heavy. He couldn't see where the metal bar was, but he knew what it was. "Weights? That's it?" That was all he could come up with? He expected a little more than that.

Urahara raised his fan to cover his mouth again. "Yes! I don't normally use this method for training, but recently I saw someone else who did. Seeing them and their 'Flames of Youth' at work really inspired me to give this method a shot. I myself would never do it, but you on the other hand will…" Why is it that everything this guy says always comes off as annoying?

"Fine then. I guess I will be wearing these whenever we train?"

That glint was back in Urahara's eyes. "Nope!" This caused a confused look to come across Naruto's face. "You will wear these twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. You won't take them off unless you are told to. And get this, I even made them water resistant. So you can even wear them when you bathe! Isn't that great?"

Naruto paled a little bit. While it wasn't a problem right now, he wasn't looking forward to constantly wearing them every day! This had to be at least ten pounds already! And on each wrist? What about after training sessions? He would be extremely tired and yet still have these weights on. "This is going to suck…" He moaned out.

Urahara chuckled at the sound of his misfortune. "Ah, well I'm sure you will get used to it quick enough. And don't forget the ones that go around your ankles! Come! We shall have one quick training session. Only two hours. Off to the training grounds!" With that statement he led Naruto back down the ladder.

* * *

 **Two Hours Later**

Urahara waved Naruto goodbye as he and Yoruichi watched him stumble out of the shop, dead tired from the training session he was just put through. After the six year old was gone, the two of them simply sat there for a while. The silence was eventually broken by a deep male voice. "So what did you think?"

"Hm…Well, he definitely has potential. And drive. I was surprised to see that he already knew what he needed to put behind his strikes in order for them to be effective. He seems like a good kid. I can see why you brought him here, Yoruichi."

The cat nodded. "Yes. I met him a few months ago and kept him company. He really needed someone he could talk to. I was willing to be that someone."

Urahara tilted his head curiously. "A boy that young has problems he needed to get off his chest?"

Yoruichi nodded again. "Yes. Nothing that was his fault, as far as I could tell anyway, but things haven't been too easy for him. He is hurting and he can't do anything to stop it. He knows the reason, but not the reason behind the reason, if you know what I mean…"

Urahara hummed. "Yeah, I get it. Maybe I could join his circle of friends that he can rely on…at least until we can get back to our world…"

"Yes, I had been thinking the same thing."

* * *

 **Uzumaki-Namikaze Household (That Night)**

Naruto had just taken a shower and was now walking through the door of his room. It was only as he was stumbling back into his house that he remembered that he never got lunch. So he dragged himself through the motions of a quick bit to eat. Only something to tide him over to dinner.

Now here he was, a couple hours later. He had dinner and a relaxing shower. The only annoying part was having to raise his arms to wash his hair properly. And then he needed to dry it off. But now, finally, here he was.

' _Warm bed at last. Sleep, here I come…'_ Naruto collapsed into the bed and was out within seconds.

* * *

 **Station of Awakening**

Naruto opened his eyes. He was looking into a black abyss. He was extremely confused. _'This doesn't seem to be sleep…Where am I?'_ That was when he looked down at the floor. He was standing back on the Station of Awakening with the door. "Damn it all…" He did _not_ want to be doing this right now…

"Awww. We missed you too." Naruto tensed as he felt an arm wrap around his shoulder. Turning his head, he saw the familiar face of Yami. He quickly shrugged her off and stepped away.

"I just got through dealing with one pain in the ass' training. Is it already time for you to come around? I'm dead tired." Naruto said.

Yami just put on her annoying smirk. "Don't worry about it. While you are training in here, your body is resting. So you can train until you drop and still be resting! Isn't that great?" It didn't sound so great when the one saying it had that sadistic look in her eyes. "Plus, you lucked out this time."

Naruto's response was a confused look and a tilt of his head. "What do you mean?"

It was then that Hikari appeared. "She means that I will be handling your training this time." She told him with a smile. "Today we will be working on manifesting your twilight ability at will. Think of it like calling upon your chakra. Currently, it comes forth whenever your emotions run high. We are going to fix that."

Naruto nodded, but stopped when a thought occurred to him. "Wait, I have a question. It is the one I didn't get a chance to ask last time."

Hikari nodded. "Yes, I think I know what it is, but go ahead and ask it."

Naruto swallowed. "Your names are Light and Darkness. Does that mean…are you two Kingdom Hearts?" He asked them.

The two of them looked at each other silently for a few moments. They then turned to him and answered as one. "Yes and no."

This answer greatly confused Naruto. "How can you both be and not be Kingdom Hearts? Isn't it a yes or no question?"

Hikari was the one to answer him. "Remember, we referred to Kingdom Hearts as _she._ Not they. Furthermore, Kingdom Hearts is both light _and_ darkness. We are two beings that are light and darkness separately. Kingdom Hearts is us, but not us. Do you know where I am going with this?" She asked him.

Naruto was silent for a few moments. "Are you trying to say that…you two are actually one being? And that being is Kingdom Hearts?" That was a weird thought. Two people becoming one?

Yami picked up the conversation at this point. "Yes, we are Kingdom Hearts when we merge. Before that, we are the parts that make her up."

"I get it…"

Hikari nodded. "Good. And now that that is out of the way, are you ready to begin?" She asked him.

Naruto exhaled a deep sigh. He really wanted to sleep. Like _actually sleep._ As in peaceful oblivion where his mind wasn't active. But he knew he needed to do this. "Yes, I'm ready."

"Good. Now like chakra, your power of twilight has a focal point. Can you guess where it is?"

Naruto tilted his head as he thought about it. "Is it…my heart?" That would make the most sense after all. Especially after everything that has been talked about concerning the heart.

Hikari smiled. "Yes, exactly. Your power is focused in your heart. In the past, you drew upon it subconsciously when your emotions ran high. While it is powerful when you do that, it is uncontrolled. Not only that, it is dangerous like that. You may one day accidentally harm those near you when you become extremely angry."

Naruto frowned deeply as he thought about it. _'That's true. It could really become dangerous quickly…'_ After another moment of thought, he spoke up. "Ok then, how would I prevent that?"

"The first thing you need to do is learn how to call it at will. Sit down in a lotus position." Hikari had taken the position as she spoke. Naruto quickly copied it.

Seeing this, Yami spoke up. "Well, while you two are doing that, I'm going to take a nap." She quickly vanished.

Not even bothering to look in the direction her counterpart was in, Hikari spoke up. "That's fine. Anyways," Naruto sweat dropped at the dismissive attitude. "You will need to close your eyes and focus. You are lucky as this is similar to calling upon your chakra. But this time, you will need to ignore that sensation and dig deeper."

Naruto nodded and did as he was told. He immediately felt the familiar sensation of his chakra, but he ignored it and tried to dig deeper than that. For the first few minutes, nothing happened. However, after a while, Naruto felt something that he had only felt a few times before. It was the same feeling that he felt when he first unlocked the power of twilight, and the same feeling that he felt a while ago on the day he unlocked his keyblade.

This time, Naruto paid close attention to how it felt. It was a mixture of feelings that were contradicting. It felt both warm while also feeling cold. Calm while feeling excited. Light while feeling heavy.

It was slightly disorienting. Shaking off this train of thought, Naruto reported back to Hikari while still focusing on the feeling. "I think I've got it."

Hikari nodded. "Good. Now try and pull it throughout your body. Again, it is a lot like chakra in this sense. Spread it as far as you can."

Naruto nodded. He tried to get as best a grip on the power as he could. When he felt as if he had an adequate one, he pulled on it. It was more challenging to manipulate than chakra. He tried to spread it out of his heart and through his body.

Unseen to Naruto, he was beginning to glow with the multicolored aura again. It had started by his heart, but it was slowly spreading throughout the rest of his chest and body. Naruto's expression soon delved into a concentrated frown as he guided it through his body. But after a minute, the glow stopped spreading. Naruto's face became more strained as time went on.

After another minute though, Naruto suddenly opened his eyes and began gasping for air. A light sweat also formed on his face. He leaned up and propped himself up with his hands. The glowing sensation had also vanished. "That is really hard!"

Hikari nodded in response to this. "Yes, it should be. It is slightly harder for you because your power is a mixture of light _and_ dark. If it was only one, then it might be easier. But before we move on to the step where you separate them, you need to get used to bringing forth the power at will. And only practice will make this easier. Take a minute to rest. We will begin again soon. We have all night."

While this might have been meant to sound reassuring to him, Naruto could only groan.

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 9!**

 **I have already stated my reasons above for adding Bleach characters. Look above for that reason. But there** _ **will**_ **be other crossovers joining soon.**

 **Not much action going on in this one. Just a bunch of plot development.**

 **There** _ **might**_ **be a time skip next chapter. I still have to write it all out though and see how long it turns out.**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	10. Gaining A Routine

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 10!**

 **So I decided to stop updating daily. But you've probably already noticed. It wasn't that I couldn't, it was just that it was too time consuming. I spent more time than I would have liked a day writing the story. Plus, I never intended to update daily. I'm not even sure why I ever did that repeatedly. From now on, I will probably update once every few days.**

* * *

 **Remzal Von Enili: Drive forms? Possible. Probable? Meh. Non-Disney worlds? Of course.**

 **Adjuster: But…this** _ **is**_ **a neglect fic? Also, I haven't decided on them all yet, but I have one or two in mind.**

 **LordGhostStriker: I remember playing that when I was younger. :) Unfortunately, I don't recall much besides a few moments, so I don't know about my ability to write that world. I could do some research…but we'll see.**

 **The Sith'ari: Harem? Honestly never crossed my mind. Depends on how I feel about it later on. May ask the readers what they want.** _ **If**_ **I do a pairing. Summon the unversed? No, he won't be doing that.**

 **OmegaDelta: I have an idea, yeah. It is one I will probably go with. And I'm still deciding how to write that part, but I look forward to it. :)**

 **plums: This is neglect, not child abuse. There is a difference. For what I am doing, child abuse is out. There are time skips this chapter and next. I don't want to go over his entire life.**

 **ARSLOTHES: Kingdom Hearts character for pairing? I am leaning towards that** _ **if**_ **I do one, yes. But nothing is for certain.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the Story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else, I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Diety Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Diety Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

* * *

 **Station of Awakening (A Few Days Later)**

"Gah! This is impossible!"

Sitting in front of one another in a lotus position were Naruto and Hikari. For the past few sessions, Naruto has been working on bringing out his twilight aura. The problem was, no matter how hard he tried, he was unable to make a decent amount of progress beyond what he did on the first day.

He was able to get a grip on the light and dark mixture, but he wasn't able to spread it past the middle of his chest. Whenever he tried, it was as if he suddenly hit an invisible wall and it refused to move past that point.

"I don't get it! Why isn't this working?" After a few days without making any progress, Naruto was getting seriously frustrated with the entire thing.

Hikari simply opened one eye to look at him. "These things take patience. You are currently on one of the hardest steps in your training. Once you are adept in calling upon the twilight at will, things will begin to move along easier." She reassured him.

Naruto sighed in a frustrated manner. "I know, I know…It is just annoying that I haven't been able to make any progress over the last couple days. Do you have any idea as to why I am not getting any better?" He would take any advice he could get.

"There isn't much I can tell you. The reason you are having trouble is because you are not used to using the twilight. If I had to guess as to why you are having trouble, then it would be because of how you are going about it."

Naruto tilted his head in confusion. "What do you mean by that?" Was he doing this incorrectly somehow?

"Shinobi usually have some difficulty manipulating chakra into jutsu without experience. This is the reason that hand seals are used. It is a focus for their power. Are you with me so far?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, I get you."

"Perhaps you are unable to manipulate the twilight because you are subconsciously likening it to chakra. Remember, they are not the same thing. While you need hand seals for chakra, you do not need them for light or dark. And by extension, twilight. It comes more naturally than that. That is the reason you were able to use it subconsciously so easily in the past. All you need to do is guide it. But be careful, especially when dealing with the dark. You must guide it, not let it guide you. Keep a clear mind or you will be controlled…Sometimes without even realizing it."

Naruto was silent. Was it true? Was he really trying to manipulate the twilight as if it was chakra on some level? It was true he needed to fight off the instinct to move his hands into seals whenever he tried to manipulate it. He would try again with her advice in mind.

"Ok. Thanks for the advice." With that, he closed his eyes again and looked in his heart for the twilight. When he found it, he ignored the instinctive reaction to direct it where to go. Instead, he cleared his mind and tried guiding where it would go.

Nothing happened at first, but eventually it began to spread out as he wanted it to. On the outside, the glow was back and it was spreading further than before. While it didn't leave his torso, it was a definite improvement.

Naruto was able to hold it for a little while before he had to let it go because of how tired he was. He smiled as he leaned back and propped himself on his hands. "You were right! It was easier that time. I still wasn't able to get it to spread all over, but it was definitely better than before." He said.

Hikari nodded with a smile. "Yes. As I said, it will get easier with practice." She then paused. "It appears that it is time to end this session. You will be needing to wake up soon. It is the first day of the academy today, right?"

Naruto smiled. "Yeah. Today we start the academy. But we shouldn't be doing anything interesting. Just get our class assignments and some introductions, I bet…" He wished that he could just skip it. It seemed pointless to go and not do anything productive.

Hikari gave another smile. "Regardless, you have to go. We will continue this another time."

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, see you another time. Tell Yami I said bye." Following this statement, Naruto closed his eyes to leave. They had taught him how to do it himself a while back.

* * *

 **Uzumaki-Namikaze Household**

Naruto had just exited the Station of Awakening and was now cracking his eyes open. He cringed however when he was blinded by the sunlight. Before he could do anymore however, a sudden intruder to his room came barreling in. WHAM!

The door slammed open, causing Naruto to jump from being startled. "Nii-chan! Get up! We are starting the academy today!" Standing in his door was Narumi. She gave him all of half a second to react before she ran over to his bed and ripped the blankets off of him. "Get up!" She yelled.

"Fine! I'll get up! Just give me a second!" How did she think that her current course of action was helping anything? Hearing this, his sister nodded and ran off. Probably to get ready herself.

Sighing at her antics, Naruto got up and started to get ready for the day. He didn't feel like getting up at all, but after school he was going over to the Urahara shop for some training.

* * *

 **20 Minutes Later**

Naruto had gotten ready to go and even had a quick bite to eat in the form of some fruit. He kept his sword sealed in a scroll he had on him. He didn't want his family to see it and start asking questions about it. When he made it to the front door, he saw that the other four members of the family were already there waiting for him.

"Hurry up, Naruto. Narumi-chan and Menma-kun want to head out early and your father even took time out of his schedule to see them off."

Naruto frowned slightly at his mother. _'What about me? It is my first day, too.'_ Deciding that there wasn't much point in arguing, he just sighed and nodded his head.

* * *

 **Academy**

Naruto was standing off to the side while he watched his parents give some final well wishes to his siblings.

"Have a nice first day, kids. And stay out of trouble!" Minato said. The ending was said with a playful tone of voice. He doubted his kids would get into any trouble.

Kushina was getting slightly teary eyed. Stooping low, she hugged Narumi and Menma tightly. "Oh…my babies are growing up so fast!"

Both of them looked mortified at the open display of affection in the middle of public.

"Kaa-chan!" Menma cried.

"Get off!" Narumi added.

Naruto just watched the interaction. _'Maybe I should just give up on trying to get their attention. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, it doesn't. There probably isn't any use in focusing all my time on it…'_

He turned away and walked into the building. Deciding that the best thing to do at the time was to find his classroom, Naruto walked over to the giant bulletin board where the homerooms were posted.

He looked through each homeroom list until he found his name. It looks like his room was nearby. Once he mentally confirmed the room he was in, he looked at who else was in his homeroom. He noted that both of his siblings were in the same room, as well as some of the clan heirs.

' _Not all of them are here, though…We will probably be in the same class in a year or two, though.'_ That was how the academy worked. It started off with multiple classes, but as it went on, more and more people dropped out. This means that by the time graduation comes around, everyone is normally in a single class. This class is usually at least two thirds kids with at least one shinobi parent.

Deciding he had nothing better to do, Naruto walked to his classroom. "1-3. I guess this is it." He opened the door and walked in.

Looking around, he noted that people must not like getting here this early as there were only a couple people in the room. Deciding to use this chance to get the seat he wanted, Naruto walked over to the back corner of the room. He should be far enough away from the front here to be able to get away with some stuff if needed. Like naps. Those were important.

Speaking of which…Naruto checked the clock on the wall. He had no idea why Narumi and Menma insisted on being here this early. They didn't need to be here for another forty-five minutes. Deciding a productive use of his time would be to sleep, Naruto did just that.

* * *

 **40 Minutes Later**

It was starting to get more crowded in the room. People were entering and holding conversations throughout the room. All of the chatter had managed to wake Naruto up from his short nap. He cracked one eye open to survey the room. He didn't see either of his siblings yet. Plus, if they were in the room already they probably would be bothering him…

"These people are too noisy…" Naruto muttered. He definitely wasn't expecting a response.

"I know. How are we supposed to sleep with this?" Replied a voice to his right. Looking to the owner of the voice, Naruto saw another boy sitting there. He was wearing a grey t-shirt with a pair of shorts that were a darker grey. His shirt had some sort of wave like symbol on the front. His hair was also done into a spiky ponytail. "Troublesome…" He muttered.

' _A Nara…'_ No question about it.

Another boy was sitting next to him. This boy was on the bigger side of the scale. He had spiky brown hair and black eyes. He wore a green shirt with tan shorts. He was currently munching on a bag of chips. "Don't be like that, Shikamaru. They are just excited for their first day of the academy." The boy said.

The now named Shikamaru didn't even bother to opens his eyes in order to respond. "So? It is our first day as well, Chōji. Yet you don't see us being obnoxious about it."

Chōji only smiled at his friend's attitude. It was at this point that he decided to introduce themselves to Naruto. "Hi there. I'm Chōji Akimichi and the lazy guy here is Shikamaru Nara." He said with a smile.

Shikamaru sighed. "Troublesome…" He opened one eye to look at Naruto. "Sorry for intruding. You had the same idea I did on how to pass the time. And it is better to sleep back here than anywhere else in the room."

Naruto quirked a small smile at this. "No problem. I'm Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze. When I got here, it was still relatively quiet." He gestured to the noisy room. "None of these people were here yet and it was easy to nap."

Shikamaru smirked. "I bet. I kind of wish they would just leave so we could go back to sleep."

Naruto and Chōji couldn't help but grin at this. Naruto opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted by a voice. "There you are!" The three of them looked over to see the other two Uzumaki-Namikaze siblings standing nearby. Narumi walked up to them. "Where did you go, nii-chan? We should have come here together!" She insisted.

Naruto frowned slightly. "You two were busy so I decided to come here early. When I got here and there weren't many people here, I decided to take a nap to pass the time." He responded.

Menma opened his mouth to respond, but before he could the door opened and the chūnin instructor entered. He was an average looking man who appeared to be in his mid to late twenties. He had shoulder length brown hair and the typical chūnin attire.

"Ok, class is starting. Find a seat or get out!" The man called. The two younger Uzumaki-Namikazes were forced to find seats on the other side of the room because they had waited so long to find some.

"Welcome to the academy. For the next six years, this will be where you come every day, Monday to Friday. The only way around this is by proving you are advanced enough to graduate early." There were some excited murmurs running through the room. "But don't get ahead of yourselves. Most of you will be lucky just to graduate at all in six years." He smirked when he saw some of them falter. "This isn't something to joke around with. The shinobi life is a serious one. And you won't be able to truly appreciate that fact until you are out there in the field."

It was true, Naruto thought. Fresh genin hardly ever realized just what they had gotten themselves into right off the bat. Upper year academy students even less so. And don't even bring up how serious first year students take things.

"Not much is going on today." The teacher continued. "We will take roll, go over some general rules, give out some information, and then let you go. It may suck, but if you didn't show up then you would have automatically been dropped out."

' _That was close…'_ Naruto narrowly dodged a bullet there. Looking to the side, he can see similar thoughts running through Shikamaru's mind by the expression on his face.

The man opened his mouth to speak again. "Now then, let's start with the roll call…"

* * *

 **After School**

Naruto was walking out of the building with Shikamaru and Chōji. They were a little behind in leaving compared to the others because someone from class asked them if they knew where the offices were. They couldn't ask the teacher as he had **Body Flickered** away too quickly. Naruto sighed. "What a waste of a day. I could have been doing something else with that time. Something productive."

Shikamaru lazily nodded his head. "Yeah, I had other things that I would have rather been doing."

Chōji smiled slightly at him. "Like sleeping and watching clouds?"

"…Troublesome…" But he didn't deny it.

Naruto smiled at the exchange. He opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted again. "Hey, you three!" They turned to see who had spoken.

Standing a little behind them was a group of kids who looked a year or two older than them, two boys and a girl.

The first boy had sandy colored hair and green eyes. He wore a dark green jacket that was left unzipped, leaving his black t-shirt visible. He also wore a pair of dark blue pants and shinobi sandals.

The girl had shoulder length brown hair and brown eyes. She wore a simple blue t-shirt with the leaf symbol on it. Her shorts were black and she wore shinobi sandals as well.

The last boy was a head taller than his two friends. He had tan skin and had black hair that was very messy. It nearly obscured his hazel eyes. He wore a long sleeve black shirt with dark blue pants. He too had on shinobi sandals.

It was the girl that called out to them. "You guys are first years?" She asked them. When she saw their nods, she smiled and continued. "That's cool. I'm Misa. This is Wataru," She gestured to the tall boy. "…and Ikusa." She gestured to the other boy. The both of them nodded upon being introduced. "How did you find your first day?" She asked them.

The three new students traded glances. It was Naruto who spoke up. "It was pretty boring as there wasn't anything to do. But that was because it was only the first day. I'm hoping it will begin to pick up soon…"

Misa gave a sympathetic smile. "Oh yeah. I forgot that the first day of the academy is like that for new students. It was pretty boring. We are third years. If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask, ok?"

Shikamaru spoke up. "Why would you be willing to help out the new kids?" He asked. His eyes were slightly sharper than they were before.

Misa looked surprised at this question. "Well…on my first day on older student stopped to help me when I was really lost. If it wasn't for them, I would have been in big trouble." She rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "I thought, why not help out the new kids if they needed it like I was? I know I was happy it happened."

Naruto and Chōji smiled at this. Shikamaru nodded after a moment of thought. "Makes sense…" He said.

The three older students smiled. "Well," Ikusa began. "…just look for us if you do need anything. We won't mind helping you guys out if you need it. And unlike some of the other kids, we don't deny friendship just because you're younger. I mean, what if we were in the chūnin exams together? I would rather know you won't stab me in the back, regardless of being from the same village." After seeing their nods, they exchanged farewells and parted ways.

Chōji smiled. "That was nice of them." He commented.

Shikamaru shrugged. "I don't know if I would have done the same thing. It seems really troublesome."

Naruto chuckled lightly. "You know, I think I'm starting to see a pattern with you."

"Tch." Was the eloquent response he got back.

They had now exited the building and had walked into the courtyard. Looking around, Naruto saw a small group of redheads and a blond nearby. "Well, I see my family over there. See you guys tomorrow."

"Bye."

"See ya."

Naruto walked over to his family. This was it. He hesitated a moment to judge the moods of his parents. His mother was fussing over his siblings and asking how their day was. His father simply stood back with an amused smile. "Um. Kaa-chan? Tou-chan?" They turned their attention to him. "I was wondering if…now that I have started the academy…would you be willing to start my training?" He asked with a hopeful expression.

His siblings seemed excited at the prospect. The three of them looked to their parents. Minato and Kushina exchanged a glance before looking back to Naruto with apologetic smiles. Naruto's expression fell. He knew that smile. "Sorry, Naruto…" His father began. "…But we are still busy training your siblings. Plus, you are only a first year. You still don't need it that badly yet. Maybe another time…"

' _I'm starting to wonder when that time is…'_ Naruto thought inwardly. He forced on a smile. "I got it. That makes sense." His parents seemed to buy it but his siblings were a little more suspicious. "I've got plans to meet up a friend now. Is it ok to go?" He asked.

His mother nodded. "Yes, that is fine. Stay out of trouble." She always told him that. As if she expected him to get into trouble at some point.

Narumi frowned. They were going out for ramen to celebrate. Naruto knew that. Didn't he want to come? She wanted to ask him, but refrained from doing so.

Naruto turned to leave. "Ok. I will see you guys back at the house." With that, he walked off.

* * *

 **Urahara Shop**

Naruto walked into the candy store. If he could, he would have skipped out on this. But there were three facts that made him come.

Urahara was willing to train him when he didn't have to.

He didn't really want to be around the Uzumaki-Namikazes at the moment.

He knew that Urahara really would torment him if he skipped out on training or work. Either by overworking him the next time, or by endlessly annoying him. Or the most likely choice: a mixture of the two.

Sighing again, Naruto proceeded to the back in order to find the owner. He found him looking over a document in the next room.

Upon hearing the door open, the man looked up. Instantly, a smile was on his face. It made Naruto groan just from the sight.

"Naruto-kun! Welcome! Glad to see you could make it. Just give me a moment and we can continue to the training ground."

Naruto tilted his head in thought. "Who will man the store?" He hadn't seen anyone else around, so who would do it?

Urahara simply covered his smile with his fan. "Oh, I'm sure Yoruichi will do it or something."

Naruto just stared at him. "Yoruichi will do it." A nod. "The cat." Another nod. Naruto opened his mouth to speak but paused. After a moment, he closed his mouth again and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Whatever…"

Urahara chuckled in that infuriating way of his. "You should have more trust in me." It was then that he noticed the slightly sullen expression on his student's face. "Is something the matter?" He asked.

Naruto paused to think, debating on telling him what was really bothering him. In the end, all he said was "I just don't feel like dealing with you right now. This will feel like it is taking forever."

Urahara wasn't quite fooled. But he decided not to pry and played along. "Oh, don't you worry, Naruto-kun. Pretty soon you will truly see how charming my personality is and you will strive to be more like me. Plus, when you are working hard, time will seem to fly by. One moment, you are still beginning, the next two years have gone by."

Naruto snorted. "If it gets to the point where _I_ want to be like _you,_ then something is extremely wrong." And what was that about time flying by? Any second spent with this man feels like an hour.

* * *

 **Station of Awakening (2 Years Later)**

"There we go! It's stable!" In the black abyss that was the Station of Awakening, a voice cried out. The voice belonged to one Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze. Over the last two years, Naruto has succeeded in calling upon his twilight aura and is even capable of holding it for an extended period of time while it is spread throughout his body. In total, it took him the majority of two months to learn.

Following this, Hikari and Yami taught him how to separate the light and dark components. This was a new challenge as he had grown used to calling upon the twilight mixture. He started with Yami and the dark, as she wanted to "teach" him for a while. Her methods were radically different from Hikari as she had decided to randomly strike him while he was meditating to hone his awareness. It worked to marginal success. All she really caused him to do was to never go completely vacant while meditating.

Hikari followed this up by teaching him how to harness the light. It was a welcome change. This took Naruto some time as well, but it was due to the fact that it felt completely different to harness the light compared to the dark. This entire process of splitting took about four months.

To make sure he still remembered how to use the combined twilight, Hikari and Yami then taught Naruto how to use it to attack and defend. He hasn't yet been able to make anything too complex, but he has managed to create blasts of twilight, light and darkness. They were simply projectiles from his hands that he attacked with. His barriers still needed work. A lot of work. He couldn't quite manage to keep them stable. The rest of the first year and part of the second year was taken in this manner.

Once Naruto had finished this portion of the training, Hikari decided it would be a good idea to learn how to use a spell or two. She taught him the most basic fire spell. Naruto has had little luck mastering it, as all he can so far create is a small flame that doesn't go past ten feet when used. But there is progress, if slight.

At this point, Yami decided she wanted to teach him something too. That was what Naruto was currently working on. A **Corridor of Darkness.**

"Stable? You call that thing stable? Not only is it flickering, it is also half as big as it should be!" Yami's voice rang out.

It was true. Naruto's corridor would never fit an adult. Plus, that adult would need to be extremely brave to step into something that looked like it would die out at any moment.

Naruto frowned slightly and rubbed the back of his head. "Well, I was able to form it at least…" This was the first time he got this far. All the other corridors before now never fully formed. "And it is big enough for me to fit! That is all that matters for now. I'm sure I will improve with time." He sighed. "I have so much trouble utilizing just darkness. I don't fear it, I know that would lead to my doom, and I know how to control it, but it is so much harder to do compared to twilight or light.

Yami nodded. "Darkness isn't normally used in conjunction with light. It may lead to problems. It is possible, but harder to do. It is especially harder for you because your first instinct is to mix the light in, so you falter. And unlike light, if you falter with darkness, it could lead to it consuming you." She explained. She looked back to his portal. "I forbid you from entering that thing until it is fully stable. So try again."

Naruto nodded. It wasn't like he was eager to test it, anyways. He willed away the current corridor and closed his eyes. He looked inside his heart for the darkness. Separating it from the light once he found it, he pulled on it and focused. He willed it to form a corridor to travel with. A hum of approval from Yami was the cue to open his eyes.

He grinned at what he saw. Before him, was another **Corridor of Darkness**. But unlike the last, this one looked stable. It was however, still smaller than it should be.

Yami smirked and snapped her fingers. The station changed back into the location it had been when Naruto had unlocked his keyblade. They were currently standing in the middle of a grassy field. "Now test it out." She ordered simply.

Naruto's head snapped around to her. " _What?_ " He was not excited to try it out.

"You heard me."

"But…"

"Do it."

Naruto contemplated arguing further, but decided it wasn't worth it. Sighing, he walked over to the corridor. "Put your hood on first. Your resistance isn't that high, yet. It will eventually get there, but for now it isn't." Naruto frowned at this reminder. Another thing that could go wrong…

Deciding it would be best to simply go for it, Naruto put on his hood and stepped through.

* * *

Instantly, he felt the environment shift. When nothing happened, he cracked open a blue eye. The other quickly followed to observe the new surroundings.

He was in one of the most disorienting places he has ever seen. It was like a giant tunnel made up of swirling colors. Even the floor and ceiling were like that. It was slightly difficult to look at if you weren't expecting it. Shaking his head, Naruto looked around. There wasn't anything there. Looking back, Naruto noted his exit was gone.

It was at this point that Naruto noticed how tired he was getting. It was draining him just standing there! Already his breath was getting slightly labored as if he had ran for a bit. Wanting to get out, Naruto closed his eyes and pictured the training ground. He tried about one hundred feet from where he started. Another portal opened in front of him and he stepped through.

* * *

He reappeared in the clearing and fell to his hands and knees, panting for breath. He heard an annoyed grunt.

"That's it?"

Looking up, he was surprised at what he saw. He was barely ten feet from where he started! "But…I…" He tried to find the words.

"I guess it took too much of you to try that. I bet you tried to go further, but couldn't manage. It must be too much on such a young body to use this method of travel and not expect there to be a big strain on you…" Towards the end, Yami sounded more like she was thinking to herself than talking to Naruto.

Eventually, Yami came out of her thoughts and looked at him. "Whatever. You suck at it now, but it should get easier as your immunity to darkness grows and your body's limit raises." She judged.

Naruto just nodded. He was looking forward to getting to that point.

Yami continued. "Also, your current clothes will protect you from the darkness in the corridor. As you don't wear them outside the Station of Awakening, you cannot yet use it when you are not here. Hikari and I can protect you from here for a limited time though if you were in normal clothes."

He frowned. He needs to learn the enchantments for his clothes then. Using the corridor to get around would be extremely useful. Once he gained the stamina for it.

Yami looked up for a moment. "You can go now. It is only the middle of the day. You have to meet Urahara, right?" She asked.

Naruto grimaced. It was his shift at the store. He didn't hate the work. He just disliked it when Urahara decided Naruto needed more excitement in his life. It especially sucked when he had some new invention that needed testing. What kind of candy store owner even invented stuff?

"Yeah. Plus, Narumi will probably try and drag me out to spend more time with her and Menma. I'm not against it, I just have other things to do." He had decided a while ago to quit hoping his parents would train him. He groaned. "Why can't things just go smoothly?"

Yami smirked at his obvious reluctance. "Hey there, buck up. Pretty soon, time will fly and it will be time for your graduation."

Naruto shot her a dirty look. As if time could really fly by that quickly.

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 10!**

 **I did not want to put in all of the next six years. So time skip! I will probably just refer back to things as needed.**

 **The Corridor of Darkness is something I want Naruto to have the ability to use. But I didn't want him to be a master of the thing yet and go anywhere he wanted with ease. That means other worlds are still out.**

 **Like I said before, I doubt I will be posting on a daily chapter anymore. It is just too time consuming. Props to the people who do that though.**

 **Honestly, that ending was more to extend the chapter. It was too short for where I wanted to cut it off.**

 **Cannon starts next chapter! Probably. I might think of a thing or three I want to put in between. But soon!**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	11. Time Flies

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 11!**

 **Canon timeline. We're finally here! Huzzah!**

 **Not a very serious chapter this time, but I liked writing it. It was fun to do.**

 **Back in school, I never got the point of writing down my essay ideas to brainstorm. Now, I am so happy I do it. I always start a writing session by refreshing my memory on what I had in mind. I probably would have lost a couple good ideas if I didn't do that. The only problem is my crappy handwriting…**

* * *

 **Remzal Von Enili: I plan on having something like a base, yeah. I don't know where yet, but I was thinking Twilight Town as well.**

 **The Sith'ari: I won't say too much, but I will confirm that I have been heavily considering RWBY as well. And I am a fan of Harry Potter, but I would have to choose a year.**

 **Adjuster: Like I said above, I don't want to say too much. But I am leaning heavily towards RWBY at least.**

 **Drakon45: Not for a little while longer. I have an idea of when I want to put it in though. And I don't think I will reveal his connection to keys and hearts to them right away.**

 **Exalted Demi-Soul: Doesn't matter. The neglect began years before the Uchiha Massacre, meaning Shisui wasn't dead yet.**

 **Speedking535: I will refrain from making promises as I have seen many fanfic writers break them, but I don't plan on stopping this story.**

 **Umi no Suiro: Thanks! I always make sure to proofread my chapters before I publish them. Unfortunately, some mistakes always slip through anyways. When I go back and read some older chapters, I sometimes want to bang my head on the table over the stupid mistakes like using "your" instead of "you're."**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the Story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else, I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Diety Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Diety Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

* * *

 **Underground Training Ground (4 Years Later)**

Clang! The sound of metal hitting metal was heard throughout the giant room. In the underground training ground of the Urahara shop, two figures were a blur as the clashed repeatedly. They rushed all over the training ground as they attempted to defeat one another.

Clang! The figures clashed again. This time however, they jumped away from one another following the exchange. The two were now distinguishable as a man and a boy. The man had blond hair and wore green clothes with a bucket hat. His choice of footwear were geta sandals. The boy had blond and crimson hair and was wearing black cargo pants with a white hoodie that had a red swirl on the back. He wore blue shinobi sandals. They both held swords in their hands.

Just as the boy tensed in preparation to strike again, the man raised his hand to stop him. "Ok. That's enough, Naruto-kun!" Seeing the boy nod and relax his stance he continued with a smile. "My, you really have improved over the past six years. You probably could even be able to take on most lieutenants in a match of pure sword skill…" _'Although it takes more than sword skills to beat them.'_

Naruto grew a confused and frustrated look. "You always make comments like that. About 'Seated officers' and 'Captains' and whatever. But I don't know what you mean by that, Urahara!" It made no sense. Where was this guy from that even used a system like that? He hasn't heard of those positions used before. And wasn't he 'just a candy store owner?' Not that Naruto really believed that.

Urahara laughed. "Don't worry about it. Maybe when you are older I will tell you what they mean…" He quickly covered his smile with his fan again.

Naruto had long ago gained some immunity to Urahara and his antics. Although the man could still get under Naruto's skin if he really tried, something that small could be ignored. "Whatever." He sheathed his blade onto his back. "So, what do you think?" He asked.

Urahara had at some point turned his sword back into a cane. The man walked over with a smile. "Well, like I said, you have improved greatly. For someone as young as you are, you are extremely skilled with a blade. There is room for improvement of course, but you will." Naruto nodded and waited for him to continue. "Over the past six years, we have improved your speed, endurance, stamina, strength, and technique. Before, you didn't even have a proper battle stance, now you have one that is both comfortable for you and highly effective."

Naruto rubbed the back of his head in a sheepish manner. It wasn't that often Urahara remained serious this long and gave out so much praise in an honest manner. "The truly amazing thing is that you have somehow managed to balance out training your kenjutsu and training with your other shinobi skills. You are high up in your class, right?"

Naruto smiled and nodded. "Yeah. I'm at the top." It was then he gained a conflicted look. "I'm tied with my brother and sister."

Urahara instantly understood the problem. "How are you doing Naruto?" He asked softly. When Naruto gave a confused look, he continued. "I mean at home. You told me what was going on a while back. They still focusing on your siblings?" No need to elaborate on who he was referring to.

Naruto gave a tired sigh. "Yeah. But I'm used to it at this point. And it's fine. I mean, it's been going on like this for over half my life now. I'm used to it. I don't hate them…but I hesitate to say I love them. I'm more neutral than anything. Not hate, but not jumping at the chance to spend time with them either. I have other things to do, anyways…"

Urahara's expression was hidden behind his fan and shadowed face. But if it was visible, you would be able to see the frown that he has on his face. "I won't tell you it will get better…but remember you are always welcome here."

Naruto gave a small smile. Although he ticked him off on a ten minute basis, he was extremely glad to have met Urahara. He had become like family to Naruto. He wouldn't say he was a father figure…more like the annoying uncle who took care of you if you needed it.

And then there was Yoruichi…that cat acted like a mother for some reason. Yoruichi was extremely smart for a cat. Yoruichi often even took up the role of the one who made sure Naruto got plenty of rest and ate properly. This was done by a scratch to the face if Naruto didn't behave. And for some reason, those hurt _way_ more than they should.

Naruto's smile got a little bigger. Hikari and Yami also acted like older sisters to Naruto. Although Yami was the older sister that was annoying and talked too much…

Naruto snapped out of his thoughts as Urahara continued. "On to happier topics. You are graduating later this week, right?" A nod. "Well, you are definitely physically strong enough to take on the shinobi life. And I have seen you practice your ninjutsu down here as well. You have those three that you need to graduate down."

Naruto smiled. That was another thing he liked about Urahara. He was fine with Naruto using his training ground as needed. No need to use the public ones or the one at the Uzumaki-Namikaze household. Suddenly, Naruto felt a chill go up his spine. He was instantly on guard. Looking at Urahara, he found the source. The man had his smile hidden behind his fan, but the gleam in his eyes gave away his intent. "Then consider what I am about to tell you a test from me!"

Naruto gulped, but nodded nonetheless.

* * *

 **Uzumaki-Namikaze Household (Same Time)**

"Nii-chan!" A young voice called out. "Where are you?!" It called again. The owner of the voice was a young girl with shoulder length crimson hair and violet eyes. She wore black ANBU style pants and a blue shirt. She also had on blue shinobi sandals. Her face was impaired by the frown on it. "Where did he go? He is never home anymore." A sad look came about.

' _Not that I could really blame him…'_ She wasn't stupid. She had noticed there wasn't really much of a relationship going on between their parents and Naruto. She just didn't know the reason. Even the one between the triplets was strained between the youngest two and the oldest. A sigh escaped her lips. She had been trying to drag him out to spend time together but he was hardly ever home. And even when she did corner him, he said he had other things he had to do.

She could still remember a little on how it used to be when they were extremely young. The three of them were inseparable and their parents doted over all three of them. She really wanted it to go back to that, but she was starting to have her doubts that would ever really happen.

Narumi quickly shook her head. _'Don't think like that! You will help fix this!'_ With her determination renewed, Narumi continued her search of her brother.

* * *

 **Back at the Training Ground**

"WHAT?!" A resounding shout rang out throughout the training ground.

Urahara's fan would never be big enough to hide the massive grin on his face. A grin that Naruto was extremely tempted to punch until it was gone forever. And was Yoruichi actually smirking? How did that even happen with a cat? "You heard me. You will do it before your graduation exam. And you will do it how I told you to do it as well."

"Why the hell should I do it?! You are insane-ttebayo!"

"Ah, there is the cute verbal tic."

"Answer the damn question!"

Urahara began to fan himself. He had given up on trying to hide the grin on his face. "I told you, it is a test." He responded.

Naruto scowled. "How the hell is this a test? It sounds like you want to have some fun."

Urahara shook his head in an exaggerated manner. "Oh, you have so little faith in me, Naruto-chan! This will test a multitude of your skills, both shinobi and the physical ones I helped you with!"

Naruto didn't look like he was buying it. "Oh yeah?" A nod. "How so?"

The infuriating grin got bigger. "It will test your stealth! It will test your speed! It will test your cunning! It will test your drive! It will even test your creativity! Doesn't this sound like the ultimate way to test your skills?"

Naruto scowled even harder. "It even has the added benefit of providing you with immense entertainment, right?"

No hesitation was present. Urahara nodded. "That's the most important pa-" Wham! A punch to the face interrupted him.

Naruto glared at the writhing man on the floor. This was the normal routine with the two of them. The worst part about it was that Naruto wasn't sure if he liked it or not. On one hand, it was one of the most annoying things that Naruto had to deal with. On the other hand, Naruto enjoyed how laid back Urahara was at times and how he wasn't constantly serious. But he wouldn't say that out loud.

Ever.

"I'm not doing it." Naruto stated.

Urahara was up in an instant, fan covering his face and all. "Oh yes you are. If you don't then I will have to do something _truly_ drastic…" The gleam in his eyes was back. And this one scared Naruto a bit.

Naruto froze. Everything Urahara did was waved off with a smile. He always said that things could be worse. He never thought things were a big deal. If he was saying up front he would do something that _was_ extreme…it would probably be comparable to making the female population of the elemental nations attempt to kill Naruto to test his speed and stamina.

He did not want to face something like that.

He didn't really have a choice here…

' _Fuck…'_ Naruto sighed heavily. "Fine…I'll do it. What is the time limit?" He asked.

Urahara's smile grew. He couldn't see it, but he could just feel it! "The exam is in two days. You have to do it tomorrow. In the middle of the day."

Naruto grimaced. "That means I need to skip the academy…" That wasn't a problem, he has done it before…but he didn't want to get chewed out over something like this. "…Fine. I'll do it."

Urahara simply kept his infuriating smile going. "Great! I'll give you the supplies you will need. They are prepared for you in the back room." With that, he walked off towards the ladder.

Naruto turned to follow, but paused. "Wait…You already have the supplies prepared? You planned this!"

What a jackass.

* * *

 **Uzumaki-Namikaze Household (Later that Day)**

Naruto sighed while entering the house. It was now the end of the day and he was tired. He had on a backpack that held the supplies Urahara had given to him. He really wasn't looking forward to pulling off this test. "This is troublesome…"

"There you are!" Naruto nearly groaned outwardly as a compliment to the inward one. He turned to face his sister. "Where have you been?! You just disappeared after the academy let out!" She was really miffed about that. A lot of the time he just seemed to disappear at the first opportunity.

"I was meeting up with a friend." Was his reply. Could Urahara even be considered a friend? Sure, Naruto was willing to call him that. Was he willing to say it out loud to him? Probably not.

Narumi narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "Oh yeah? Who was it?" She questioned. This was one of his favorite excuses.

Naruto didn't miss a beat. "An older shinobi I know named Misa." He hoped that they wouldn't meet and give Narumi the chance to question this. But it could be true. They had stayed friends despite her having graduated two years ago.

Narumi's eyes widened a bit. "Misa? A girl? You have a girlfriend?" Why didn't she hear about this sooner? What if this girl wasn't good enough for her nii-chan?!

Naruto gave her a deadpan look. "Did I say she was my girlfriend? We are just friends."

Narumi calmed down when she heard this. She quickly grew embarrassed over the way she reacted. Rubbing the back of her head with a slight blush, she spoke up. "Hehehe…sorry about that." She hesitated. "Do you…wanna get something to eat after school tomorrow?" She really missed hanging around him.

Naruto paused. "I don't know if I can…I have something going on tomorrow…" He saw her deflate at his response. "But I will definitely try to make it." He finished with a small smile.

This caused Narumi to brighten. She quickly nodded. "I'll hold you to that-ttebane!" And with that, she raced off back to her room.

Naruto shook his head at this. He didn't give a definite answer. Only a maybe. _'Whatever.'_ Naruto had more important things to put his mind on. Like sleep.

Sleep was nice.

* * *

 **Academy (The Next Day)**

Narumi was frowning. Heavily. It was the next day, class was about to begin, and her older brother wasn't there! How could he just skip the academy? Sure he has done it a few times before, but that was with his friends. And they were all here, so it wasn't that. Unless he did it alone.

She felt someone nudge her side. Turning, she saw it was a girl who had long, pale blond hair in a high ponytail and blue eyes. She wore a purple vest that had a raised collar and matching apron skirt. She had bandages wrapped around her stomach and legs. On her arms were purple and white elbow warmers. This was Ino Yamanaka.

"Hey, where is Naruto-kun? The lazy bum Shikamaru is here, so it isn't one of those rare skip days…"

Narumi shook her head. "I have no idea. But it is really weird for him to skip and not have any of his friends with him…"

On the other side of her, Sakura Haruno spoke up. Sakura was a girl with bright pink hair and green eyes. She wore a red qipao dress with white circular designs. She also wore green shorts and standard shinobi sandals. "But it is weird. Your older brother isn't normally the first one to skip…that's more like Menma."

A similar conversation was going on in the back of the room.

"I can't believe Naruto skipped and didn't invite us!" The speaker was a boy with messy brown hair and black eyes that had slit-like pupils. His canine teeth were unusually pronounced, as were his nails. On his cheeks were red fang markings that gave him away as an Inuzuka. These traits gave him more of an animalistic look. He wore grey pants and a grey coat that had fur lining it and a hood. On his head was a small white dog. This was Kiba Inuzuka. "I mean, come on! We totally would have gone with him."

Next to him, Shikamaru sighed. "Troublesome…you are too loud." Shikamaru had changed his outfit to a green lined mesh t-shirt under a short sleeved grey jacket with green edges. On both of his sleeves and his back was a circle with a line through it. He also had on brown pants.

On the other side of Shikamaru, Chōji spoke up. "But it is weird…Usually, one of you two needs to convince Naruto to skip. He normally doesn't start it himself. And even then, alone?" Chōji had also changed his outfit from his younger days. He now wore black shorts, a long white scarf, and a short sleeve, green haori that was over a white shirt. On his shirt was the kanji for "food."

Figuring that he wouldn't be getting back to sleep anytime soon, Shikamaru sighed. "He probably is just running late. Or he had something come up." Although he said this, his small frown betrayed his confusion on the matter as well.

Kiba frowned. "He better. Otherwise he will hear it from me!" He raised a fist in the air.

The small dog on his head barked. "Arf!"

Kiba grinned at the dog. "I know you got my back, Akamaru. I didn't forget!"

Shikamaru snorted. "As if you can actually beat Naruto. How badly did he beat you in the last spar?" He smirked at the Inuzuka.

Kiba growled. "I nearly had him that time! If he wasn't so freaking fast…"

Chōji smiled at him. "You did do better than normal against Naruto Kiba, that's true. But there is a reason that Naruto is one of the strongest in the class, after all."

Kiba scowled in response. But before he could say anymore the door to the classroom opened. Two people walked in. The first was a man with dark brown hair that was in a ponytail and dark eyes. Across the bridge of his nose was a scar. He wore the standard Konoha shinobi outfit complete with the headband on his forehead. The only modification to his outfit was that he rolled his sleeves up about a fourth of the way. This was Iruka Umino.

The second was another man who had shoulder length white hair and green eyes. His outfit was the standard Konoha shinobi attire. His headband however, was worn like a bandanna. His name was Mizuki.

Iruka spoke to the class. "Everybody take a seat!" Nobody moved. He gained a tick mark. "I said…" His head grew to extreme proportions. "SHUT UP AND SIT DOWN, YOU STUPID BRATS!" This time the order was instantly followed. Iruka's heads reduced to normal size. "Good. As tomorrow is the graduation exam, we will take role and then review. Speak up when I call your name." With that he began to take role. It all was normal until he got further down the list.

* * *

 **Elsewhere (Same Time)**

' _Freaking Urahara…If I get out of this in one piece, I will kill him.'_

Naruto was extremely nervous about what he was about to attempt. He could seriously be in deep trouble at the end of this. Not to mention, if he didn't do this right, someone could seriously get hurt. Probably him…

He shook his head to clear these thoughts. _'Pull yourself together, Naruto! It's now or never. You got one shot! One opportunity! It will all come down to one moment! I'm gonna capture it! I won't let it slip!'_ With his determination renewed, Naruto readied himself for one of the dumbest ideas ever presented to him.

* * *

 **Back at the Classroom**

"Uchiha, Sasuke."

"Hn."

"Uzumaki-Namikaze, Menma." Menma had changed out of his previous outfit a while ago. He now wore something similar to what their father wears. He wore a blue outfit that was made up of blue shinobi pants and a blue shirt. Unlike Minato though, his shirt was short-sleeved. The Uzumaki swirl was on both of his shoulders.

"Right here!"

"Uzumaki-Namikaze, Narumi"

"Here!"

"Uzumaki-Namikaze, Naruto." No response. "Naruto?" Iruka looked up from his list. Scanning the room, he didn't see a head of blond and crimson hair. He sighed in an aggravated manner. "Stupid brat is skipping again…Wait." He scanned the room again. He saw Naruto's friends were here. "But the others are here? Did something actually hap-" BOOM!

There was suddenly a deafening boom resounding throughout the village. The explosion caused multiple students to scream or jump in fright. Iruka and Mizuki, acting on instinct, pulled out a kunai and leapt to the window to assess the situation.

They were expecting some kind of surprise enemy attack, not what they saw before them.

Iruka actually swore a bit. "What the fuck…"

* * *

The normally pristine, and slightly intimidating to foreign shinobi, Hokage monument was defiled. There was graffiti all over it. Hell, there were even fireworks flying above it! How did that happen?!

The first Hokage was painted to look like he was reading a copy of **Make Out Paradise** with a huge blush on his face and nosebleed.

The second was glaring at the first while there were markings ranging from spiral cheeks to a black eye all over his face.

The third Hokage had a pile of dung painted under his nose and his face was contorted in a way that made it look like he was actually smelling it!

The fourth Hokage had his own copy of the perverted book. His however was labeled as a limited edition and he was reacting more violently than the first Hokage. He had hearts for eyes and a big dopey grin on his face. There was an absolute _river_ of blood leaking from his nose and he had writing above his head. The writing was very clear from where they were. It clearly stated: "The closet pervert taught by the super pervert." That wasn't the weirdest part of it all though.

The paint actually made it look like they were sculpted that way! You couldn't tell that if you took away the paint, the expressions on their faces would change! How did that even work?!

* * *

Iruka paused as he heard something behind him. A snicker. Then a snort. Then all at once, a room full of laughing students. Even Shino looked like he was smirking behind his grey coat!

"Oh Kami! That is awesome!" Kiba was rolling around on the floor at the sight of the prestigious Hokage monument in such a state. He actually looked like he was having some trouble breathing.

Chōji was laughing nearby next to a snickering Shikamaru. This was actually the most active Shikamaru had looked since…well, ever.

Up at the front of the room, Menma was slamming his fist into the desk in his laughter.

Ino was in a fit of giggles. "Oh Kami! I can't believe someone did that! That's hilarious!" Her giggles grew. Sakura was having her own fit of giggles nearby.

Narumi however, was torn. She didn't know whether to laugh or be mad that someone did that to her father's face. In the end, she settled on smile. It _was_ pretty funny.

Iruka was furious. "Shut up! This isn't funny! When I find out who did this…" He stopped when he noticed something on top of the monument. It was… "A blob of orange?" Iruka muttered to himself. He walked over to the outdoor kits they have in the room for some survival exercises and took out a pair of binoculars. When he looked back, he was shocked at what he saw. "No way…"

* * *

 **On top of the Monument**

Naruto stood on top of the monument looking down at his work. Even if he didn't want to do it…he was a little proud that he managed to pull it off and not get noticed until he set off the fireworks. The only problem was the fallout and his outfit.

Naruto grimaced. Yes, his… _outfit._

Naruto was currently wearing an orange jumpsuit.

Yes. An _orange_ jumpsuit.

It was an orange jumpsuit with blue on the upper shoulder areas and around the waist. It had a white swirl with a tassel on the left side and a red Uzumaki swirl on the back. The collar was white and the pants were a matching orange. He also wore blue shinobi sandals and a pair of green goggles on his forehead.

Forget who would wear this. Who _even made_ this crap? Where could Urahara possibly have gotten this from?

Naruto had to be extremely careful as he executed his "test." It was difficult to not be spotted while wearing his outfit and deface a national monument at the same time. _'But I still managed to pull it off!'_

"NARUTO! YOU STUPID BRAT!" Naruto jumped at the voice. Looking over at the academy, he saw his teacher. Well, more like his enlarged head.

* * *

 **Back in the Classroom**

Iruka was sticking his head outside the window in order to yell at Naruto. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH TROUBLE YOU ARE IN?! YOU DAMN PUNK!"

"Bwahahahaha! Naruto did this?! He can skip without me all the time if he pulls off stuff like this!" It looks like Kiba has forgiven Naruto.

Shikamaru smirked over to a grinning Chōji. "Well, that was pretty troublesome to do. But it _is_ pretty funny."

On the other side of the room, Sakura and Ino was attempting to get their giggles under control. Ino looked over to Narumi. "Naruto-kun did that? That's awesome!"

Narumi was giggling along with them. While she was mad that happened to her father's face, knowing it was her brother lessened her anger greatly. "I had no idea he was going to do that! I mean, he said he had something going on today, but this?" They broke into new fits of laughter.

Iruka growled when he heard all of the laughter. When he gets his hands on that brat…

* * *

 **Hokage's Office**

Minato had on an impassive face as he stared up at the national monument of the village. But if you looked closely, you could see his eyebrow twitching in agitation. A snicker was heard behind him but it was quickly muffled. He turned to look at the other inhabitants of the room.

Before him was a large group of shinobi. It was a mixed group of chūnin and jōnin. These were the shinobi of his village. A large group of trained individuals who could barely hold back their smirks. Although a few of them looked slightly angered. When they saw him looking at them, the smirking ones quickly wiped their faces.

Minato gave his orders. "Find out who did this. Report back to me." They didn't move quickly enough for the yellow flash. "Go!" They quickly vacated the room to obey their orders.

The only ones who stayed behind were his wife and his student. Although he couldn't see his face, Minato knew Kakashi well enough that he was laughing hysterically in the inside. He was simply too composed to show it.

His wife held no such reservations.

"HAHAHAHA!" She even had the gall to point in his face. "That is hilarious! Oh Kami, whoever did that is a genius!"

Minato scowled. _It wasn't a pout._ "It isn't funny."

"It is pretty funny, brat." Turning towards the window, Minato saw his teacher sitting there.

"It really wasn't."

Kakashi sent an eye smile at his teacher. "Maa, sensei. I didn't know you were also a fan."

Minato frowned. "I'm _not._ And didn't you say years ago you would never become a fan?"

Kakashi shrugged. "My eyes have been opened to the true art that is **Make Out Paradise.** Jiraiya-sama, you are truly a genius." The silver haired man said.

The toad sage nodded with a grin. "I'm glad you can see that now." He turned back to his student. "You should pick up a copy some time, brat. I'll even sign it for you."

This did nothing to help Minato's mood.

* * *

 **Back with Naruto**

"Ok. Now here comes the second part of the test…" Naruto muttered to himself. He scowled when remembered what Urahara told him. _'Speed and endurance test my ass.'_ He would be sure to pay Urahara back for this.

It was then he saw multiple blurs coming towards him. It was time to start. _'Oh well. May as well have fun with it.'_ Naruto thought with a smirk. "Hahaha! You'll never be able to catch me, idiots! I'm too awesome for that!" _'Ugh. I sound like such a dobe…'_

 **Play Naruto OST- Go Go Naruto! Extended**

Naruto jumped off the monument to the nearby rooftop. The chase was on! Immediately, he was blocked off by a couple of chūnin. They must not have been taking him seriously.

Naruto kept running towards them without stopping, much to their surprise. When he got close, they lunged for him. Naruto flipped over the two morons and took out a small sealing scroll he had.

Opening and pointing it at the two of them, Naruto pulsed his chakra into the seal. Unknown projectiles came flying at the pair of chūnin! They were so surprised by an academy student dodging them and following up with an attack, they began to move a second too late. Splat!

The two chūnin were now covered in yellow and green paint.

Smirking all the while, Naruto continued on his way as the two chūnin could only look at one another in disbelief. Eventually, one of them spoke up.

"Izumo..."

"Yeah?"

"Did that really just happen?"

"…Yes, Kotetsu…it did."

The two stood there in silence for another few seconds. When they broke out of their stupor, they had one shared thought. "That damn brat!"

Now a few blocks away, Naruto was ducking through the dumb scores of chūnin that kept coming at him. Just because he was an academy student didn't mean they could lower their guards. Idiots.

Looking ahead, Naruto saw the street he was on led to more chūnin. Looking behind him, Naruto saw there were still more chūnin chasing after him. Looking around, Naruto recognized the area. With a smirk, he ducked into a nearby alley.

The shinobi after him chased after him into the alley. They saw him on the other side at the exit. Dashing forward, they never saw the tripwire set out for them. Splat!

More paint bombs had hit their mark.

' _Wow. If these are the chūnin of the village, then the genin must be absolutely abysmal…'_ As if Kami was reading his mind, a genin team appeared in front of Naruto. They looked like ones from the year above him.

The boy in the middle smirked. "If we can catch you when those chūnin couldn't, then we should be made into chūnin!" With this remark, he lunged.

Naruto could only look at him like he was an idiot. _'That's not how it works, moron.'_ His plan of attack was even slower than the chūnin's who had underestimated him had been. All thirty of them.

Deciding to have some more fun, Naruto leapt onto a nearby rooftop. He heard an outburst behind him demanding him to return. Like he actually would…

The genin team chased after him across the rooftops. It said something about how well Naruto has trained if he is able to outpace genin who graduated a year ago…Or maybe they just suck…

Then suddenly, Naruto did a 180! He charged right at the team of shocked genin. They were so surprised, they were unable to move. Naruto took his scroll back out and used it to paint the two boys. While passing, he winked at the girl. She immediately blushed at him. Running away, Naruto chuckled. That always worked…

Looking on the rooftop ahead of him, Naruto saw more chūnins. _'Well, at least the jōnins don't seem to deem me worthy enough to go after…'_ A bunch of chūnin idiots he could outrun for a while. He wasn't sure how long he could outrun jōnin and, Kami forbid, ANBU teams if they chose to get involved.

Naruto smirked again. But here's the thing…they _weren't_ involved. So Naruto didn't have to worry. Naruto refocused on the task at hand. This was a large group. _'Let's see how they do against_ that _trap…'_

* * *

 **Back in the Classroom**

Iruka was sorely tempted to go out there himself to chase down the little punk. But he knew how it worked, unless specifically called, he shouldn't leave his station.

Looking back at the classroom, he scowled. Most of the students were still snickering to themselves. He approached the group in the back. When they saw him approach, they quickly sobered up. He glared at them. "You _knew…"_

Kiba shook his head frantically. "No! No! We didn't, honest!" The other two boys nodded in agreement.

Iruka frowned. He liked to think he was pretty good at detecting lies from his students. He always believed what his gut was telling him. And this time… _'They really didn't know…'_ Boom!

Iruka's head swiveled to the window and he growled at what he saw. In the distance was a huge cloud of smoke. But it wasn't any smoke.

It was multicolored smoke.

 _Naruto_

Bang! The door to the classroom slammed open. Looking over, Iruka face palmed at what he saw. It was a chūnin who was _painted blue._ The class broke into new gales of laughter at the sight. Glaring fiercely at the students, the chūnin spoke up. "Iruka, Mizuki. Can you come help us catch the little brat? He has rigged the entire village with traps and is somehow outmaneuvering us." He actually looked embarrassed to admit it.

Iruka sighed, closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. _'When I get my hands on that brat…'_

* * *

 **Back with Naruto**

Naruto was laughing as he sped out of a training ground. That actually worked! He had amassed a huge group of people chasing him and led them to a training ground he had rigged with so many traps, they would be afraid to even breathe and set one off.

Getting back to the rooftops, Naruto paused and looked around. Nobody in sight. "Did I actually lose my pursuers?" That is awesome!

"Not a chance, brat." That would have been awesome. Looking behind him, Naruto saw something he was hoping he wouldn't. A jōnin.

Crap.

The jōnin was glaring fiercely at him. "You're coming with me, brat. You've had your fun, time to face the music." He made a swift grab for Naruto. But when he made contact, he went up in a puff of smoke! In Naruto's place was a log with a burning seal. The seal exploded.

And the area was covered in pink paint.

* * *

 **Nearby Rooftop**

"Wow. I can't believe that actually worked. I must have really been underestimated by this guy or something." If that had been a normal explosion, that jōnin would have been seriously hurt.

Looking around, Naruto didn't see anyone nearby. "I actually lost them this time? Awesome-ttebayo!"

" _Naruto…"_ Ah crap. Why did he keep jinxing himself? Looking behind him again, Naruto saw something that terrified him. An angry Iruka. "You stupid brat!" Naruto made a run for it.

He was caught immediately.

 **End Music**

* * *

 **Back in the Classroom**

Bang! The eyes of the students swiveled around as the door banged open again. They watched as an angry Iruka dragged into the room a tied up Naruto. A tied up Naruto wearing _an orange jumpsuit._

Kiba immediately spoke up. "Naruto, what the heck are you wearing?!" He demanded.

Naruto grimaced, but quickly hid it with a smirk. "This is the _bright orange_ jumpsuit I wore while I painted the monument without being seen." Kiba grinned when he heard that and Iruka scowled.

Most of the class was still smirking at the surprise entertainment they had received. Iruka on the other hand, was growling. "You punks! It wasn't funny!" He turned back to the blond on the floor and glared. "We were going to do some simple review exercises today, but I think that we'll now go over the three techniques required for graduation." Groans were heard throughout the room. This sound made Iruka smirk. "You can thank Naruto for that."

* * *

 **Hokage's Office**

Minato's eyebrow was twitching again at the sight in front of him. In front of him were the shinobi of his village. Only they were more…colorful than they had been earlier. There were all sorts of colors mixed into the mess before him.

And looks of shame.

Looking around, he noticed most of the jōnin were untouched. He was pretty sure they didn't even get involved. Minato supposed he could look at this as if that meant their instincts worked well enough to keep them out of danger and humiliation.

Minato took a deep breath. "Let me get this straight…Someone had climbed up the monument and decided to paint it. Is that right?" Nods throughout the room. "This someone wasn't even noticed until the fireworks went off." Nods again, but more hesitant. "…And this someone…was an academy student?" They were showing signs of nervousness now. "This academy student managed to outrun you until an _academy teacher_ got to him." He could practically _feel_ their unease. "Meanwhile, you were falling into traps throughout the village." No responses that time. "And to top it off…the student did all this while _wearing a kill me orange jumpsuit."_

Dead silence.

"…Just get out." Minato really didn't want to deal with this right then. This time, the order to leave was followed quickly enough for Minato. But he halted them. "Wait. Who was it?"

The embarrassed shinobi shared looks. Eventually one brave shinobi spoke up. "Um…It was…your son, sir."

This answer stunned Minato. "Menma? He did this?" A feeling of pride welled up at the fact his son actually pulled it off.

The shinobi shook his head. "No, sir. Your oldest son. Naruto."

The feeling of pride was instead replaced with a feeling of confusion. Naruto was able to do something like this? He frowned in thought. He let the shinobi go. Looking over to his wife and student, he saw that they were surprised to learn who had pulled off the prank. His teacher however, was busy ogling the female shinobi who were leaving the room.

He decided to just move things along. "Jiraiya-sensei…" He began, getting the man's attention. "…What did you come back to the village for?"

Immediately, the man grew serious. This alerted the other occupants of the room that this was going to be an important discussion. "My spy network has recently picked up on some activity coming from a worrisome group. Its name is the Akatsuki."

* * *

 **Academy (After School)**

Naruto trudged out of the school. He had been chewed out, just as he expected, repeatedly throughout the day. He wasn't even allowed to eat lunch as Iruka was busy yelling at him. His classmates on the other hand kept on congratulating him as if he had just been named Hokage or something. Looking at the monument, he could see some genin teams up there cleaning it. No doubt cursing his name.

"Nii-chan! Wait up!" Turning around, Naruto saw Narumi run up to him. She had a smile on her face. "That was so awesome! I don't think I could have pulled something like that off." She grinned even more. "Are you still up for getting something to eat?" She asked him.

Naruto smiled and was half way through nodding his head when he heard something. "Hey, it's that brat with all the paint." Naruto instantly froze. Turning, he saw a couple of nearby shinobi who were still colorful. And they were all glaring at him.

Quickly acting, Naruto spoke up. "Sorry Narumi, gotta go!" With that, he sped off.

"Wait!" But it was no use. He was already gone. Pouting to herself, Narumi glared at the shinobi, her hair raising a bit. Seeing a mini habanero glaring at them, they quickly paled and looked away.

* * *

 **Urahara Shop**

Naruto had immediately vacated the area and fled to the Urahara shop upon feeling the killing intents from the nearby shinobi. He did _not_ want to be there when their tempers exploded.

Entering the shop, Naruto looked around for Urahara. He didn't see him nearby, so he determined that he was in the back. Heading for the backroom, Naruto indeed found him and Yoruichi in there.

Naruto glared at the man. "I did your stupid test. I managed to paint the monument and didn't get noticed until the fireworks went off. Then I outran the shinobi who came after me for a good amount of time." He reported. Urahara just looked at him with the bottom half of his face covered by his fan again. Then suddenly, he turned and crouched next to Yoruichi. He began whispering to Yoruichi, but loud enough for Naruto to hear.

"Yoruichi! What do we do?! I was just joking, but he took it seriously!" He glanced back at Naruto. "N-no choice then. I'll go with it as if I was serious."

Naruto was shaking with rage. Slowly, he unsealed his sword, ready to kill the moron in front of him. "I can hear you-ttebayo…"

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 11!**

 **We're in canon! Finally! I really did feel like the pre-canon stuff was starting to drag on.**

 **For those who didn't notice, Naruto was wearing the canon outfit.**

 **Props to those who got the small Fairy Tail reference at the end. That is also one of my favorites.**

 **Urahara will always be one of my favorite characters ever. For the simple fact that pulling shit like that is actually relatively close to his character, if not** _ **dead on**_ **his character.**

 **Next chapter will be graduation test and whatever else I fit in there.**

 **Is the correct usage "canon" or "cannon?" I think I put cannon last chapter, but I may have been wrong.**

 **I also changed the summary from that cringe worthy thing it was before.**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	12. Heart Of The Matter

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 12!**

 **This chapter was much longer than I expected. But I wanted to keep it all in one chapter instead of splitting it up. So new word count record!**

 **Ok, got it. Canon it is.**

 **And why didn't anyone call me out on that typo in the summary?**

* * *

 **Plums: Well, it's true that I'm following along canon for now, but I don't plan to keep it up forever. I have some idea when I want to create major plot changes, but we aren't there yet. And what do you want him to do? Just leave? I only stated he has no ties to his parents. That's it. I indicated there is still a relationship with his siblings, however strained, and he still has other people he cares about. And I won't deny it. I totally used the Akatsuki to change the subject. I already know when I want to start getting them to notice Naruto. It's semi-soon, but not now.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the Story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else, I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Diety Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Diety Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

* * *

 **Konoha Streets (The Next Day)**

It was the day after Urahara got Naruto to pull that idiotic stunt and Naruto was now on his way to the academy to take the graduation exam. He had woken up early and spent some time walking around the village to clear his mind. Looking back on the day before, Naruto was pained to admit that it did actually prove to be a useful test of his physical skills. He, a soon to be genin, managed to outrun the chūnin of the village. Iruka didn't count, he was like some kind of ANBU and chūnin hybrid.

As he walked down the street, Naruto glanced up at the Hokage monument. It looked like the genin teams worked hard the day before because all of the paint was gone already. Naruto had also gone home and changed out of the orange jumpsuit as soon as he could. He was now back in his black cargo pants and white hoodie.

Going back to his thoughts, Naruto reflected back on the beating he gave Urahara afterwards. He honestly couldn't tell if the man had been serious about joking, as much as an oxymoron that was. Naruto mentally shrugged. Even if he _had_ been joking, Naruto wouldn't feel bad about any amount of pain he inflicted on him. Not now, and not ever.

"Hey, Naruto!" A shout from nearby pulled him from his thoughts. Looking over, he smiled at who he saw.

"Hey, Misa." Naruto replied.

Misa wore much of the same color scheme as she wore a few years ago. Her shirt was now a long sleeve blue one that instead of having the leaf symbol on the front, had it on each of the shoulders. She switched out her shorts for ANBU style black pants. On her thigh was a kunai holder. She still wore the typical blue shinobi sandals and on her forehead was a leaf headband.

She jogged up to him. "So, I hear you were busy yesterday." She began with a smirk.

Naruto quickly averted his gaze and rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish smile. "You heard about that?" He asked.

Her smirk grew a bit. "I doubt there is anyone in the village who _hasn't_ heard about it by now. Or at the very least, nobody who didn't see the Hokage monument yesterday. Especially with all the fireworks." Naruto squirmed a bit. "And let us not forget all of the colorful chūnin walking around yesterday muttering about 'stupid punks.'" She crossed her arms. "It only took a bit of digging through the rumor mills to hear exactly who had pulled off what is apparently the greatest prank of the decade." She finished.

Naruto sighed. "Yeah, I sort of regret doing it…but it _was_ a little fun." He smiled a bit as he remembered all of the pissed off chūnin. It was at that moment a chūnin walked by the two of them, all the while glaring at Naruto. Naruto, seeing this, only looked away. Hey, if they could be outran and outsmarted by an academy student, then they needed something like this to let them know they need more training.

Misa smiled. "I'll bet it was fun. But why did you do it?" She questioned him. It didn't really seem like something Naruto would do for the hell of it.

Naruto grimaced. "It was a sort of…test. I wanted to see if I could pull it off and how long I could make it before I got caught." He answered her.

Misa quirked an eyebrow. "A test?" It was then that she remembered something. "Oh yeah, you have the graduation exam today, don't you? Was this kind of to check to see how you do against more experienced shinobi? That's why you decided to do it?"

Naruto, not wanting to tell her that it was assigned by Urahara, nodded his head. "Yeah. I feel confident that I will pass the graduation exam, but I still wanted to see where I stand from actually being able to do something." He smirked. "I'd say I managed pretty well, don't you think?"

Misa reciprocated the smirk. "I would have to agree, if you managed to outrun those chūnin for a while and get them to fall into your traps, you will do fine."

Naruto smiled and nodded. It was at this point that he had a thought. "Hey, Misa…" He began. "Any chance you can tell me what to expect on the exam? Like what areas were covered on it? Iruka-sensei gave us a general outline, but is there anything I should be careful of? It doesn't change that much from year to year, right?" He asked her.

Misa's response was to shake her head. "Sorry, Naruto. No can do. I don't want to spoil the surprise for you." She said.

Naruto shook his head with a smile and a sigh. "I wasn't really expecting anything, but it was worth a shot." He said.

It was at this point that she looked at her watch. "I gotta run. I didn't have much time to talk. My team has a mission today." Turning to leave, she waved at him. "Good luck on the graduation exam!"

Naruto smiled and waved back. "Thanks. Good luck on your mission." She nodded and walked away.

* * *

 **Academy**

After parting ways with Misa, Naruto continued on his way to the academy. Upon reaching the academy, Naruto headed to the classroom and entered. Looking around, Naruto saw that Shikamaru and Chōji were already sitting in the back of the room.

Naruto smiled and walked over to the two of them. "Hey, guys." The two of them looked up at him. Shikamaru lazily nodded while Chōji smiled at him.

"Morning, Naruto." The Akimichi replied.

Naruto looked over to Shikamaru. When he didn't receive a response, he smirked a kicked his chair. Shikamaru, who had by now place his head on the table to sleep, jumped as he was startled. Quickly deducing what had happened, the Nara glared at Naruto.

After a few moments, Shikamaru sighed again. "You're too troublesome…"

Naruto simply grinned unrepentantly. "Well, maybe if you actually stayed awake longer than a few minutes, I wouldn't do that." Shikamaru chose to mutter a few choice words to himself instead of replying. "So, you guys ready for today?" He asked them.

Chōji smiled. "I feel good about it. I mean, I doubt I will score the highest, but I know I will pass."

Naruto nodded and looked over to his other friend. Shikamaru has known Naruto long enough to know that he won't simply allow Shikamaru to sleep. So, with a long suffering sigh, Shikamaru responded. "I don't know. Well enough…" Naruto sweat dropped. What a typical Shikamaru reply.

"What about you, Naruto?" Chōji asked him.

Naruto looked back over to him. "Me? I feel confident about it. I mean, I know I will at least pass. And I've seen how the people at the bottom of the class do. I'm not nearly that bad." He contemplated things, before a dark look appeared on his face. "And then there are the fangirls…"

Chōji and Shikamaru immediately copied the dark look on his face. "The fangirls…" They said together. After a few moments, the three of them shivered.

Naruto continued. "I could never be _that_ bad."

Shaking off his disgust, Shikamaru smirked over at the partial blond. "What's the matter, Naruto? Don't like your fans?"

Naruto's reaction was instantaneous. He gagged and seemed to be choking on air. When he recovered, he glared at Shikamaru. "Don't joke about that. That is way past crossing the line, Shikamaru."

Hearing this, Shikamaru took on a thoughtful look. After a moment, he grimaced and nodded. "You're right. Sorry." That was going too far.

It was at this point that Kiba entered the room. Seeing his friends over in the back of the room, Kiba walked over to them. A borderline feral grin plastered on his face. "Hey, guys! We're totally gonna rock this!" He shouted.

Shikamaru sighed to himself. "Another troublesome person has come…"

Hearing this, Kiba glared at the lazy boy. "What was that? You wanna start something?" He questioned angrily. Akamaru backed Kiba up with a few barks. Shikamaru merely grunted in return. Kiba opened his mouth to argue some more, but was interrupted when Iruka and Mizuki entered the room.

"Quiet down and take your seats! It's time to take the final exam!" While he would have been ignored normally, the students were anxious about the test and were less rebellious than normal.

As he headed for a nearby seat, Naruto looked around. The room had filled up with the rest of the class when he wasn't paying attention. He didn't even notice when his siblings got there. Hearing Iruka clear his throat, Naruto looked forward towards the front of the room.

Seeing that he had the attention of the room, Iruka began speaking. "Welcome to your final day of the academy. Hopefully, after today you will be a full-fledged shinobi of the village. There are four portions to the exam. The written portion, the taijutsu portion, the kunai and shuriken portion, and the ninjutsu portion. It will be in that order. For the ninjutsu test, you will have to execute the **Substitution Jutsu,** the **Transformation Jutsu,** and create at least three clones using the **Clone Technique.** "

' _This shouldn't be a problem…'_ Naruto thought to himself. He already knew how to use those three techniques and he wasn't even that nervous about the physical portions of the exam. The only potential problem were the clones. He could do it, but it would still require some concentration on his part. While he wasn't a jinchuriki like his siblings, he was still part Uzumaki. And Uzumakis have large chakra pools. He tuned back into the world when Iruka began to speak again.

Handing a pile of papers to Mizuki, Iruka started to speak. "We're going to pass out the written portion now. You will have two hours to complete it. It will only cover things we have already gone over. Good luck." With that, the tests were passed out.

When he got his test, Naruto looked down at it. _'What are the five chakra natures?'_ He read. After a moment, he sighed quietly to himself. _'Why was I even worried about this? Looking at these questions…that was a stupid thing to do.'_ With another sigh, Naruto got to work.

* * *

 **2 Hours Later**

"Time is up!" The sound of Iruka's voice woke Naruto from his nap. Next to him, he could tell that Shikamaru was also waking up from his slumber. Rubbing his eyes to get rid of the drowsiness, Naruto looked to the front of the room. Iruka began to speak again. "We will now go outside to take the taijutsu portion of the test. Follow Mizuki-sensei out please."

Mizuki nodded. "Alright, let's get going." With that, he led them to the outdoor training ground while Iruka collected the tests. Once they got outside, Mizuki turned to face the large group of students in front of him. "Ok. Welcome to the taijutsu portion of the exam. To pass, all you must do is last five minutes with me in the ring. An alternative to this method of passing is to land a hit on me. But this method is harder to accomplish." Some of the students grew uneasy at this. Picking up on this fact, Mizuki continued. "I won't be going all out on you, I will tone it down a bit."

Iruka soon joined them. "When I call your name, step into the ring." He said. Looking down at his clipboard, he called the first name. "Aburame, Shino."

At this point, Naruto figured he had a little while to wait before it was his turn. So he chose to walk over to the wall of the academy and sit down against it. He allowed his mind to wander on how his training had been going recently.

His kenjutsu was advanced, especially for someone his age, but he knew it would be bad to only rely on that in a fight. What if he was against someone who had years more of experience with swords?

Naruto had also managed to improve his magic capabilities from the abysmal attempts he had done before. While he wasn't extremely skilled with magic, he was passable. At least, that is what Hikari told him last time he was in the Station of Awakening. He also recently gained the ability to cast magic with his hands.

He frowned at the next thought that crossed his mind. The **Corridor of Darkness.** He has improved in its usage. Significantly. But it still tired him out when he used it. Right now, Naruto could probably cross the entire village with it, but it would tire him out so much he would be gasping for breath and unable to fight when he came out. He also needed to improve his speed when he made it. He currently took too long to create one. At the moment, it wasn't very fit for battle, whether he wanted to use it to escape or get close to his opponent. He eventually wanted to get to that point.

"Oh, wow!" Naruto looked up when he heard exclamations of awe and surprise from the crowd of students. Looking in the ring, he saw Mizuki with a shocked look on his face in front of a smug looking Sasuke. Mizuki was also cupping his cheek. Looking at this scene, Naruto could easily guess what had happened.

' _The Uchiha must have actually managed to land a hit on Mizuki-sensei…That's impressive for an academy student.'_ Naruto thought to himself.

Mizuki quickly shook off his surprise. "Well done, Sasuke. That really caught me by surprise. Needless to say, you pass this portion of the exam…" He said.

Sasuke had a smirk on his face as he walked away. The smirk quickly turned into a scowl though when he heard cheering from his fangirls. Naruto sympathized with the chronic brooder.

Fangirls were a terrible thing that should never have come into being.

"Uzumaki-Namikaze, Menma." Iruka's call brought Naruto's attention back onto the ring. His brother stepped into the ring with an air of confidence about him. Naruto sighed when he saw this. He was slightly worried that he would become arrogant in the future. It wasn't a problem now, but it could be. When he saw that both Mizuki and Menma were ready, Iruka started the match. "Begin!"

Immediately, Menma rushed for Mizuki. He threw a punch at the teacher which was easily blocked, but Menma used this to go for the opening that appeared on Mizuki's side. Mizuki had to jump back in order to avoid it, but he quickly rushed back in to engage Menma in a fast paced battle. Naruto noted that Menma's style revolved around getting in hits whenever he could by using speed and power. This went on for about a minute until Menma feinted going for a kick to Mizuki's side when he was actually using the moment to vault over him and land a hit on his back.

Seeing that a hit had landed on Mizuki, Iruka called the match. "That's the end! Menma landed a hit, so he passes this portion of the exam!" Hearing this, the two of them disengaged and broke away from one another. With a small smirk on his face, Menma walked over to his friends who congratulated him with words of praise and pats on the back. Iruka called out the next person to the ring. "Uzumaki-Namikaze, Narumi!"

From where she sat with her friends, Narumi nodded in a determined manner and stood up. Smiling when she heard her friends call out for her to win it, she strode into the ring. Seeing that that both Narumi and Mizuki were ready, Iruka called the match. "Begin!"

Nobody moved at first. Mizuki had so far always given the student the chance to attack first, and most of them had taken it. But it looked like Narumi would rather keep her distance from the teacher. After about thirty seconds passed and no movement from her, Mizuki was the one to initiate the battle by rushing her and going for a kick to her side.

Narumi dodged this by jumping back, but she was forced to duck when a punch came at her next. From where he sat, Naruto was able to see that his sister fought by using her natural flexibility to dodge her opponent's strikes. When a punch came at her, she bent out of the way. When there was something that she couldn't simply bend to avoid, she leapt out of the way.

The next four and a half minutes were spent with Narumi expertly dodging everything that was thrown at her. Unlike their brother who preferred to attack, Narumi would rather dodge and wait for time to run out. Eventually, that is exactly what happened. Iruka soon call out to end the match. "Time! Five minutes have passed, so Narumi passes this portion of the exam." Narumi smiled and walked back over to her friends. He looked back at his list, although he already knew who was next. "Uzumaki-Namikaze, Naruto!"

Naruto stood up from his position against the wall and walked over to the ring. As he passed, Shikamaru, Chōji, and Kiba wished him good luck. He flashed them a grin in return. He stepped into the ring and looked at Mizuki. He frowned at what he saw. Before now, Mizuki had seemed friendly and semi-nice to all the students. But the moment he looked at Naruto, his smile seemed more strained and his eyes seemed to darken.

Naruto shook his head to clear it of these thoughts as he dismissed them as his imagination. Looking over to Iruka, he nodded his head to show that he was ready. Iruka nodded in return and began the match. "Begin!"

Immediately, Mizuki rushed at Naruto. This surprised Naruto for multiple reasons. The first was that before now, Mizuki always allowed a little time for the student to begin the match. The second was that he was moving at a faster speed than he had before. The last was that Naruto was now _sure_ that dark look in his eyes wasn't his imagination.

Naruto had all of a split second to roll out of the way of the punch. He came up behind Mizuki and he sent a kick to the chūnin's back. Mizuki sidestepped his kick and spun around with a kick of his own. Naruto saw this and jumped into the air and over the appendage. Mizuki took this chance to send a punch at Naruto who had to cross his arms to block.

Naruto was sent back a few feet, but was still in the ring. He was surprised at the amount of force that was behind that punch. Urahara punched harder, but it was still surprising to feel how much power Mizuki put behind that strike.

Naruto was forced to abandon this thought as Mizuki rushed him again. Naruto, deciding that he should end the match quickly and not give Mizuki a chance to deal too much damage, waited for the last moment to dodge the punch that was sent at him.

Moving faster than before, Naruto jumped into the air and over Mizuki. As he passed, he lashed out with a swift kick that sent the chūnin teacher over to the side of the ring. Naruto landed soon after and spun around, ready in case Mizuki didn't want to end the fight.

He needn't have worried however as Iruka called that the match had ended. "That's the end! Naruto landed a hit, therefore passing this portion of the exam." Iruka said all of this while giving Mizuki a questioning look. When the man shook his head in return, Iruka frowned darkly at him but didn't pursue it any further.

Naruto sighed and allowed himself to drop out of his battle stance. Looking around, he noted the surprised expressions of his classmates. No doubt from how quick that battle was and how fast the two of them had moved.

Shaking his head, Naruto walked back over to his spot on the wall. While he was walking over, Shikamaru caught his eye. When he saw that he had caught his attention, the Nara raised an eyebrow. Naruto shrugged his shoulders and shook his head in response. Seeing this, Shikamaru frowned and nodded, glancing over to Mizuki as he did so.

Making it back over to his spot, Naruto sat down as he waited for the other people in the class to finish their turns. He thought over what had just happened. _'I'm sure that Mizuki was harder on me than he had been on anyone else. And then there was that look he gave me…'_ Deciding that he wouldn't let his guard down around the chūnin, Naruto got comfortable for the rest of the matches.

Eventually, all of the students had finished their test and they relocated over to the nearby area set up for target practice. Once everyone had made it over, Iruka spoke up. "The next portion of the exam is the kunai and shuriken portion. You will be given ten kunai and ten shuriken. To pass, at least fourteen total hits must be made on the target. You may return to the classroom to await the final portion of the exam when you are finished with your turn." Seeing that nobody had anything to say, Iruka began calling names.

Using the chance, Naruto immersed himself in his thoughts once more. He was wondering who would be put on his team. He felt fairly confident that he could work well with most of the people in his class. He would like to get paired with Shikamaru and Chōji, but knew that wouldn't happen. _'Not only are we missing a kunoichi, who they have on every team nowadays, there is no way they would pass up on the chance of a second Ino-shika-cho team…'_

Naruto was soon pulled out of his thoughts as he heard his name get called by Iruka. "Uzumaki-Namikaze, Naruto." Looking around Naruto noted that most of the class had already returned to the classroom. Deciding he wanted to do the same, he made his way over to where the targets were.

Once he made it over, he was given ten kunai. Looking over at the target, he measured the distance and let them fly. It took three throws to get rid of them all as he knew that while he could probably throw more at once, he would lose accuracy. Iruka nodded at the results. "Nine out of ten? Impressive." He noted the score and motioned for him to do the shuriken next.

Naruto took the offered shuriken and then threw them at the target. This time, he only needed to take two throws. Iruka was pleased with the results. "Another nine? Very nice. You just took the lead from Sasuke for the target portion." Naruto smiled as he heard this. Thanking Iruka, he moved back to the classroom.

Once he made it there, he saw that his friends were over by their usual seats. He made it over to them and they spent the next fifteen minutes talking about the test and how it had been going for each of them. Or in Shikamaru's case, grumbling on his lack of sleep.

Soon, Iruka and Mizuki entered the room and silence followed them. Clearing his throat, Iruka addressed the class. "Congratulations on making it this far. Welcome to the final part of the graduation exam and your final moments as an academy student." He smiled slightly as excited chattering broke out throughout the room. "We will call you in, one by one, to the next room over where you will have to perform the three jutsus required for graduation. Once you are done, we will tell you whether or not you passed and you may leave. We will now begin calling people in."

Naruto zoned out of the world once again. It was both a good and bad thing to have a last name that started with a U. It allowed him some time to think, but sometimes he would have rather got it over with quicker. But he knew there wasn't much use, he was an Uzumaki-Namikaze. And unless he changed his last name, it would stay that way.

A small frown came upon his face when that thought crossed his mind. He was an Uzumaki-Namikaze, but he sometimes wondered if he should keep it that way. He wasn't attached to his parents, but he didn't want to completely cut ties with his siblings. Sure, their relationship was strained, but at least they tried to spend time with him.

Not wishing to keep his mind on such thoughts, Naruto changed his course of thinking onto other things. Like what he wanted to do after he was out of here. Perhaps a nap. He liked those…

"Uzumaki-Namikaze, Naruto." Naruto looked over when he heard his name get called. Getting up, he walked over to the door and followed Iruka over to the next room. When they reached the room, Iruka sat behind a table next to Mizuki. When he saw that Naruto was ready, he spoke up. "Ok, Naruto. First, can you please substitute yourself with that chair?" He pointed off to the side.

Looking to see where he was pointing, Naruto saw a chair a few feet away. Nodding, Naruto did the necessary hand seals. His form was soon shrouded in a cloud of smoke. When it cleared, the chair was in his place and Naruto was standing a few feet away.

Iruka nodded with a smile and noted down the score on his paper. "Very good. Next, please transform into me."

With a nod, Naruto did just that. " **Transform!** " With another cloud of smoke, an identical Iruka was now standing in front of them.

Iruka took a moment to inspect his doppelganger. He was looking for any mistakes or irregularities. When he couldn't find any, the smile returned. "That's perfect. Lastly, please create at least three clones." Naruto returned to his original form.

' _Thank Kami he said_ at least _three clones. I doubt I could actually get it down to three…My control isn't_ that _good.'_ Naruto performed the necessary seals, causing eight clouds of smoke to appear around him. When it dissipated, there were nine Narutos in the room.

Iruka and Mizuki both raised their eyebrows. "Normal clones?" Iruka questioned. "Both of your siblings used **Shadow Clones**."

Naruto frowned. "Our parents taught them the **Shadow Clone Jutsu** because they had too much chakra to do the normal version. They have the Kyūbi chakra while I have the soul, so they have more trouble than I do." He said.

Iruka nodded in understanding. Mizuki on the other hand, had the dark look return to his face. Naruto saw this and wondered what his problem was. Although, considering the topic of discussion, it wasn't too hard to figure it out.

Naruto looked back over to Iruka when he began to speak again. "Regardless, you have passed the graduation exam with flying colors, congratulations!" Iruka grinned as he handed Naruto a Konoha headband. Naruto felt a rush of satisfaction as he heard this. "You have done so well throughout the year that you have graduated as the rookie of the year, well done." Naruto grinned in response.

Iruka soon continued. "You will need to return here in a week in order to move onto the next step."

This confused Naruto. "Step? Is there more I need to do?" Wasn't this the graduation test? Isn't that why he got the headband now?

Iruka only grinned wryly as a response. "You'll see. Now then, you're excused, see you next week."

Hearing the dismissal, Naruto bowed to the two of them and left. As he headed out, he tied his headband to his head, opting to wear it in the typical manner. As he headed out however, he was stopped as he heard someone call out to him.

"Hey, Naruto! Wait up a second." Turning around, Naruto nearly frowned when he saw it was Mizuki that had stopped him. But he was able to hold himself from showing his reaction.

Instead, Naruto tilted his head to the side. "Mizuki-sensei? Aren't you helping out with the remaining students?"

Mizuki grinned at him, although Naruto was able to tell it was a fake one. "There was actually one more thing we were meant to tell you. Did you know there is an extra exam that the rookie of the year is able to take?"

' _Bullshit.'_ Naruto thought inwardly. On the outside though, he widened his eyes and tilted his head. "There is? I never heard about that." He didn't know what the man wanted, but he would play along for now.

Mizuki nodded his head. "Then I guess we do a good job of keeping it a secret then, huh? Anyways, this test gives the rookie of the year the chance to get a specialized apprenticeship with jōnin throughout the village. If you are able to prove yourself and pass the test, you will be trained by the elite shinobi of the village!" He gestured his hands in an exaggerated way.

' _How stupid does this guy think I am?'_ Naruto grinned. "That sounds awesome! What do I have to do?" _'Watch him tell me I need to become a missing-nin or something.'_

Mizuki smirked. Was this kid really this stupid? "All you need to do is break into the Hokage tower and retrieve the specified item without getting caught."

' _Did I call that or what?'_ Naruto frowned. "Sounds tough…What is the item?"

Mizuki nodded. "It is meant to be tough. That is why we only give it to the rookie of the year. And the item you need to retrieve is the Scroll of Seals."

Naruto's brain actually faltered for a moment when he heard this. _'Is this guy really trying to convince me that stealing the_ Scroll of Seals _is a test? The only thing I would be testing is how long I can withstand torture from the TI division.'_ Naruto wasn't giving away any of these thoughts, though. "Is that all? I've got this in the bag!

Mizuki grinned maliciously. _'Wow, this kid really is stupid!'_ "That's good. Steal it before midnight tonight and meet me in the location where we had the camping survival exercise last month. And be sure to keep it a secret!"

Naruto grinned and nodded. "You got it! I'll meet you there tonight!" With that, Naruto ran off.

Mizuki smirked when he saw this. "What an idiot…"

* * *

 **Streets of Konoha**

"What an idiot…" Naruto muttered to himself. As if anyone was really that dumb! Everybody knew that scroll was forbidden. It would be suicide to steal it.

Naruto shook his head and thought about his options. He could report Mizuki, but the bastard would probably deny the entire thing. Naruto wanted him to get caught. But that would mean Naruto would have to do something nearly as stupid as the prank Urahara had him pull the day before.

With a heavy sigh, Naruto came to the conclusion of what he needed to do. _'I guess I_ am _dumb enough to do this…'_ Naruto shook his head and went home. He had a few hours left before he needed to do it.

And he really wanted that nap.

* * *

 **Station of Awakening**

Naruto opened his eyes and looked around. He was back in the Station of Awakening.

"Naruto-kun." He turned around when he heard his name get called. He smiled when he saw Hikari standing there. "We wanted to congratulate you on graduating."

Naruto smiled. But after a moment, he paused. "Wait. 'We?'" He questioned. But before he could look around for Hikari's counterpart, he felt someone sling an arm around his shoulders and pull him into a noogie.

"Yeah! I'm here too, you know!" Yami's voice appeared right next to him. Although Naruto didn't need to hear her to know who was annoying him. Naruto pushed Yami off and glared at her. She retaliated by sticking out her tongue at him.

Before an argument could break out, _again,_ Hikari spoke up. "Stop it, you two. I don't want to deal with this right now. Do it when you have some one on one training and I'm not here."

Naruto glared at Yami a moment longer before looking away. "Anyways, thanks. The test was easy and I managed to graduate as the rookie of the year." He boasted slightly.

Yami raised an eyebrow when she heard this. "That's cool and all…but what does that get you?" She asked him.

Naruto shrugged. "Nothing, really. Pretty much just some bragging rights." It was then that he remembered his earlier conversation with Mizuki. "But get this, my teacher came to me with an 'extra exam.'" He said.

* * *

 **A Few Minutes Later**

"Then I'm supposed to bring the scroll to the forest we went to as a class last month. Isn't the entire thing just extremely stupid?" Naruto had just finished telling them everything that Mizuki had told him he needed to do.

Hikari shook her head. "What a foolish man. Nobody would actually fall for such an obvious trick." She paused. "And you actually plan to steal it?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah. I'm going to leave my scent all over though so I can be tracked. I will also be leaving some kind of alarm to get people to come and discover the scroll had been taken. This way, Mizuki can be caught in the act."

Yami grinned maliciously. "You know what this means?" The other two looked over to her in a confused manner. "It means that you get some time with that scroll to yourself! All those techniques in there! You should totally learn as many as you can!"

The other two sighed at her. Eventually, Naruto spoke up. "No. Not only do I doubt that I have enough time to learn anything too complicated, but I also have no interest to learn whatever is in there." He paused. "But…the **Shadow Clone Jutsu** is in there too, I bet. That could be useful for training…" He mulled the thought over in his mind for a bit. Eventually, he nodded. "I'll learn the **Shadow Clone Jutsu,** but nothing more."

Yami pouted at this. "What a waste. All those techniques and you choose clones?" She shook her head.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "I don't want to learn any of them. I have enough tricks in my arsenal." Yami thought about it for a moment. It was true, He had twilight, light, darkness, magic, jutsu, his sword, _and_ his keyblade. He had enough… _for now._

After coming to this conclusion, Yami smirked at him. "Well anyways…" She snapped her fingers, causing the area to transform back into the training ground. "…You have a couple hours to kill." Her smirk turned dark. "And I want to see how much you've improved." Hearing this, Hikari shook her head and walked off to a safer location. Naruto on the other hand, groaned.

He just wanted to sleep.

* * *

 **Hokage Tower (That Night)**

Naruto was now standing on a nearby rooftop outside of the Hokage tower, about to pull of his second dumbest stunt that he has done.

Nothing would ever beat how stupid that crap from yesterday was.

Sighing, Naruto contemplated how he was going to do this. There was no way he could simply stroll in there, take the scroll, and leave. There were bound to be ANBU guards or something guarding the entire place. He would get caught _long_ before he even made it to the scroll. That meant…

With a resigned sigh, Naruto thought inwardly. _'Hikari, Yami, I need some protection for a bit. I want to use the_ _ **Corridor of Darkness**_ _to pull this off.'_ He waited for a few moments. Eventually, he felt something like a wave wash over him. He knew that this meant he was now protected from the darkness. He should have around fifteen minutes before it wears off.

Nodding to himself, Naruto closed his eyes and concentrated. After a few seconds passed, he opened his eyes again. A corridor had opened up before him. Naruto smirked. He would like to see them stop _this_ kind of intrusion.

Putting on his hood, Naruto entered the corridor.

* * *

 **Scroll Vault**

Naruto reappeared in the middle of the scroll vault. Once he was inside, he took stock of how much energy he had left. He was slightly winded, but nothing much. A minute of rest should fix him right up if he really needed it to.

Deciding to continue with the "mission," Naruto began to look around for the scroll. He saw all kinds of scrolls in there. They ranged from jutsu to katas to important documents. He noted some that caught his interest, but he didn't have time to stick around. Not only was he running the risk of getting caught, he also needed to leave before the enchantment on his clothes wore off. Hikari and Yami couldn't cast it repeatedly, and he had yet to learn it.

While he looked around, Naruto left his scent on several items. He needed to let people be able to track him.

It took another couple minutes before something caught Naruto's eye. It was a scroll, but a big one. All of the other scrolls were small enough to fit in a pouch or bag. There was no way this one would. It was huge!

Naruto knew right away that this was what he came here for. Deciding to hurry up, Naruto grabbed the scroll and secured it on his back. He needed to leave before the patrol returned.

Closing his eyes, Naruto created another corridor. When it appeared, Naruto got ready to enter. But he paused. _'Almost forgot.'_ Looking around, Naruto spotted a book shelf nearby. Taking out another scroll, he unsealed several items.

He took out a candle, a rope, and a vase. Naruto wound the rope around the candle and tied it to the vase. He put the candle on the top of the book shelf with the vase hanging over it. After securing the candle to the bookshelf, he lit it. In a little while, the candle would burn enough where the flame would lower and light the rope on fire. When that happened, the rope would snap, causing the vase to fall and crash into the floor. That would alert the guards and they would come and notice the scroll was missing.

Nodding to himself, Naruto put his hood on and entered the corridor.

* * *

 **20 Minutes Later**

Minato frowned to himself as he listened to his ANBU report the situation. "So someone broke in here, under your noses by the way." He glared at the ANBU and they shifted in place. "This person stole the Scroll of Seals, rigged it so that you would notice after a little while, and left their scent all over the room? But the scent is _just_ in the room? Not in the halls?"

The lead ANBU nodded. "Yes, sir. But we've found the scent nearby. There is a trail leading to and from the tower."

Minato nodded. "Good. Follow that trail and retrieve the scroll. Also alert available chūnin and jōnin of the situation. Dismissed." They quickly **Body Flickered** away.

Minato was lost in his thoughts. _'There is something I'm missing here. It is as if the person wanted us to notice the scroll was missing. But why?'_ It didn't make any sense. This person was skilled enough to get in and out without being caught. So why bother to tell them something is missing?

* * *

 **Forest near Konoha (20 Minutes Later)**

Naruto was panting slightly as he had his hands on his knees. He had spent the last thirty minutes mastering the **Shadow Clone Jutsu.** He was thankful he was part Uzumaki, or that would have been a lot harder than it was. He could create a lot of clones, but nothing on the scale his siblings could make. He knew he would probably never be able to make that many.

He paused his thinking as he heard footsteps nearby. Looking up, he saw an extremely irritated Iruka approach him. "Found you…" The scarred man said ominously.

Naruto smirked in return. "About time someone got here. I was worried nobody would get here in time." This response greatly confused Iruka.

With a growl, Iruka responded. "What the hell are you talking about, dumbass? You stole the Scroll of Seals! Why would you claim to be waiting for someone to find you? And in time for what?" The chūnin interrogated him.

In return, Naruto's smirk grew wider. "Mizuki should get here soon. He approached me after the exam claiming that I would get some special training from the jōnin of the village if I stole the Scroll of Seals and presented it to him. Said it was a special exam for the rookie of the year."

This response stunned Iruka. "What? But…that's…there is no such exam!"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "I know that, Iruka-sensei. That is why I made it so people would be alerted I stole the scroll. But…" He looked quizzically at Iruka. "…I actually expected it to be some kind of tracker that found me using my scent…"

Iruka either didn't hear this last part, or ignored it. He was lost in his thoughts. _'Mizuki is a traitor? I should have known!'_ But he paused when a sudden thought came to him. "But wait! Why didn't you alert someone that he had approached you with this?"

Naruto shrugged in response. "Then it would just turn into my word against his. I needed to have him get caught in the act, hence why I left a trail." He looked at Iruka. "Now if you could, please hide your presence and get out of sight. We still haven't gotten the incriminating evidence. And take this." He tossed a recording device to Iruka.

Iruka frowned. He didn't like this idea. At all. It would put Naruto in danger. But he knew it was needed as they still didn't have any proof. Just because he believed Naruto, didn't mean everybody else would. Iruka quickly left the immediate area to hide.

Not a minute too soon as well because Mizuki soon appeared in the clearing. He had a dark smile look on his face. "Very good, Naruto. You managed to obtain the scroll and get out with it." He said.

Naruto grinned. "What else were you expecting? That's why you gave me this exam, right? Because I could pull it off." He baited him.

Mizuki smirked. "Yes, that is _exactly_ the reason you were chosen to do this…but unfortunately, there is one more part to this." He slowly reached for the giant shuriken on his back.

Naruto tilted his head to the side. "Oh? And what is that?"

Mizuki snarled. "Your death!" He threw the shuriken at Naruto. Naruto jumped out of the way of the projectile. "Time to die, demon!"

Naruto shook his head. He should have figured that was what this was about. Looking over to where Iruka was hidden, he called out. "You get it all?"

Iruka appeared in the clearing with a dark scowl on his face. "Yeah…I got it."

Mizuki looked shocked at the turn of events. "Iruka?" Quickly coming to the correct conclusion, he spun around to face Naruto, who was smirking at him. "You!"

Naruto's smirk grew even wider. "Yep. Me. You could _not_ have been more obvious with your intentions. How did you ever live this long?" He shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. "You should still be a mid-academy student with those kind of skills…" He stopped though as a frown came upon his face. "Now then. What do you mean demon? I'm only the container of the soul."

Mizuki snarled. "No! I won't be fooled! You may have been a human at birth, but the moment the soul entered that body it must have taken over! There is just no way that a human could hold so much evil and remain human. Let alone a newborn! You are the Kyūbi!"

Naruto sighed deeply. _'What a fucking idiot.'_ He _really_ didn't want to deal with this crap. "Do you have any idea how fūinjutsu works?" Not even giving the moron the chance to speak, Naruto continued. "No, of course you don't." He shook his head. "I'm not having this conversation with you. Let's just fight." He got into a battle stance.

Mizuki was enraged at the "demon's" dismissal of him. He was so angry, he rushed Naruto. His current speed was a bit faster than what he had used earlier during the graduation exam, but he was less refined due to his rage.

Iruka moved to step in but stopped when Naruto shouted at him while dodging. "No! Don't interfere! I want to do this. You can step in if you see that I'm going to lose." Iruka really didn't like that idea but relented when he saw the determination in Naruto's eyes. Nodding in thanks, Naruto looked back at Mizuki.

Mizuki smirked. "Confident, aren't you demon? All your power has been sealed elsewhere, you only have the power of the boy's body!" With that, he engaged Naruto in a taijutsu fight. He sent a kick to Naruto's head, but it was deflected. Naruto used this opening to send a strike to his torso, but this was blocked.

Back flipping away, Mizuki threw a couple shuriken at Naruto. Naruto, seeing this, quickly took out a kunai and deflected them, causing them to go spinning into the air. He caught them out of the air and hurled them and the kunai back at the traitor.

Mizuki jumped to the side in order to dodge, keeping his eye on the projectiles. This was a mistake as he never saw the punch until it sent him flying. He landed a few feet away, clutching his face. The fact that the weakened demon managed to hurt him enraged him all the more. He pushed chakra to his legs and rushed Naruto.

Naruto, not expecting the extra burst of speed, was caught off guard and Mizuki took the chance to deliver a blow to his chest. Crack!

Naruto winced as he felt a rib or two crack under the pressure. Deciding to return the favor, Naruto pushed chakra to his fist and punched at Mizuki. Mizuki blocked this strike with the back of his arm, but Naruto heard the crack of his bones. "Damn you!" Mizuki yelled at him.

Naruto smirked. "Wow, Mizuki. A newly graduated genin is fighting you fairly evenly, you really do suck." He taunted.

Mizuki was enraged to new heights by now. Only the death of the demon was on his mind. Quickly performing a few hand seals, Mizuki called out his technique. " **Fire Style: Exploding Flame Shot!** " Creating a few flames with his hands, Mizuki threw a few fireballs at Naruto.

Naruto, not wanting to get hit, lunged to the side. Looking back, he saw the fireballs exploded on impact. _'He is going to burn the whole place down! I need to end this.'_ With that conclusion in mind, Naruto decided on his next course of action.

He dodged a few more fireballs, waiting for his chance. He wanted to strike in the middle of Mizuki's attack. Right when he would have trouble dodging. He tensed when he saw Mizuki was gathering fire chakra again. _'Now!'_ Naruto thrust his hand forwards. " **Thunder!** " A bolt of lightning came from the sky and struck Mizuki. While stunned, he wasn't out yet.

Naruto, taking the chance, rushed Mizuki and sent chakra to his fist. He proceeded to punch Mizuki in the face as hard as he could, sending the chūnin flying into a nearby tree. He didn't get back up. Naruto waited for a few seconds, and when he didn't even stir, he relaxed. But winced as he irritated his ribs. He had been ignoring it for a bit, but it kind of hurt.

Naruto looked over when he heard footsteps nearby. It was Iruka with a stunned look on his face. "You actually won. That's amazing. And with a **Lightning Release** that didn't use hand seals…While Mizuki isn't the strongest chūnin, he is still a semi-strong chūnin. And you just graduated…"

Naruto smirked. "Pretty good, right? It all went according to plan." He paused for a moment. "And please keep the no hand seal thing to yourself. I want to keep that a secret a while longer." He wasn't about to say it was magic, but the ability to use a jutsu without seals would attract attention.

Iruka sighed, but a small smile was on his face. "I still don't know if this was the best course of action…but well done, Naruto. And sure, I'll keep it to myself."

Naruto grinned. "Thanks, sensei!"

* * *

 **Uzumaki-Namikaze Household (2 Hours Later)**

Naruto winced as he lowered himself into bed. Following his defeat of Mizuki, ANBU quickly showed up on the scene and demanded to know what had happened. At first, they were ready to arrest Naruto because it was his scent they were tracking, but with Iruka's testimony and the evidence they had, they were willing to listen.

After getting a full report and healing Naruto's injuries, he was allowed to leave as they took in Mizuki. So he did so after bidding Iruka a good night. Now all Naruto wanted to do was sleep.

A frown appeared on his face. _'No, can't sleep yet. I need to look into this…'_ Naruto closed his eyes.

* * *

 **Station of Awakening**

Naruto appeared in the Station of Awakening. Opening his eyes, he saw that Hikari and Yami were standing in front of him. Seeing him appear, Hikari spoke up. "I can guess why you are here, but let's make sure."

Naruto nodded. "The soul of the Kyūbi is sealed into me. This is my heart. Kind of like my mindscape." The both of them nodded. "What happened to the Kyūbi? Is it here?" He had never seen it. He wanted to know.

Yami frowned. After a moment, she snapped her fingers. One of the floating tile bridges appeared. And off in the distance, light filtered down on another platform. She motioned for Naruto. "Follow us. We will tell you on the way." The two of them walked over to the bridge and began to cross it with Naruto following. "Let us get something straight first. The soul of the Kyūbi no Kitsune is _not_ sealed in you."

This stunned Naruto. "What do mean the soul isn't sealed in me? Of course it is! I got the soul while Narumi and Menma got the chakra." He had heard this countless times. It was the reason that his parents never trained him!

Hikari shook her head. "No, Naruto-kun. You never got the soul…You got the _heart._ "

This surprised Naruto. "The heart?" After a few moments of silent thinking, he sighed. "I shouldn't really be surprised." He said finally.

Yami smirked. "No, you shouldn't be. While you were meant to get the soul, you were given the heart instead." She shrugged. "The person who sealed it messed up. The end result when it comes to separating it from the chakra is the same, though."

It was then they reached the platform. Looking at it, Naruto felt a chill go down his spine. Like all the others, it was round and intricate. Around the edges, were flaming number nines with blood red hearts going in between them. The majority of the image was taken up by the form of giant snarling fox that was a mixture of red and orange. It had long, rabbit-like ears and a torso and upper body that was similar to a human's. Behind it were nine tails.

In the center of the platform, right over the Kyūbi's chest, was a keyhole.

After he finished observing it, Naruto looked up at the other two. "This is…"

Hikari nodded. "Yes, this is where the Kyūbi is sealed. That keyhole is the lock. Be aware though, that you may unlock it at any time with your keyblade. But of course, we do not advise such an option."

Naruto smirked a bit. "Yeah? I'd think so…So what does it mean for me to have the heart instead of the soul?" He looked at the two women, who seemed surprised at the question. He gave them a look. "Yami had said it. 'The end result _when it comes to separating it from the chakra_ is the same.' Meaning there is something else that happens that is different because I have the heart and not the soul."

The two women smiled sadly a bit at him. Yami spoke up. "You caught that? I guess I should have rephrased it, then…" She hesitated. "There is a problem with having the heart and not the soul…especially for someone with your abilities."

Naruto crossed his arms. "I'm listening."

Hikari sighed. "The heart is the center of all emotion and passion. The Kyūbi is a very…passionate being when it comes to hate and negative emotions. While the common theory that the bijū are pure evil is not true, there is still a lot of negative emotions in there. And with those emotions, is darkness."

Naruto looked like he understood where this was going. "You're saying…that darkness will one day be a problem?"

Yami nodded. "It may not be a problem now, but it might become one someday. And you are the twilight wielder. You must have balance. You could be influenced by this darkness." She told him.

Naruto remained silent for a little bit while he thought over what he was just told. Eventually, he grinned at the two of them. He place his hands behind his head. "Don't worry about it! I just won't let it get it to me, then!"

This answer surprised the two of them greatly. After a few moments of stunned silence, they both smiled. Yami let out a bark of laughter while Hikari simply shook her head and responded. "If only it was that easy, Naruto-kun…But ok. Let's see what happens."

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 12!**

 **I started this chapter yesterday when I finally got rid of the laziness, but I didn't get that far into it. About 7,300 words were from a nonstop run today. This chapter was a little longer than expected…but whatever.**

 **I had him learnt the Shadow Clone Jutsu in case I wanted him to make a physical clone for something. I won't have him rely on it like in canon, but it is useful to have him know how to make a clone.**

 **Pretty sure most, if not all, of you already figured that I actually gave the Kyūbi's heart to Naruto instead. It was kind of obvious. But there you go.**

 **Next chapter is team placement and second genin test!**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	13. Meet The Team

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 13!**

 **So I finished the chapter. Longest one yet. Again. I don't know why that keeps on happening. But it does. This one actually managed to break 10,000 somehow. Woo-hoo.**

 **For some reason, I can't monitor the traffic the story gets anymore. Last Sunday, it just cut off. It's as if nobody is viewing it or my profile anymore. But I know that isn't true as more people are still following and such. It is even telling me there are 0 views for chapter 12. It isn't a big deal, but I would still like to see how the story does. I don't feel like contacting anyone and I don't know if I'm just failing at life again. Anyone know what's happening?**

* * *

 **OmegaDelta: Meh. :P**

 **KenColtheart: Pending**

 **LazyAssassin24: Sorry, but the main Kingdom Hearts story won't come in for a while. I want to go up to the time skip before I do that stuff.**

 **Shadowmwape: I've thought about that. I don't know if I will ever do it though. But it seems a little fun.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the Story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else, I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Diety Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Diety Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **Hokage's Office (One Week Later)**

It was the day following the graduation exam. Currently, there was a large group of jōnins assembling in the Hokage's office. This was a yearly occurrence so nobody questioned why they had been called. They were all called there to see who had been chosen to receive and test a genin team that year. Two of the jōnin who were assembling were Kurenai and Asuma.

Kurenai had modified her outfit from the one she had worn during the Kyūbi attack. Her outfit now consisted of a red mesh armor blouse where only the right sleeve was visible. On top of this, she wore a material that resembled bandages with a pattern similar to red thorns. Both her hands and thighs were now wrapped in bandages and she had the Konoha headband secured to her forehead.

Asuma on the other hand, had not modified his outfit much from all those years ago. He still wore the standard Konoha shinobi outfit. The only differences were the bandages wrapped around his sleeves, the pair of black bangles, and the sash he had around his waist that had the kanji for "fire" on it.

The two of them entered together and walked over to the side of the room to wait for the Hokage to show up and tell them who got what teams. After looking around for a moment to see who else was there, Asuma sighed. This action caused Kurenai to look over to him with a raised eyebrow. "What's wrong with you?" She asked him.

In response, Asuma grimaced. "I'm hoping that I don't get chosen for a team. I don't really want one. It seems like a lot of work to train three kids and to ensure their safety on missions." He lamented.

Kurenai huffed and turned away from him. "You're just lazy. It's a great thing to be chosen as a jōnin sensei. You get to receive three new genin and help them learn and mature. And over time, those three genin will grow up to be fine shinobi who will make everyone proud of them as they achieve their own dreams." She said all of this with a small smile on her lips.

Hearing her tone, Asuma glanced over. "You sure are looking forward to getting a team, huh? Are you sure you will get one?" How could she know she will get one? They were here to find out if they would or not.

She shrugged her shoulders. "I'm not sure I will get one, but I'm hoping I will."

Asuma hummed in thought. "In that case, what kind of team would you like to get?" He knew that if _he_ had been forced to take on a team, he would want one that was laid back.

She thought about it. "While it would be nice to get at least one student who I could pass my genjutsu skills onto, I know that isn't a definite if I got a team. Taking that into account, I am pretty open with any type of team." She frowned after saying this. "Although a front line assault team probably wouldn't be my first choice" She looked back over to him. "What about you?"

He closed his eyes as he considered it. "A team that was laid back would be nice…" he voiced his previous thought. He heard her huff at him again. "But I know this may not happen. If I did get a team, I don't really care what type it is. I could help them gain experience in any field. Although, unlike you, I think that a front line assault team wouldn't be that bad."

"If your team was a lazy as you I would be seriously worried."

He mocked being physically hurt by her words. "Oh, that hurts, Kurenai-chan. How could you possibly insinuate that I am lazy?"

She crossed her arms. "That is because you _are_ lazy. Both you and Kakashi have serious problems getting to work. Whether it is doing the work or actually _showing up_ to do the work." She looked around the room again. "Speaking of which, I don't see him anywhere. But I know he hasn't passed any teams yet, so he should be here." She frowned. "He probably will show up late again."

Asuma snorted. "Is that really a surprise? Kakashi never shows up for anything on time unless it is an order from the Hokage or Kushina-sama threatens him." He paused for a moment. "Or threatens his books." He added.

This made Kurenai scowl. "Twelve years ago, I would have never guessed that someone like Kakashi was actually such a pervert. But now, he doesn't go anywhere without those disgusting books, giggling all the while."

Asuma smirked as he recalled the unique quirks of his silver haired friend. "Well, Kakashi had never even given them a chance before. But once he did, he instantly fell in love with them. It was apparently destined to be." He shrugged his shoulders and shook his head in a helpless matter.

Kurenai pinned a glare onto him. "I swear to kami, if you _ever_ even so much as pick up one of those damned books, I will-"

She was cut off at that moment as the door to the office opened back up and three people entered. The first was Minato who headed directly to his chair in order to start the meeting. The next two however, caused sweat drops to appear throughout the room. It was a scowling Kushina dragging an unconscious Kakashi.

Asuma chuckled. "Well, at least he is on time today." He took great amusement in seeing Kakashi being manhandled like that.

Kurenai only sighed, closed her eyes, and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Idiot…"

Ignoring the looks she was getting, Kushina walked over to the front of the room and threw Kakashi onto the ground. He didn't even stir. Kushina quickly grew even more irritated and a dark aura formed around her. Seeing this, many of the battle hardened shinobi backed away with looks of fear.

As if sensing the danger, Kakashi's eye sprang open and his gaze locked onto the source of the thing that was setting off his danger instincts. Seeing the source, he paled. "Kushina-senpai, you got it all wrong! I wasn't planning on being late again, honest!" He pleaded.

Kushina however, didn't buy it for an instant. Glaring at him, she responded. "Kakashi-kun, I swear, if this meeting had been held up because we had to wait two or three hours for you to show up…" She trailed off.

Kakashi was shaking a bit in fright. Frantically shaking his head, he responded. "I would never be late to something like this! I mean the future of three little genin could be put under my care today. That's too important to take lightly!"

Kushina snorted. "Yeah, right. That is exactly how you see getting your own genin team." Shaking her head, she waved her arm off to the side. "Whatever, just go off to the side and wait to see if you are chosen."

Quickly nodding his head, Kakashi scurried over to where Kurenai and Asuma were standing. He ignored the looks he got on the way. Both the smirks amusement and looks of pity. Once he reached them, he lazily waved. "Yo." He then proceeded to lean against the wall.

Asuma smirked over at him. "Wow, Kakashi. You're actually on time today. What's the occasion?" He asked.

Kakashi flinched. "The occasion is having the habanero hunt me down and drag me her so I wouldn't be late." He shivered at the memory. "…It was terrible." He said in a small voice.

While Asuma's smirk only grew wider, Kurenai looked at Kakashi with a glare. "If you weren't so late all the time, that wouldn't be necessary." She told him.

Kakashi looked as if he was going to respond, but was cut off before he could do so. Minato cleared his throat, instantly gaining the attention of the room. After looking around to make sure that all conversation had stopped, Minato started speaking. "Welcome. As you know, this meeting is to distribute the genin teams to the chosen teachers. Not all of you will be getting a team. Those of you who do not get a team will instead report to the mission desk to receive a mission. Those who do receive a team, stay here to get the records of your new students. You will need to pick them up from the academy in two hours. Any questions?"

He looked around, not really expecting anything as this is how they had been doing it for years. People knew how the procedure worked. Not seeing anyone wish to speak up, Minato nodded to himself. "Ok. I will go right to assigning the teams then." He picked up a paper and looked at it. "Team one will be made up of…"

* * *

 **Academy (Half an Hour Later)**

Naruto walked into the classroom to see that it was already filled with many students. Most of them were talking excitedly to one another as they imagined what they would be doing now that they were shinobi. Although looking closer, he could spot some of them looking nervous. Especially some of the civilian born kids.

Ignoring some of the predatory looks that some of the girls gave him as he walked in, Naruto continued on his way over to the back of the room where he and his friends always sat. He noticed that he was the last one to show up today. He grinned at them. "Hey, you guys ready to start your shinobi careers?" He got a grin a grin from both Chōji and Kiba while Shikamaru gave a long suffering sigh. Rolling his eyes, Naruto continued. "Wow, Shika. Don't start hopping out of excitement now." He said sarcastically.

Shikamaru snorted at this. "Whatever…I'm not looking forward to this at all. At least in the academy, I could take naps all I wanted. I can't do that with a jōnin breathing down my neck and making me do laps or something."

Naruto smirked. "Who knows? You may get a jōnin assigned to your team that was as lazy like you. He may simply want to sit around playing shogi instead of training you guys."

Shikamaru smirked. "That would be great…but there is no way that would really happen."

Kiba let out a loud laugh. "As if there is actually a jōnin out there that was lazy like him! He wouldn't ever had made it that far."

Chōji smiled slightly. "I don't know…there could be. While Shikamaru isn't very motivated, he is really smart. And it isn't like he _can't_ do the work if he wanted to… he just doesn't." He defended his friend.

Naruto shrugged with a smile. "That's for sure. But anyways, you two will probably paired together with Ino to remake the Ino-Shika-Cho team your dads made. If anything, Ino won't let you be too lazy…" He finished with a smirk.

His smirk grew wider as he watched Shikamaru groan. "Troublesome…there is no way that girl will let me do what I want to do. This sucks." Shikamaru placed his head on the table as the others snickered at him. Before any of them could say anymore however, the door was thrust open as two girls came barreling in.

"FIRST!" The two of them cried. The four boys looked over to see who was making all of the noise. When they did, they sweat dropped when they saw one of the two was the girl they were just talking about. Both Ino and Sakura were hunched over and panting as they were arguing over who had reached the room first.

Kiba and Naruto shared a look before smirking and looking back over to Shikamaru. "Wow, Shikamaru." Kiba began. "Your new teammate sure has a lot of energy…"

Naruto picked up where Kiba let off. "Yeah. And you know what? She has so much energy, some of it may even rub off on you. Wouldn't that be great? Or at the very least, she could direct that energy to helping you find the… _motivation_ to kick your ass into gear and get moving." Both Kiba and Naruto broke into snickers after this. There amusement only grew as they heard their lazy friend groan more. Looking back over, Naruto saw that the two of them were now arguing over who would sit next to Sasuke.

Sasuke hadn't changed his outfit recently. He wore a navy blue short sleeved shirt with the Uchiha crest on the back and white arm warmers. He also had on white shorts and the Konoha headband worn in the typical manner.

If you looked closely, you could see that his eyebrow was twitching from all of the noise going on around him and the obsessing of his fangirls.

Following Naruto's line of sight, the other boys frowned at the scene. Shikamaru shook his head. "You would think they would take things more seriously now that they had graduated." It made no sense to him to fawn over someone at any stage of the shinobi career. Especially the newly graduated genin stage where you need to decide what path you want to take in the future.

Chōji shook his head as well. "They aren't good, but I would not call their habit terrible. They aren't the worst, at least. It would be a lot worse if they didn't hang around Narumi-san. She helps to curb their fan girl habits."

Kiba shivered and Akamaru whimpered. "Can you imagine if that wasn't true? Those two easily have the loudest voices out of all of them, and that's saying something. If they were constant fangirls, I would probably resort to stabbing my ears."

Naruto frowned in distaste at the idea of screeching fangirls. Not wishing to allow his mind to continue dwelling on the notion, he turned to Kiba. "Well, these two are accounted for…" He said as he pointed over to Chōji and Shikamaru. "But do you have any idea who will be on your team?"

Kiba shrugged. "I don't know. Akamaru and I would probably fit into either a tracking team or be a close combat fighter of some other team. While I would enjoy the action of combat, I wouldn't mind being a tracker either. What about you?" The other two boys looked over as well. They didn't really know what kind of specialization Naruto preferred. He was good at combat, yeah, but is that what he wanted to do?

Naruto smiled. "I want to be some type of combat shinobi. Whether it be front line or something similar would be fine with me." He thought about his other skills. "Although I could do ok when it comes to a little support as well…" Some of his spells did augment the abilities of the target after all. And then there was the healing spell. That could use a little more work, but he has it down on some level.

The other three boys nodded at his words. It was then that the other two Uzumaki-Namikazes walked into the room. Seeing her two friends arguing again, Narumi scowled. She marched up to the other two girls and hit them both upside the head. Instantly, they both turned to glare at the one who did it, only to falter when they saw who it was and the ominous aura surrounding their friend.

Ino gathered her courage first. "H-hey there, Narumi. How are you doing?"

Sakura gulped. "Hope you are r-ready for today. It is our first day as shinobi, after all."

Narumi only continued to glare at them. "Were you two seriously fighting over this again?" She grabbed the two of them and dragged them off to their usual seats. "I can't believe you two are _still_ arguing over every little thing. It is so stupid." She continued to chew the two of them out until she was satisfied.

Kiba snorted. "Your sister is scary when she wants to be, Naruto." He looked over to the crimson blond.

In response, Naruto rolled his eyes. "You aren't one to talk. I seem to remember you talking about your sister and how scary she is sometimes…"

"Tch." Kiba scowled in response.

It was at this point that the door of the room opened up again and Iruka walked in. Looking around, he noted that many of the new genin were already giving him their attention. He smirked inwardly when he saw this. _'Better late than never…'_ He cleared his throat in order to gain the attention of the remaining portion. When they all looked over to him, he opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted.

"Iruka-sensei. Where is Mizuki sensei?" Someone from the front of the room called. This caused Naruto to twitch, but only Shikamaru noticed.

Iruka flinched minutely. "Mizuki had a mission come up and was pulled immediately so he could perform it." He lied. He needed to resist the urge to let his eyes wander over to Naruto as he said this. He cleared his throat again. "Now then…" He looked around the room. "Today, you are all staring your careers as a real shinobi. No longer are you only an academy student, you are a full-fledged shinobi of Konoha. Congratulations." Smiles and excited murmuring broke out around the room but it quickly died down.

Iruka continued. "But you are still genin, you have a long and hard path ahead of you as get assigned missions and you climb the ranks. Hopefully, one day you will become the village elites and become the backbone of the village in your own way. But for now, you will be assigned into three man teams. And each of these teams will be led by a jōnin sensei. You will follow the instructions of your sensei in order to carry out your assigned tasks."

It was at this point that even more talk erupted throughout the room. It was a mixture of surprise and excitement. Naruto sent a quizzical look to those who looked surprised at the notion of three man teams and jōnin sensei. Wasn't that already obvious? It wasn't like they would let them work alone. And even then, it was common knowledge that genins worked in teams of three. _'I really hope my teammates aren't complete idiots…Or at least are willing to work together.'_ He shook his head and focused back on Iruka.

"I will now call out the names of each team." He looked at the clipboard in his hand that had all of the teams listed. He listed the teams one by one. As he did so, there were both small cheers and lamentations as friends were either put together or separated. Neither Naruto, his friends, nor his siblings had been called yet. Eventually, the teams started to get interesting.

Iruka cleared his throat to regain the attention of the room. _Again._ "Team 7. Team 7 will be made up of Sasuke Uchiha…" Instantly the tension in the room tripled as the majority of the girls who hadn't been called yet started to listen in. "Sakura Haruno…"

"Yes!" Sakura cheered. She turned and shot Ino a victorious look. She glared back and looked back over to Iruka as he was about to call out the final person.

"…and Saito Hiraga." Hearing this, said boy perked up from his spot next to Menma as many of the hopes of the girls crumbled away as the final spot was taken.

Saito was a boy with black hair and blue eyes. He wore a blue and white long sleeved jacket top that had a raised collar. He wore dark blue pants and black shoes. On his forehead was the Konoha headband.

Saito looked nervous at all of the jealous being sent his way from the various girls in the room. He shrunk in his chair and tried to stay out of sight. Seeing this, Menma smirked and nudged him in the side, earning a glare from Saito.

Continuing, Iruka began listing the next team. "Team 8. Team 8 will be made up of Kiba Inuzuka." From where he was sitting next to him, Kiba looked up with a look of excitement. "Hinata Hyūga…" Naruto looked over to the girl.

Hinata was a shy girl with dark blue hair that was levelled into a hime style cut with chin length strands framing her face. Her eyes were the normal Hyūga lavender without pupils. She had on a cream colored hooded jacket with a fire symbol on the upper parts of the sleeves. Around the wrists of her jacket was fur. She also had on navy blue pants. She had her Konoha forehead protector worn around her neck.

She glanced over to where they were sitting. But upon seeing Naruto was looking, she blushed and averted her gaze. This action caused Naruto to frown slightly while he scratched the back of his head. He would like to befriend Hinata, but he was pretty sure she had feelings for him on some level. He wasn't looking for a relationship at the moment, so he was worried things would get awkward. When he ignored this possibility and talked to her anyways, she blushed and stuttered so bad that it was hard to get the conversation going. Sometimes, she even fainted.

Naruto looked back to the front as Iruka continued naming the final member of the team. "…and Shino Aburame." This time, Naruto looked over to said bug user.

Shino was had dark brown bushy hair. It was impossible to see his eyes because he always wore sunglasses that made it so you couldn't see them. He wore an outfit that was of a similar style to the rest of his clan as it was a high collared jacket that was sea-green and dark pants. He had on the Konoha forehead protector in the typical manner. As always, what was visible of his face was set in a stoic expression.

Iruka began speaking again soon after. "Team 9 is still in rotation. Team 10 will consist of Shikamaru Nara." Shikamaru only showed he was listening by cracking an eye open. "Ino Yamanaka." The boy sighed at this. Across the room, it was possible to hear a small curse come from the blond girl. "And Chōji Akimichi." No surprises there.

Shikamaru sighed. "This is really troublesome…"

Naruto smirked at him. "But it is nothing you weren't expecting though."

Shikamaru sighed again and nodded. Following this, he closed his eye again and tried to get some sleep.

Once he made sure the class was paying attention again, Iruka started to list the next team. "Team 11. Team 11 will consist of…" He trailed off and frowned at the paper in confusion. "What? But…Alright then…" He muttered to himself. This caused the room to perk up and look at him in curiosity. "Team 11 will be a unique team made up of Menma Uzumaki-Namikaze and Narumi Uzumaki-Namikaze. No third teammate."

This caused surprise and whispers to race across the room. Naruto frowned to himself. _'Probably because they hold the Kyūbi's chakra…'_ Narumi and Menma looked over to each other. Based on their expressions, they had come to the same conclusion. They looked back to the front of the room as Iruka began to speak again. But Narumi sent a sad look over to Naruto. In return Naruto gave her a small look and a shrug in response.

"Team 12. Team 12 will consist of Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze…" Naruto felt a shiver go down his spine. Just like with Sasuke, it seemed like the tension of the room increased as a big portion of the girls began to listen closely. "…Yakumo Kurama…"

Yakumo was a girl with long brown hair and light brown eyes. Her hair was done into a braid on one side while the other side was straight. She had a hair clip that had two circular designs. She wore pink kimono styled for battle that was held together with a pink sash with two pockets. Her pant were baggy and a violet color. Under her kimono, she had on red mesh armor and on her legs as well. She had on orange sandals and around her forehead was the Konoha headband.

"…and Sai." Hearing this, Naruto looked over to the other member of his team.

Sai had shot black hair that was straight and dark eyes. Both of these characteristics contrasted with his pale skin. He had one a short black and grey jacket with red stripes that only had a long sleeve on his right arm, the other being short. His shirt was a dark, high collared one that ended at his midriff. He also had on black pants, black gloves that had the index fingers and gloves exposed, and black shinobi sandals. On his back was a tantō. He had the Konoha headband worn in the normal way.

Naruto didn't know much about his two teammates. Yakumo seemed shy and spent a lot of her time drawing or painting. She seemed to be a decent kunoichi though. And when it came to Sai, Naruto didn't know what to think. He was the dead last of the class but Naruto sometimes got the feeling that it was on purpose. He felt this way because Sai was consistently scoring just enough to pass each test without much variance. While he didn't know about the written tests, this was true for the physical tests. He was also sometime slightly unnerving because it felt like his expressions seemed slightly fake.

Shrugging, Naruto decided to tune out the rest of what Iruka was saying as he already got his team assigned.

* * *

 **Later**

It was now time for the teams to get picked up by their jōnin senseis and the new genins were waiting excitedly for their teachers to come and pick them up.

After Iruka had finished calling out the names, he had let them out for lunch. Naruto had wanted to spend the hour with his new teammates in order to begin to get to know them, but Kiba had other plans as he dragged him and Shikamaru out of the room. Chōji chuckling to himself as he trailed along. Knowing how Kiba was, Naruto didn't fight against it.

The hour was now up and they were in the room as one by one, the assigned jōnins came by. Naruto took note of who was assigned who, especially when he recognized the jōnin as one of the big name ones. Hearing a commotion out in the hall, he looked over to the door as the rest of the class did.

"Ow, ow, ow! Kushina-senpai, please let go! I won't run away, I swear!" A male voice called out.

"No way-ttebane! I'm not taking the chance. You will be on time to pick up your students!" An angry female voice called out.

Naruto sighed when he heard this. As did his siblings. It wasn't hard to figure out who was making the noise. The jōnin in the room looked extremely amused by the situation while the genin looked confused.

"But what about my reputation? That took a lot of time and hard work to build up!"

"You actually tried to make that damn reputation?!"

"Uh…I mean…wait wait. No don't. I can walk into the room!"

It was then that a body was thrown the room from the hallway. Seeing who was thrown in, Naruto sighed as his suspicions were confirmed. Not that he needed a confirmation. On the floor in the room was Kakashi Hatake, who was holding his head from where it hit the floor.

Standing in the hallway was a glaring Kushina Uzumaki-Namikaze. She was in full habanero form as she glared at the man on the floor. But she soon paused. Looking around, she noticed that many of the people in the room were looking at her in confusion and fear. She rubbed the back of her head with a sheepish smile. "Sorry about that…I had to drag him here to get him here on time…" A few moments of awkward silence before she cleared her throat. "Anyways…team 11, let's go!" She said with a bright smile. Narumi and Menma quickly followed their mother out of the room. The both of them shot Naruto a look before they left.

Once they were gone, Kakashi picked himself off of the floor. He waited for a minute before heading towards the window. He opened it and got ready to jump out, but before he could, a kunai came sailing into the room. This forced him to duck out of the way. "No way in hell, Hatake! You will take your students now! Not later, now!" The voice of Kushina came from outside.

Kakashi slumped with a groan. "She really left a clone to make sure I stuck around? What the hell…" If it wasn't for the fact that he was sure he would be killed for it later, he would have simply **Body Flickered** away. The other jōnins smirked at him while the students gave him looks that ranged from incredulousness to distaste. Sighing again, Kakashi turned back to the room. "Fine then…Team 7, meet me on the roof." With that, he disappeared in a swirl of leaves. Sasuke, Sakura and Saito got up and walked out of the door. Seeing that the show was over, the lingering jōnin took their students away.

Two of them walked up. Naruto recognized them as Asuma and Kurenai. Kurenai was the first to speak up. "Team 8, follow me." She walked towards the door.

Kiba jumped to his feet. "Oh yeah! This will be awesome! See you guys later!" With that, he raced over to follow Kurenai out with Akamaru. Shino and Hinata soon got up and followed after them.

Once they were gone, Asuma spoke up. "Team 10, you're with me." He too walked over to the door.

Shikamaru sighed and forced himself to his feet. "This sucks…See you, Naruto…" He and Chōji followed after the man with Ino soon joining them.

Naruto looked around. There weren't that many people left in the room. His attention was drawn again as someone else entered the room.

This time it was a woman with straight purple hair that was long enough to reach down to her waist and brown eyes. She wore a shinobi outfit consisting of a black sleeveless shirt and flak jacket. She had on black gloves that went past her elbows and the typical black ANBU pants and black sandals. On her back was a katana.

Naruto thought he recognized her as an ANBU but he of course wouldn't call her out on that. She stopped when she reached the front of the room. "Team 12, come with me please." With that, she walked over to the door.

Naruto quickly got up and followed her out. He was soon joined by Sai and Yakumo.

* * *

 **Training Ground 12**

The four of them were now seated in the twelfth training ground. The unnamed jōnin was seated on s stump in front of them as the three genin were seated on the floor in front of her.

She smiled at them. "Welcome to Team 12. My name is Yūgao Uzuki and I will be your jōnin sensei. Let's get introductions out of the way. Let's say our names, likes, dislikes, hobbies and dreams for the future. I'll start. Like I said, my name is Yūgao Uzuki. My likes are the moon and relaxing once in a while. My dislikes are perverts and people who look down on others. My Hobbies include watching the moon and training my kenjutsu. My dreams for the future are to become the best female swordsman ever known." She pointed over to Yakumo. "Your turn."

Yakumo ducker her head a bit as the attention was shifted to her. "Um…My name is Yakumo Kurama. My likes are art, clouds and flowers. My dislikes are perverts and people who can't be quiet. My hobbies are painting, drawing and spending time with family. My dreams are to become a famous artist and one of the best genjutsu users ever known." She blushed as she admitted this.

Yūgao smiled at her. "That's a nice dream." This cause Yakumo to return the smile. Yūgao then pointed over to Sai. "Your next."

Sai nodded and smiled. Something about that smile made Naruto question it. "My name is Sai. I don't have a last name. My likes are drawing and training. I don't really have any dislikes. My hobbies are the same as my likes. My dreams for the future…to serve my village until the end of my use." Naruto frowned slightly at the wording, as did Yūgao.

Hearing this, Yūgao nodded. She motioned to Naruto. "And then you."

Naruto grinned. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze. My likes are my friends, family, sleep and music. My dislikes are those who look down on others and those who don't get that there is always a flipside to everything, even to the actions of people." This caused Yūgao to tilt her head slightly in thought. "My hobbies are training, sleeping, listening to music and sometimes writing some of my own." He blushed slightly as he admitted this. Not many people knew he did that. "My dreams for the future…To help some people I know escape the darkness…" He gained a sad look as he said this.

Yūgao was curious about his dream but didn't question him. "So all three of you are artists in some way, huh?" Nodding, she spoke up. "Alright, we have introduced ourselves, now we can move on to the test." This caused confusion throughout the three genin.

Yakumo spoke up. "Um, sensei…didn't we already pass the genin exam? Why do we need another test?"

Yūgao gave an apologetic smile to the three of them. "You guys aren't actually genin yet. At least, not completely. You need to pass a final test provided by the jōnin sensei to become an official genin team. The test is different from sensei to sensei. It can be whatever they want it to be."

Naruto tilted his head with a frown. _'That must be the next step that Iruka-sensei talked about last week…'_ He looked at Yūgao. "What happens if we fail?"

Yūgao looked at him with that same smile. "If you were to fail, you will be stripped of your genin rank and sent back to the academy."

This response caused all three of their eyes to widen in surprise. Naruto felt a feeling of nervousness crawl up his spine. "Ok…what do we have to do?" He asked.

Yūgao looked at the three of them. "This is actually my first time being a jōnin sensei, so I don't have a test of my own yet. Because of this, we will just fight. All three of you against me. You may do this one on one, two on one, or three on one to beat me. It doesn't matter. _'Wonder if they will figure out the point is to actually help each other…'_ "Are all three of you ready now?" Seeing their nods, she stood up and led them over to the center of the training field.

They spread out so there was some distance between Yūgao and the three genin. Seeing that they were ready to begin, Yūgao spoke up again. "Anything goes. You may even come at me with the intent to kill. We will go until I say stop in half an hour. I will do so whether I feel that you are either ready to pass or ready to fail. Any questions?" Seeing no one begin to speak up, she nodded. "Ok then, begin!"

Immediately, the three genin jumped into the nearby forest. Seeing this, Yūgao smiled to herself. _'Good, they know not to fight head on against a stronger opponent.'_ She decided to just wait for the three of them to come to her. Hopefully together.

* * *

 **In the Forest**

Naruto was seriously confused. This lady didn't actually expect them to beat her, did she? There was no way that was going to happen. Forget the fact she might have been ANBU in the past, just a jōnin was beyond what three genins can beat. So how did she expect this to work?

This was actually the other reason Naruto jumped into the forest. To give himself time to think. There was something off about this test. If they couldn't beat her -and they can't- then how were they meant to pass? It was really confusing.

Looking back, Naruto thought about the rules surrounding the test. Or lack thereof. _'All she said was we could come at her with the intent to kill. She even said anything goes. Was there something I missed?'_

His attention was drawn back to the clearing as he saw something going on. It looked like Yūgao was under attack. And she was being attacked by a…tiger? Yes, some kind of tiger was attacking her. It was a weird looking one as it was black and white. It almost looked to be a giant ink drawing.

Yūgao didn't panic as the tiger pounced on her. She merely drew her sword and slashed it apart. After it was killed, the tiger exploded into some type of black liquid.

Naruto looked at the scene in interest. He was trying to figure out what the liquid was from his spot in the tree. Leaning forward, he scrutinized what he could of it. _'It looks like…ink? Ink ninjutsu? Which one of us could do that?'_ He looked back on what he noticed about his two teammates. _'It is probably Sai. He smelled heavily of ink.'_

As if responding to his silent call, more ink animals burst into the clearing and Sai took that moment to attack. It didn't work though as he was quickly dispatched by Yūgao who simply swung around and kicked him away as he approached her from behind.

Naruto shook his head. _'I knew it. There is no way a genin on their own can win against a jōnin.'_ There was a few moments of silence before Naruto silently face palmed. _'I'm an idiot. That's the point. A genin can't win on their own, they need to work together to take down a stronger opponent. This test isn't about beating her, it's about proving we can work together!'_

With this new discovery, Naruto circled around to where he knew Yakumo was. He found her hiding in a bush, painting on her canvas. Naruto raised an eyebrow but didn't question it. He approached her and got her attention. "Yakumo-san." She seemed slightly startled to hear him. She whirled around with a kunai, only to relax when she saw it was him.

"Oh. Naruto-san. You aren't going to attack her as well?" She asked him.

Naruto shook his head. "That's the thing. I think we should work together. She said we could, and I'm pretty sure that's the point of the test, not defeating her."

Yakumo tilted her head in thought. "I hadn't thought about that. It sounds possible though…" She considered it.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, I thought so too. I hear that you and your clan are good at genjutsu, is that true?"

Yakumo nodded. "Yes, I am proficient at genjutsu." She motioned to her canvas. "My paintings are actually a way for me to strengthen my genjutsu. I can do without it, but they are stronger this way."

Naruto nodded. That explains why she was painting now. "Ok. Can you create an opening with your genjutsu while Sai-san and I strike?" She nodded. "How long until you are ready to go?"

She bit her lip a bit. "Not long. I can get it done in a minute or two."

Naruto nodded with a grin. He turned towards the clearing. "Ok, I'm going to help out Sai-san. Just launch the genjutsu when you can." Seeing her nod, he jumped into the clearing as Sai was launched back towards a tree.

Naruto caught him and set him on the ground. Looking down onto him, Naruto noted his surprised expression. He grinned down to the black haired boy. "Hey, Yakumo-san and I have a plan. You willing to work together?" He asked. He got a nod in response. "Cool. Can you create more of those ink creatures to cover me while I attack? We only need to wait a little bit for Yakumo-san to be ready."

Sai nodded again and got his supplies out. "That's fine. I'll provide support."

Nodding, Naruto looked at Yūgao who seemed pleased that they were helping each other out. Naruto got into a battle stance as he grinned. "Ok, Yūgao-sensei, let's see how you do against more than one of us." He rushed forward.

Yūgao smiled at him and blocked the punch he sent at her. Grabbing his arm, she sent him flying over to the side. "ROAR!" Hearing this, and knowing what it meant, she ducked to the side as another ink tiger jumped at her.

She quickly dispatched the tiger, only to feel something wrap around her legs. Looking down, she saw there were black snakes wrapped around her. Yūgao's first thought was that a certain kunoichi who also had purple hair was interfering, but she quickly noticed that the snakes looked to be made of ink as well.

Knowing this, she took a kunai out and killed the snakes, causing ink to be splashed all over. She looked up when she heard some type of bird, and was quickly attacked by a pair of ink hawks. _'Just how many animals can he make?'_ She swiftly killed both birds and looked around for more animals. Seeing none, she was about to rush at Sai to stop him from making more animals but stopped when she heard the familiar sound of a sword being drawn.

Whirling around with her own sword drawn, she blocked the black blade from slicing into her. She was greatly surprised by the fact that Naruto even _had_ a sword. _'None of the reports on him stated an aptitude in kenjutsu…'_ The clearing was soon drowned into the sound of clanging metal as each of the two kenjutsu users tried to get a hit on each other. Although it was more like Yūgao was trying to get a feel of how skilled Naruto was with a blade.

And he was _skilled._

For someone his age, he was absolutely amazing! There wasn't any hesitation in his strikes, and his style was well practiced and each move flowed into the next seamlessly. Although that was another thing that confused her, the style. She didn't recognize it, and it seemed to be a little too well practiced to not have been taught to him.

Clang! The two blades were now pressed up against each other as the two kenjutsu users tried to push one another back. Yūgao tensed when she felt something come up from behind her. Knowing what it was, she pushed Naruto back hard enough to cause him to stumble and break his stance.

She used this opportunity to rapidly cut down the tiger that tried to get to her from behind and whirled back around at high speeds to grab Naruto and disarm him. She hurled him into the air and onto Sai. She was surprised at the team work and skill the two of them had shown so far. She had just been forced to use high-chūnin/low-jōnin speeds. These two were surprisingly good…

"Ow!" The two of them clutched their heads in pain from where they had hit each other. "She really likes throwing us…" Naruto muttered.

Hearing this, Sai nodded his head. "Yes, she does seem to do that frequently."

Naruto shook his head to clear it. "You ok to keep going? Yakumo should be ready to go by now." Sai nodded. "Cool, I'm going to rush around to get my sword back from where she tossed it and go in for another attack." Seeing Sai agree, Naruto circled around to where his sword was. Grabbing it, he circled some more so that Yūgao was now in between the two of them. That was when he saw it. Off to the side, he saw Yakumo signal him. She was ready.

Seeing this, Naruto smirked. Looking back over to Sai, he caught his eye and nodded. Sai nodded back and quickly created more ink animals to attack.

Seeing her get rushed from the other side, Naruto rushed at Yūgao from where he was. Yūgao looked from side to side before she crouched, ready to defend herself. When they got close, she used her own sword to dispatch some of the ink animals. It looked like she was going to defend herself some more from the onslaught, but then something appeared to have changed.

Yūgao stumbled when she moved forward. Her eyes widened in surprise. She seemed to be having muscle spasms all over her body. _'What?! My body! What's happening?'_ Seeing another tiger come at her, she threw herself to the side in order to get out of the way. But she appeared to be unable to coordinate a landing efficiently, causing her to tumble as she did so. _'It seems like everything refuses to respond correctly every few seconds!'_

Seeing this as an opening, Naruto rushed in to strike. Sai backed him up with more snakes to restrain her. Yūgao saw this coming and attempted to raise her blade to fend them off. She was able to block a few, but her body froze up after a few strikes, causing her to be restrained by the snakes. She quickly found a blade pressed against her throat as well.

Her eyes widened in surprise and shock at what just happened. But after a moment, she smiled at them. "Wonderfully done. You have managed to subdue me." She paused for a moment. "But you haven't won." Seeing their eyes widen, she grinned. Poof!

Yūgao disappeared in a cloud of smoke, causing all three of them to tense. That was when each of them felt it. Cold steel pressed up against their throats. Looking down, they saw there was a kunai pressed to each of their throats, ready to kill them. This caused Naruto and Yakumo to gulp. _'I didn't even see her move…'_ It was at this point Naruto noticed both of his teammates were in an identical situation. Realization dawned on Naruto. " **Shadow Clones**." He said.

Hearing this, the clone restraining him smiled and nodded. "Yes, that's it exactly." Poof! All three of the clones holding kunai to their throats disappeared. Another Yūgao stepped out into the clearing. This one smiled at them. "That's enough, all three of you come over here."

Hearing this, they walked over to her. "Well done. All three of you performed well to your strengths and played out the role most suited for you and your abilities. But most of all, you worked as a team. Sai, you were able to provide Naruto with support and fight as needed. Yakumo, you stayed hidden and cast a genjutsu that not even my clone noticed at first. Naruto, you were the frontal assault and damage dealer. Although you didn't land any hits, you are definitely the best suited for close range combat." She grinned. "I'm proud to say that all three of you have passed. You are now officially team 12. Congratulations."

Naruto felt a huge grin begin to split his face when he heard this. But a thoughtful look soon replaced it. "Yūgao-sensei…when did you replace yourself with a clone? Was it a clone the entire time we fought?" He asked her.

She smiled at him and shook her head. "No, I only switched out with a clone towards the end. Can you figure out when? Do you know when you both took yours eyes off of me?"

Naruto frowned in thought. Did he really do that after engaging her for the first time? When? "It was when Naruto-san and I were clutching our heads in pain after you threw him, wasn't it?" Hearing Sai say this, Naruto's eyes widened as remembered the event. He _had_ taken his eyes off of her at that point. But to be fair, it really hurt!

Yūgao nodded. "Yes, that was when I did it. I took that chance to switch out with a clone. I was never under the genjutsu, but my clone was. It was wonderfully done, Yakumo." She added to the girl. A genjutsu that disrupted how well the body functions is very useful. Hearing this, Yakumo blushed a bit under the praise and smiled at her. Yūgao looked over all three of them. "Anyways, like I said, we are now team 12. This will be our training ground where we meet from now on. I expect to see all three of you here tomorrow morning at eight. We will begin each day with some training and do that for a few hours. We will follow this up with some sort of mission before calling it a day unless the mission finished quickly enough. Any questions?"

Seeing none of them speak up, she nodded. "Very well then. Dismissed. See you tomorrow." And with that final remark, she disappeared into a swirl of leaves.

* * *

 **Hokage's Office (Later that Day)**

The jōnins who were assigned as a team sensei were now gathered back in the Hokage's office giving their reports on whether or not the team passed. It mainly consisted on simply stating whether the team passed and any additional comments if necessary. Minato was currently sitting behind his desk and noting what teams passed.

"Team 5."

"Failed."

"Team 6."

"Failed."

"Team 7." That was Kakashi's team wasn't it? Minato was already moving his pen over to the failed check box.

"Passed."

 **Play Naruto The Movie 1 OST – Actress – Yukie Fujikaze**

Dead silence reigned following this. Kakashi simply looked up from his book for a moment to see everybody was staring at him. Once he glanced around the room one time, he shrugged and went back to his book.

Minato was shocked. His student actually passed a team? "Um…Kakashi…" he began, getting the silver haired man's attention. "They passed?" A nod. "How?"

"They shared their lunch."

"…They shared their lunch." Another nod.

"Yes. They shared their lunch with Saito. It was very moving, really. I have high hopes for this team." And with that, he went back to his book as everyone just continued to stare at him in silence.

"Very well then. Team 7 is now formed." What kind of reasoning was that? But he would trust Kakashi.

 **End Music**

Shaking his head to clear himself of these thoughts, Minato continued. "Team 8."

"Passed." Kurenai reported.

Minato nodded and took note of this. "Team 9 is still in circulation. Team 10."

Asuma spoke up. "Passed."

Minato nodded again. "That's the Ino-Shika-Cho team of this generation, right? I have high hopes for them. They could be even better than their fathers were." He took note of this result. "Team 11."

His wife beamed. "Passed of course."

Minato smiled back. "Right, of course." He noted this down. "Team 12."

Yūgao spoke up. "Passed."

Minato nodded. Looking back at Yūgao, he spoke up. "This is your first time being a jōnin sensei, correct?" She nodded back at him. "What did you have them do?"

Yūgao smiled as she answered him. "I didn't have a specific test, so I just had them fight me. To pass all they needed to do was show an adequate level of skill, tactics and teamwork. They did so, and very well as Naruto attacked outright with his sword while Sai provided support with his ink ninjutsu as they bought time for Yakumo to cast a genjutsu on my clone."

This response surprised some of the people in the room who had never seen Naruto even hold a sword. Minato spoke up. "Naruto used a sword? He knows kenjutsu?"

Yūgao nodded in response. "Yes. He used a daitō with a black blade. He was actually very skilled with it." She frowned in thought. "I had thought that you or your wife had taught him how to use it. Is that not the case?"

Minato frowned and shook his head. "I never taught him. Kushina?"

She frowned as well. "I never even knew that he had an interest in kenjutsu…"

Yūgao frowned at the way that sounded. "Well, regardless, he has a sword and knows how to use it."

Minto frowned in thought. "Right…"

* * *

 **Uzumaki-Namikaze Household**

Naruto walked through the front door. Although they were slightly tired, especially himself and Sai, the three new members of team 12 went out to eat together in order to get to know one another better. He had enjoyed it and kind of wished that the three of them had talked more in the academy. Although at some points it seemed like Sai was unsure how he should act around them.

Clearing his head of this thought, Naruto walked down the hall towards the living room. When he entered, he saw both of his younger siblings slouching in a chair or on the couch. They appeared almost dead to the world. He smirked at the sight. "Whoa. What happened to you two? You both look terrible." He asked them. Although he already had an idea.

In response, both of them groaned. "Shut up, Aniki. Kaa-chan was so hard on us today." Menma answered.

"He is right nii-chan. The way she tested us…" Narumi shivered from her faced down position on the couch. "…it was so terrible."

Naruto's smirk only grew when he heard how miserable they sounded. "Hey, look on the bright side. Now that we passed all of our tests, we are officially genin of the village." They groaned in response. That was when another thought came to Naruto. "But hey, how come just you two are on team 11? Shouldn't you have a third member?" He was a little jealous at first when he saw it would just be them and their mother on their team, but he was happy now with his current team.

Menma spoke up in response. "Kaa-chan said it was mainly because we both have the Kyūbi's chakra in us. She didn't want other people to get hurt when we trained in it." Without realizing it, Naruto's hand went to his chest where his scar was as Narumi stiffened. Not noticing either reaction, Menma continued what he was saying. "She said that as a former jinchuriki, she could help us learn to control it. And if we went out of control, she could always use her **Adamantine Sealing Chains** to help subdue us."

Naruto nodded in response. It made sense after all. "What about missions? You don't have a full team."

Narumi was the one to respond this time. "She said that we would be helping other teams out by joining them on their missions. Kind of like a relief squad or something." It was at this point that Narumi glanced over at her older brother. Seeing what he had with him, her eyes widened. "Whoa, nii-chan. Where did you get that awesome sword?" This caused Menma to look over and widen his eyes in surprise as well.

Naruto looked surprised at the question. Looking over his shoulder, he saw that he still had his daitō strapped to his back. He had forgotten to reseal it. He mentally shrugged his shoulders after thinking this. He had already used it with his team, so that secret was out anyways. He looked back at Narumi and shrugged outwardly this time. "I got it a while ago as a gift from a friend." That wasn't a lie.

Menma looked at him. "And you know how to use it?" He questioned.

Naruto looked at him dubiously. "Of course I know how to use it."

Narumi pouted. "You are so lucky! I would love to learn how to use a sword!" Menma nodded his head in agreement. "Maybe I can learn now…" She tilted her head in thought.

Naruto smiled and shrugged. "I'm sure you can still learn it. There isn't really a point when you _can't._ " He began moving over to the stairs. "Well, I'm tired from today and want to get some sleep."

Both of his younger siblings rolled their eyes at him. "Aniki, you like to sleep too much. You are always doing it when you can…"

Naruto smirked and shrugged. He couldn't tell them that half the time, he was actually training in the Station of Awakening, could he? This led to him desiring actual sleep where he was dreaming when he could. Which led to more naps. "Well even then, I'm sure it isn't just me that has training and then a mission tomorrow, right?" He got two nods in return.

Narumi grinned. "Our first missions, I'm so excited-ttebane!"

Naruto grinned in return. "I wonder what we will…get…first…" He trailed off as his mind realized what was happening. Judging by the looks of shock and horror on his sibling's faces, they had figured it out too. They were the children of the Hokage, so they had heard more often what kinds of missions gets assigned to what kinds of teams. And they had seen a few genin teams around the village.

They were _not_ looking forward to D-ranks.

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 13!**

 **So here is what I realized recently while reading some fanfiction. A** _ **lot**_ **of writers just skip over the fights completely. I never noticed. They get to the fight, and then bam! Fight is over and we get a general overview of what happened and what the result was. I never even thought of that. I may or may not start doing that. Cuz honestly, I suck at fight scenes so much.**

 **Saito isn't an OC. He is from Zero no Tsukaima. I'm just lazy and needed a character.**

 **That little tidbit of music was unnecessary but that's what I play in my head when something dubious happens.**

 **Teams are formed! Team 12 consists of Naruto, Sai and Yakumo along with Yūgao as sensei.**

 **Can I be completely honest with you? I was so close to just being lazy and doing the typical team 7 from canon. I really wanted to, but it wouldn't fit into the story perfectly and I realized I really** _ **should**_ **change it a bit. I didn't even really consider doing something else until I read Exalted Demi-Soul's review.**

 **Not really sure what I will be putting in the next chapter. But I have an idea.**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	14. First Day On The Job

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 14!**

 **I lived! I survived! I conquered the lazy impulses and wrote the chapter! Hurray!**

 **So when I look for a new story to read, I have a process to it. Other people may or may not do the same thing, but this is how** _ **I**_ **do it. I go to the series/crossover page. I click on filters. I allow any rating. I sort by number of follows. That's probably what a lot of people do. But anyways, you know what I would see if I went to the Naruto/Kingdom Hearts crossover list? I would see this story on the front page!** **Holy crap.**

 **I thought of a world I** _ **absolutely**_ **am going to put. I'm a big fan of the series, too.**

 **I seriously want to write the parts where Naruto goes to other worlds, but can't. I am going to do this part first. I won't be doing that until I get to the time skip. But I'm really looking forward to it.  
**

* * *

 **The Kingdom Comes: I'll get there when I get there. But not right now. Soon-ish.**

 **LordGhostStriker: Glad you like it. As I said above, it was meant to be like that before (Where Naruto absolutely hates his parents and the brother is an ass-face), but it changed as I continued writing the story. That is also why I only had interactions with Narumi at first. Also, there wasn't really much of a deal. It was just a way to test Naruto's skills. That's it.**

 **The Sith'ari: Sorry for the confusion. No, he won't be. In this story, Saito is a character born in the elemental nations. I only used Zero no Tsukaima's character because I didn't want to make my own.**

 **Adjuster: I will start asking for suggestions when we get closer for the time skip. But for now, keep them in mind. :)**

 **OmegaDelta: Eventually, Eventually, and who can say? :P**

 **Drakon45: It will come up probably around the time I have Naruto reveal his keyblade.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the Story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else, I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Deity Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Deity Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **Uzumaki-Namikaze Household (The Next Day)**

The day following the team assignments finds Naruto ambling around the kitchen as he prepared some breakfast for himself. He had gotten up earlier than needed so he could stop by Urahara shop before he went to the training grounds. He needed to let the annoying candy shop owner know his new schedule so he would know that Naruto couldn't come in as often anymore to help work. Naruto just hoped it would be a quick and easy process.

Knowing Urahara…that was hoping for too much.

As he was buttering his toast, Naruto heard someone enter the room behind him. Looking over his shoulder he noted that it was his sister who had come stumbling in with bleary eyes. It looked as if she just stumbled out of bed. The fact that she was still in her pajamas supported this idea. He lazily waved at her. "Morning." Naruto said.

She blinked at him. "…Good morning…" She mumbled.

Naruto smiled and shook his head as he went back to his toast. All three of them had trouble getting up, but he was the best at accomplishing it and becoming alert. While both of his younger siblings needed some time to full wake up, Naruto was able to do so much quicker. The hard part was actually getting out of bed.

Behind him, Narumi frowned at him as she took in his appearance. He was already fully dressed and ready to go? He even had that sword on his back. Didn't he have some more time before he had to meet his team today? "Nii-chan…" He looked over at her again. "How come you are already dressed and ready to go? Does your team really meet this early?" She asked with a horrified tone.

Naruto chuckled slightly as he shook his head. "No, I don't have to meet my team for another hour or so. I actually need to go meet someone beforehand. After that, I will go meet my team." He responded.

Narumi tilted her head to the side as she thought over what he said. "Oh. Ok. Who are you meeting?" She was curious as to who her older brother's friends were. She didn't really know of any of them he hung out with besides for Shikamaru, Chōji and Kiba. And apparently, that Misa girl.

Naruto considered his next words. He got the feeling that if people began to figure out he had learned kenjutsu from a _civilian,_ it would raise some questions. While he didn't doubt Urahara could somehow get out of any trouble he found himself in, it was still a pain in the ass he would undoubtedly be dragged into as well. "It is just a candy store owner I know and help out once in a while. He is a friendly guy, if not a bit annoying."

Hearing this, Narumi nodded her head. She was pretty sure that she has heard Naruto grumble to himself in the past about 'damn candy shop bastards…' or something like that. "Oh yeah, I think I heard you mention this guy once or twice in the past."

Naruto scowled faintly. The only times he would have mentioned Urahara out loud while in the house were on the days he was plotting the man's murder or something. "Yeah, anyways, I need to tell him I may be around less now that we have our teams."

Comprehension dawned on Narumi's face. "Oh. That makes sense."

A yawn came from the door. "What makes sense?" Naruto looked over towards the door. Standing there was Menma, who also looked tired. Although he looked more alert than Narumi.

Naruto shrugged his shoulders. "I have to meet someone to tell them that I may be around less because we got our teams."

Hearing this, Menma perked up. He appeared to be more awake now. "That's right. We're full shinobi now! I can't wait to get this started, it will be so awesome!" This reminder seemed to wake Narumi up as well.

Naruto gave them a bitter smile. "Don't forget though. We will only be doing D-rank missions for a while. _That_ won't be awesome. It's going to suck…"

Menma frowned. "You're right…But after a while we should be able to do C-ranks or something…D-ranks don't last forever, after all."

Naruto shrugged his shoulders again. "That's true, I guess." He paused as a thought came to him. "What about you guys? When does your day start? I mean, everybody on your team lives here, so what do you guys do?"

Narumi looked over from the bowl of cereal she had in front of her. "Kaa-chan said that we will start our days around eight or nine each day. She didn't really set a specific time."

Naruto nodded. "And what about training? And missions? Will you be doing both each day? That is what Yūgao-sensei told my team we would be doing."

His sister was the one to answer again. "Kaa-chan said we would do that too. Training in the morning followed by missions in the afternoon. It looks like that is the normal way for genin teams to do things."

Menma pitched in his own two cents at this point. "She said that we will be doing much of the same training we have been doing before now, except on a higher level. Some teamwork exercises too. So the typical family training stuff, I guess." He noticed the smile on Naruto's face became slightly strained when he said this. He gained an uncomfortable look on his face as Narumi glared at him. "Ah…sorry, Aniki…I mean…"

Naruto waved him off. All three of them were aware that neither of their parents ever bothered to help Naruto in his training. And Naruto had given up on hoping that they eventually will long ago. Not to mention the nonexistent relationship between Naruto and his parents. It was a semi-taboo subject between the three siblings. "It's fine, don't worry about it. Nothing new about it, anyways." The last part was said to himself quietly, but they both heard it.

A stilted silence descended upon the kitchen. Suddenly feeling the desire to leave grow, Naruto finished his food and dropped the dishes in the sink. "I'll see you guys later, I've got to get going." Hearing the goodbyes of his siblings, he walked out the door and headed for Urahara Shop.

* * *

 **Urahara Shop**

Naruto walked through the entrance of the shop and looked around. He was unable to spot Urahara anywhere, but he did see something that caused him to do a double take. Behind the counter reading a magazine, was a woman.

She was a dark skinned woman with a slender build, golden eyes and long purple hair that was done in a ponytail. She had on an orange over-shirt that had two white straps on each shoulder and a beige sash around her waist. Under this, it was possible to spot a black, long sleeved shirt. She also had on black stretch pants with a pair of brown shoes.

As Naruto blinked at her in surprise, he idly noticed that she also seemed surprised to see him, but was able to recover before him. She smirked at him. "You looking for Kisuke?"

This questioned allowed Naruto to recover from his stupor. "Um, yeah. Is he in?" Who was this? He had been coming here for the past six years but had never seen her before.

The woman and walked over to the door towards the backrooms. Motioning for him to follow, she called out to him. "Come on then. He is in the middle of one of his 'projects' right now." She said with a roll of her eyes.

This caused Naruto to grimace. It was always dangerous to suddenly walk in on Urahara while he was working on something. The one time Naruto had done so, he was nearly scarred for life. Mentally.

As he followed after her, Naruto looked at her with curiosity. "I don't mean to sound rude…but I haven't seen you around the store before. How do you know Urahara?" He asked.

The woman smirked again. "I've known Kisuke for years. Most definitely since before you were born." This confused Naruto greatly. If that was true, why hadn't he seen her before now? As if reading his mind, the woman continued speaking. With a shrug, she said, "We must have just been missing each other or something."

' _For six years?'_ Naruto thought incredulously. Not to mention the fact that Urahara had never even _mentioned_ her before. Naruto blinked as a sudden thought came to him. He grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. "Ah, sorry. I haven't introduced myself. I'm Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze. It's nice to meet you."

She smiled down at him as they walked. "I already know of you." She seemed to think for a moment. "Call me Soifon." She said at last. Naruto nodded as he memorized the name.

The two of them soon came upon the room which had been dubbed as the "workshop." The closer they got, the louder the noise coming from within. It was such a varied assortments of noises and sounds that Naruto couldn't even begin to comprehend what could possibly be going on inside the room. At one point, he was pretty sure he heard some type of animal.

Despite this, Soifon fearlessly walked up to the door and yanked it open. This action greatly startled Naruto. Either not noticing his reaction or ignoring it entirely, she yelled into the room. "Kisuke! Naruto is here to see you!" No response and the noise persisted. A scowl worked its way onto Soifon's face when she got no response. Glaring, she walked through the door. Seeing her begin to walk in, Naruto reached out to grab her, but it was too late. She had already entered the room.

Naruto stood fearfully as he waited for the result. She was obviously much braver than he was. Naruto would never have walked into the death trap like that. The wait stretched on for what felt like hours, although it was probably only seconds. Eventually, Naruto heard a familiar voice from the local candy store owner cry out and all of the noise stopped immediately after. "OW! The heck was that for?!" Urahara cried.

The voice of Soifon responded. "That was because you didn't hear me the first time I called! You know the drill, you get one chance. If you don't take it, I get to punch you to make you listen."

"Ow! Ok, I get it! Stop dragging me!" Naruto sweat dropped when he heard this.

A moment later, Naruto watched as Soifon dragged Urahara out of his workshop and into the hall. Seemingly without a care in the world, she threw in in front of Naruto. Seeing this scene play out before him, an amused smirk appeared on Naruto's face. Soon after, Urahara picked himself up off of the floor. In an instant, the man had made his fan appear out of nowhere as he looked at Naruto. "So what can I do for you, Naruto? You don't usually come by here this early in the day…Did you come just to see this handsome face?"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "No. I came by to tell you that I got my team. We meet every day at eight and then we have a mission. I don't think that I will be able to come by as often anymore because of it." He said.

Urahara nodded as he fanned himself. "Hmm…I see. That's fine. Your training has gone fantastically. There are still a few things I can teach you, but you really do need some experience that can only be gained in battle."

Naruto smiled as he heard this. While Urahara constantly grated on Naruto's nerves, he did respect the man for his skill with a blade. To hear honest praise from him made it truly feel like Naruto has made great progress from when he first started. While he was confident in his ability, he hasn't really had much of a chance to fight anyone with it besides Urahara and Yūgao for a little bit. Urahara's evaluations always told him just where he stood.

Looking at a nearby clock, Naruto was surprised to see the time. "I have to go. I need to meet my team and I want to get there a bit before the designated time." He turned to the purple haired woman. "It was nice to meet you, Soifon-san."

She smiled at him. "Back at you. I would like to spar with you sometime. I could give you some pointers and it should be fun."

Naruto smiled back. "Sure. I look forward to it." With that final remark, he left.

After he was gone, the two remaining people stood in silence for a bit. Eventually, Urahara smirked and looked over to her. "'Soifon?'" He questioned.

She scowled and looked back over to him. "Shut up. I let my guard down while reading. I didn't notice his approach and I didn't want to spoil the surprise just yet. It's better when I transform in front of him without any warning. You know that." She then shrugged. "I needed a name and that is what I used."

Urahara smiled behind his fan again. "Ah, I see. I do indeed look forward to the moment when he figures it out." He agreed.

The both of them smirked in an evil manner.

* * *

 **Training Ground 12**

As Naruto walked into the training ground they were in yesterday, he figured that he had about ten minutes before eight. Looking around, he noticed that both of his teammates were there already. The two of them were sitting over by the trees. As he walked over to them, they looked up.

He raised a hand in greeting. "Morning." Sai simply stayed silent while Yakumo responded.

"Good morning, Naruto." The three of them had agreed the day before to simply drop honorifics. "You looking forward to today? I am. I can't wait to see what kind of mission we get." She seemed excited at the prospect.

Naruto's smile strained a bit when he heard this. _'She doesn't know about the D-ranks. She is actually expecting some kind of real mission.'_ He thought with pity. But he didn't want to be the one to ruin all of her hopes and expectations, so he replied with something that wasn't the truth. "Who knows? Maybe we will get some kind of important document we need to deliver quickly or something." _'Bullshit.'_

She smiled and nodded. "Yeah, maybe. Something like that sounds good."

Once she looked away, Naruto shook his head in pity. _'Poor thing…she has no idea what's coming.'_ He then looked over to Sai. "What about you Sai? How you doing?" He asked.

Sai simply looked over to him. After a moment, he had a response. "I am doing well. I am capable of performing any task assigned to us today."

This caused Naruto to tilt his head in slight confusion. "Right…" He quickly shook his confusion off. "Do you guys have any idea what kind of training we will be doing? Like do you know if Yūgao-sensei ever told us?"

Yakumo frowned. "I don't think so…or if she did, I don't remember."

Sai shook his head. "She never disclosed to us what the training we will be doing is."

Naruto hummed in thought. "I wonder what it will be…"

"It all depends on what you guys have done so far." This response caused Naruto to jump slightly in surprise as it came from right behind him. In the back of his mind, he noticed that both Yakumo and Sai seemed surprised at this new voice as well.

"Whoa!" Spinning around while instinctively reaching for his sword, he saw a smiling Yūgao standing behind him. After he got his heart rate under control, Naruto sighed. "Please don't do that." He requested.

If anything, Yūgao's smile only got bigger. "You should pay more attention to your surroundings. It would have been bad if I was an enemy."

Naruto scowled. But before he could say anything, Sai spoke up. "While it is true that a shinobi should always be aware of the surrounding area, you are a jōnin. It would be extremely difficult for a genin like us to detect you if you did not desire to be found." He said logically.

Yūgao smiled over at him. "That's true enough, but you should still always stay alert." She looked over the three of them. After a moment, she clapped her hands. "Well then, as I said, our training from here will depend on what you guys have done already. All three of you graduated from the academy, so you have the three basic jutsus down. Can you guys give me an overview of your techniques and specializations? If you have any weaknesses you would like to work on, tell me that as well." She nodded towards Yakumo. "You will go in the same order you introduced yourselves in."

Taking her cue, Yakumo nodded. "Well, I am a long to mid-range genjutsu user. Although my bloodline allows me to deal real damage to my targets, I am best suited for a support type role. My bloodline also makes me capable of increasing the strength of my genjutsu using my paintings. And these paintings need more time depending on the complexity." She took on a thoughtful look. "Because I have dedicated most of my time and training to honing my genjutsu, my taijutsu and ninjutsu are lacking. However, it is also due to this fact that I can confidently say that I have the most advanced genjutsu skills of all the genin." She said with a bit of pride.

Yūgao mulled over all the information she was just given. "Ok. Based on the single genjutsu from yesterday, I can agree with you that you have the most advanced genjutsu of all the genins. It took a little bit for even my clone to notice it. It is safe to say that you are good enough in that area for now. We will mainly be working on your taijutsu while adding some ninjutsu as well. Am I correct in assuming that you have relatively low stamina both physically and chakra wise?" A hesitant nod was her answer. Yūgao smiled at her. "That's normal for genjutsu specialists. They focus on their genjutsu so they often do not work on physical capabilities as much and they don't work on chakra capacity as it is not needed. It would also be nice to have something else to fall back on if you are unable to create a genjutsu for some reason or your opponent is capable to break out of it somehow. We will work together to fix that." She looked over to Sai. "You're next."

"My specialties lie within my ink ninjutsu. I am able to create various animals with my techniques. Depending on the animal, I can use them for different tasks. For example, I can use smaller animals like mice for recon and larger animals such as tigers in order to attack. I am even able to use large birds for transportation. Because of this, I am capable of filling either a support or combat role on a team. My abilities in the taijutsu field is adequate while my ninjutsu is lacking. Furthermore, I have some training in using a tantō. I am also adept in stealth." Sai reported.

Yūgao mulled over everything she was just told. "I understand. You will do well as a recon specialist or mid-ranged fighter. Like Yakumo, we will be working on your ninjutsu, but it seems like you have well rounded abilities. If you ran out of ink, would you be out of the fight except for taijutsu?" She got a nod as an answer. "Then we will definitely be adding a jutsu or two to your arsenal." She motioned to Naruto. "And now you."

Naruto smiled. "I have training in kenjutsu, as you saw yesterday. I believe I have the best kenjutsu out of all the genins, and probably most chūnins, but I do not even know how many can use a sword. As I feel the most comfortable using kenjutsu and some taijutsu, I am a predominately close range fighter. Although I have some techniques that allow me to fight at mid-range if I need to." He seemed to hesitate over something. _'How much should I tell them? They are my team…I don't have to tell them everything, but I should tell them a little bit.'_ He came to a conclusion. "It isn't known, and I prefer it to stay that way, but I have a couple of jutsus that don't need hand seals."

This stunned the audience. No hand seals for his techniques? That took years of training to master! And he was capable of this for more than one jutsu? Yūgao was the first to recover from her surprise. She quickly made two clones and sent them off a little ways. "Can you show us?" She requested.

Naruto sighed inwardly, but he was expecting it. He stood up and faced the clones. He thought over which ones he should show them. After a moment, he raised his hand towards the clone on the right. " **Thunder!** " he yelled. A bolt of lightning promptly struck the clone, causing it to dispel. He then raised the hand towards the other clone. " **Fire!** " A fireball shot out of his hand and exploded upon hitting the clone. The clone was also dispelled. He decided upon these two spells as it would be easier to accept than seeing him shoot ice out of his hand. Which should be impossible as he didn't have that bloodline. Albeit a new genin having jutsu that didn't need hand signs was _still_ insane.

He turned back to his team and noted their expressions. Yakumo had her jaw hanging open while both Sai and Yūgao only had widened eyes. Once again, Yūgao was the first to speak. "Wow, that's amazing! You actually have some jutsus that don't need hand seals. And they're of two different elements. Most jōnins don't even gain the ability to do that." She closed her eyes for a moment. "Although, they are a little low powered, but that doesn't matter. Such a thing would still greatly surprise the enemy and create some kind of opening that you can use." She smiled at him. "Sorry, please continue with your abilities."

Naruto nodded. "There isn't much else. Because I'm an Uzumaki and I inherited the large reserves and stamina of one, I have semi-poor chakra control. This means I have little to no ability in genjutsu. I would say I need to work the most on my chakra control while genjutsu is my weakness."

Yūgao nodded along. "That's fine. After yesterday and what you just showed, you are definitely a close to mid-range fighter. We can work on your chakra control and we can get cast a few genjutsus on you to help you get used to noticing them and throwing them off." She looked over the three genins in front of her. "Based off of what was just disclosed about your abilities, do any of you three know what a good combat setup would be for this team?" She looked them over as she waited for an answer.

It was Sai that spoke up. "An optimal formation would be Naruto as the close range fighter that is able to fall back to mid-range as needed with myself providing additional fire from mid-range unless some sort of collaboration technique is required at close range. Yakumo would do the best as our long range specialist that provides support from a distance and casts genjutsu from out of the enemy's line of sight." This setup did make the most sense.

Yūgao grinned. "Exactly. And that is how it will go. While it would be ideal for each of you to have at least one technique that allowed you to fight from any distance, this is the basic setup of how our team will operate while in combat. Any questions?" None of them spoke up. "Good. Then today we will just be doing some basic exercises at first. Simple things like a few laps around the training ground and pushups. Over time, the training will increase in both difficulty as well as intensity. Although, today will be used to test your limits. Got it?"

A chorus of affirmations was released from the trio of genin. Yūgao nodded. "Good. Then let's get started. I want you to run around the training ground until you cannot do so anymore. When you reach that point…" Her grin suddenly looked a lot scarier. "Keep going."

It was at that point that the three of them realized that Yūgao wasn't always as nice as she appeared.

* * *

 **A Few Hours Later**

"Come on, get up! You finished your training for now, it's time to get a mission!" Yūgao was now standing over the form of three genins on the floor. All three of them were tired from running and jumping and whatever other exercise she came up with. The end result showed that Naruto had the most stamina, although that wasn't a surprise, followed by Sai and then Yakumo. It came as a slight surprise to the others that Sai had higher stamina than average, but they took it in stride. Yakumo, as they expected, had the lowest stamina out of all three of them. And although it wasn't terrible, it would at best be called average.

"Aren't you guys excited for your first mission? Let's go!" Yūgao certainly looked like she was looking forward to it, but Naruto was fairly certain that she was actually only looking forward to seeing their reactions when they realized what kind of missions they would be getting.

Hearing the reminder that they would be getting their mission, both Yakumo and Sai found the energy to get to their feet. While Yakumo looked excited, Sai put on one of those unsettling smiles of his. Naruto, knowing what was coming, only groaned and stayed on the ground.

Yakumo bound over to Yūgao in an excited manner. "Oh, this will be great!" She said. "Our first mission, I wonder what we will get." Yūgao giggled at her excitement while Naruto shot her a look of pity. If only she knew what was coming…

Sai walked over to join them. "I do not think missions are something to get excited over. They are important for the village as they both provide an income and secure the safety of the village and the inhabitants. They need to be taken seriously." He paused. That smile then came back to his face. "Although, the first mission of a new genin can be something to look forward to as it shows they are ready to serve the village."

Naruto threw Sai another look. Something about the way he spoke always sounded somewhat unusual to Naruto. Whether it was the choice of words or the lack of real emotion behind the words. But ignoring these facts, Sai clearly had no idea what D-rank missions were about either. Thinking about what they were about to go through again, Naruto sighed.

All three of the other people in the training ground looked over to him when they heard this. When she saw him on the floor still, Yakumo called out to him. "Naruto, you need to get up now. Aren't you looking forward to our first mission?" She didn't seem to be able to understand his reluctance to get a mission.

Naruto's face morphed into one of distaste. He shook his head as he answered her question. "No, not really. I would rather keep training."

Yūgao's face lit up in understanding. It seemed she realized that Naruto knew what kind of missions were in store for them. She grinned at him. "Come on, Naruto. Get up. We are heading for the missions office now to get a mission. Think of it as an order." She said.

Naruto nearly groaned. Yūgao clearly has slight sadistic tendencies, he realized. Or maybe it was just something that all jōnin senseis had.

The love for making their students miserable.

Naruto sighed as he forced himself to his feet. He _really_ did not want to do D-rank missions. He knew that it was something all new genin teams did, but he would much rather spend his time training. Or sleeping.

He walked over to his team his team and looked at each of their expressions. Yakumo was smiling happily at him. When he looked at Sai he got another smile, but it lacked emotion. Finally looking at Yūgao, he nearly scowled when he saw the amused expression on her face. She was enjoying this.

Sighing again, Naruto motioned towards the direction the Hokage tower was in. "Alright then, let's get going." He said.

* * *

 **Mission Office**

"Team 12 reporting for their first mission." Yūgao reported. Team 12 had made it to the mission office and were now standing in front of the desk to receive their mission. The four of them were standing side by side with Yūgao on the far left.

The room was a large, wide-open space with six windows and a high ceiling. The ceiling also had the kanji for "Shinobi" printed on it. The mission desk was a long table where the people assigning the mission sat. On the front of the desk was a banner that read "mission assignment this way" as well as "everybody, do your best."

Sitting at the mission desk was an assortment of people that ranged from a civilian representative to a few chūnin. At the center of the table was a chair where the Hokage sat when he was there to assign missions, although he wasn't there right then. Iruka was also one of the people who was there to assign missions.

Looking up from his paperwork, Iruka smiled. "Oh, I see. First mission you said? Please give me a moment to check the list of available missions." He reach to grab a nearby piece of paper that listed the available missions. Before he began to speak though, he took in each of their expressions. He seemed to become amused when he noted the excitement on Yakumo's face, the seriousness of Sai's face, and the reluctance to be there on Naruto's. He cleared his throat. "Do you have any preference of what type of mission you receive?" He asked Yūgao.

' _Not a chore…'_ Naruto thought to himself.

Yūgao smiled and shook her head. "No. Whatever you have will be fine with us." She responded.

Hearing this, Naruto gave a small huff. _'That isn't true. I'm not fine with D-ranks.'_ As if she read his mind, Yūgao shot Naruto an amused glance.

Iruka grinned. He briefly looked over the mission list before he found what he wanted. "Ok then. I have the perfect starting mission for you." Finding the appropriate scroll, he tossed it to Yūgao.

Catching it, Yūgao opened it and read the mission. Her smile kept getting bigger as she continued to read whatever was on the scroll. She nodded to Iruka before turning to face her team. "Ok. Our mission is straightforward. We are to report to the designated client and apprehend the specified targets." She said.

Hearing this, Naruto was starting to grow hopeful that things wouldn't actually suck. But he was hesitant to truly believe that new genins were actually assigned a mission to capture some enemies. Sai and Yakumo, who didn't have the same hesitation, nodded and spoke at the same time. "Yes, ma'am."

Naruto only sighed to himself and nodded. _'Troublesome…'_ He froze. After a moment, he rubbed his temples as he felt a headache come on. _'Now I sound like Shikamaru…'_

Totally unaware to Naruto's inner turmoil as she was too excited to see their expressions crumble, Yūgao ushered her team out the door.

She was grinning like mad the entire time.

* * *

 **15 Minutes Later**

After a bit of walking, they had reached the client's home. Naruto noticed the closer they got, the more Yakumo seemed to look forward to hearing about what the mission was. Yūgao wasn't answering any questions about the mission when they asked. And after hearing the description, even Naruto felt some hesitant hope being made. But he was reluctant to give into it.

As they walked up the path to the front door, Naruto looked around. It was a typical house in the village. Nothing special about it at all. But he knew that the best way to stay hidden was to be in plain sight, so he did not take things as they appeared to be.

Yūgao knocked on the door after they reached it. After a minute of waiting, it opened to reveal an elderly looking woman. When she saw them, she gave a kind looking smile. Looking at Yūgao, she spoke. "Yes? How may I help you?"

Yūgao smiled back at her. "Hello, we are the team who were assigned the mission you put in at the missions desk." She said.

Hearing this, the smile on the woman grew. "Oh yes, of course. Please, follow me." She gestured into the house and led them through it. She led them down the hall towards the other side of the house. After a moment, they reached the door that led to the backyard. The woman opened it and walked through. As they followed after her, they saw that she had a large backyard.

Looking around, Naruto immediately caught onto what was happening. When he thought back on the wording that Yūgao gave them for the mission, he sighed. _'I shouldn't have ever even let that shred of hope get started. I was so stupid for doing that.'_ He thought to himself.

The woman turned to face them and gestured around her. All throughout the large backyard were numerous fruits and vegetables that were growing. They appeared to all be ripe and ready to be harvested. _And there were so many of them._ Naruto was seriously confused on how they all fit in the yard. He turned his attention back to the woman when she began to speak to them. "I need you to pick all of the fruits and vegetables here. And please be careful with them, I sell some of them as well."

Yūgao smiled and nodded to her. "Don't worry. I will make sure that they will be careful with all of it. Just leave it to us." The woman nodded, and after telling them where the baskets were, walked off. Yūgao turned to the three genins. "Ok, team. Your mission is to collect all of the ripe crops and deposit them in the designated baskets. You must also complete this task in a timely manner. Any questions?" She seemed to truly enjoy the expressions that the three of them were making. Even Sai had a confused look on his face.

Yakumo was the one who hesitantly spoke up. "Um…Yūgao-sensei…picking fruits is our mission?" She seemed truly confused by this idea. When Yūgao grinned at her, she got her answer. "But…back at the mission office you told us we were getting a mission to apprehend the specified target."

If it was possible, Naruto would have claimed that Yūgao's grin somehow got even bigger than it was before. "What are you talking about, Yakumo?" Their sensei asked. "This fits perfectly here. The vegetables are your specified target. You need to apprehend them and move them to the basket." This response seemed to stun both of Naruto's teammates. Naruto on the other hand only sighed to himself again. Yūgao clapped. "Now then, time for you three to get to work!"

* * *

 **3 Hours later**

It took a few hours for them to actually manage to collect all of the ripened food. And throughout the entire process, both Yakumo and Naruto were grumbling about it not being a real mission. Although Naruto wasn't really surprised that it had turned out that their mission was a chore, it was clear that both Sai and Yakumo were completely blindsided by it. They would have finished sooner, but the client offered to give a bonus if they also cleaned all of the fruit and vegetables they had picked.

Each of the three genins were now finished with their portion of the cleaning and were eager to just get out of there. As they were waved off by the elderly woman after getting the signed mission scroll, Yakumo looked over to Yūgao who had a smile on her face throughout the entire process.

"Yūgao-sensei…" Yakumo began, getting the purple haired woman's attention. "…Will all of our missions be like…" She seemed to struggle to find words needed to express her dissatisfaction over getting such a trivial mission. Eventually, she found a word that expressed her displeasure. "… _that?_ " She said finally.

Yūgao smiled at her. She seemed to be doing that a lot today. "Like what?" She asked innocently. Naruto nearly snorted when he heard this. As if she didn't know…

"Are all of missions going to be a _chore?_ " Yakumo elaborated.

Yūgao seemed to think about it. "If by chore you are referring to missions to assists the civilians of the village, then yes." She seemed to take twisted joy out of the way that they crumbled when they heard that. It must be a jōnin sensei thing. "Welcome to D-rank missions! Training and D-rank missions will be your life for a while." She said with grand hand motions.

All she got in response were two groans and a blank look.

* * *

 **Uzumaki-Namikaze Household (Later that Day)**

After he separated from his team, Naruto decided there was still enough time to get some more training in. So he went back to the training ground and practiced his katas for a while as he reflected on the day. The training wasn't too bad, although it was tiring. But it wasn't really anything Naruto wasn't expecting. But then there was the mission.

While it wasn't the harvesting itself was really challenging, the state of being hunched over in the hot sun for a couple hours while they had an overbearing elderly woman breathing down their necks tired him out mentally. The best part was that Naruto was fairly sure there were even worse D-rank missions out there he was going to get.

After following this line of thought, Naruto thought about how he felt about the team so far and possible combinations they could create based on what he already knew about his teammates and their abilities. Naruto was so lost in thought that he never noticed the day seemed to just disappear. The next thing he knew, he had been in the training ground for three hours. Deciding that he had spent enough time there, Naruto headed back home.

Heaving a sigh, Naruto walked into the living room. When he entered, he saw an identical scene to the one from the day before. Both of his siblings were slouched in chairs in the room. Just like the day before, they both looked tired.

Naruto smirked in a tired manner at them. "So…how were _your_ days? I can safely say mine would have been much better if I didn't have that D-rank mission." He started the conversation.

And just like the day before, they both groaned at him. Menma spoke up. "It was horrible, Aniki. Kaa-chan gave us some training from hell first. That went on for a while, then we had to go put up with this nagging old man who just wouldn't shut up! He was practically criticizing us every second as we painted his stupid fence. I know how to paint a fence, dammit! I don't need his critique on how I'm holding the brush!"

Narumi then took the chance to speak. "Menma is totally right, Nii-chan. And then after we finally finished, Kaa-chan decided to make us run until we collapse because she 'forgot to make us do that earlier.' What the heck is that? I mean come on!"

Naruto chuckled when he heard this. It made him feel better to know that he wasn't the only one who had a teacher who seemed to enjoy making them collapse from laps or it wasn't just his team suffering from helping annoying old people. He shrugged his shoulders in a helpless manner. "My day went along much of the same line as yours. Started with training until we collapse, then deal with an elderly woman who wanted us to harvest her food. She also seemed to enjoy directing our every move. The only difference is that Yūgao-sensei let us go after we turned in our mission."

""Lucky."" They spoke together.

Naruto shook his head. "I don't think anyone could be considered lucky in any way as long as they are assigned a D-rank mission. It just doesn't work that way." After a moment, they both agreed with him. That just wasn't how the world worked. Naruto then spoke up again. "Were you told how long you will be doing D-ranks?" He asked.

Menma shook his head. "Kaa-chan said that we would keep doing them until she felt that we were good enough for a higher ranked mission. Or until she got bored of watching us suffer. Whatever comes first. So probably when we are ready for a higher ranked mission." He looked over towards Naruto. "What about you? Did your teacher tell you how long you will have to do D-ranks?" He asked.

Naruto shook his head as he replied. "We were only told that training and D-ranks would be all we did as a team for a while. So no, I don't have any clue when we will stop doing them, same as you two."

Narumi pouted. "I don't want to spend all our time doing this. I want a higher ranked mission-ttebane!"

Naruto looked at her with a sympathetic expression. "We all do, Narumi. But it won't happen until the higher ups get enough of watching us suffer." He threw on an unconvincing grin. "But who knows? They may let us off the hook soon." He said. After a few moments of silence where they simply looked at each other, all three of them hung their heads and sighed.

As if that would really happen any time soon.

* * *

 **Urahara Shop (Two Weeks Later)**

Naruto dragged his feet as he entered the candy shop owned by Urahara. It had been a mentally draining two weeks. Although Yūgao didn't make them collapse from fatigue like she had on the first day, her training was still tiring and often left all three of the genin a little short on breath. And after they finished the training, she would take them to the mission office to get a new D-rank mission. In hindsight, they were not as bad as Naruto had expected them to be.

They were so much worse.

In the past, he, Narumi and Menma had always dreaded D-ranks because they were chores. But the truth was that they were so much more than that. Not only were these… _missions_ -and he hesitated to really refer to them as that- chores like they had expected, most of them also came with an annoying client!

Whether they were picking flowers, babysitting, walking dogs or anything else, they all had a client that would somehow know all of the buttons they needed to push to get Naruto mad. Granted, not all of the missions were like that, but a lot of them really did have that kind of client.

It also seemed that both Yakumo and Sai were quickly disillusioned as to what the beginning of their shinobi careers were. It was truly a sight to watch Yakumo become increasingly depressed and resigned with each passing mission. Not to mention that Sai seemed truly confused for some reason that these chores were even considered missions. Going back to what he said before they got assigned their first one, it was probably because he thought all of the missions assigned were important for the village in some way.

Shaking off these thoughts, Naruto walked into the shop and looked around. They had gotten out relatively earlier than usual today and he was here to see if Soifon was willing to spar with him. If she had known Urahara for as long as she had said, then he wouldn't be surprised if she was also extremely strong. And it had been a while before he had fought someone who was far stronger than him and was willing to use their free time to give him tips. Yūgao didn't really count as she was his sensei.

Looking over to the counter, Naruto smiled when he saw that the dark skinned woman was there again. As he walked over to her, she looked up from her magazine and smiled at him. "Hey there, Naruto. What's up?" She asked.

Naruto shrugged with a smile. "Not much. Just swung by to see if you were still up for a spar. I got off early from my team today so I thought it would be a good time to come by."

Soifon grinned. "Yeah, sure. Sounds like fun. Come on, let's grab Kisuke to play referee and head to the training ground." With that, she walked through the door that led deeper into the building with Naruto following behind her.

They walked through the hall and stepped into the back room. Urahara was sitting at the table looking over some papers again. When they walked in, he looked up. When he saw who it was, he gained a smile. "Oh, Naruto-kun!" He lunged and latched onto Naruto in a vice-like hug. "I knew you would come back! You missed me that much, huh? Just couldn't get enough of me, could you?" Naruto's eyebrow started to twitch again. "Don't worry. It's nothing to be ashamed about! It's perfectly normal."

It was at this point that a growling sound was beginning to emanate from Naruto's throat. With probably more force than was strictly necessary, Naruto shoved Urahara off of him and onto the floor. "Shut up, moron. I'm only here to see if Soifon-san is willing to have that spar she talked about last time I was here. She is. Now are you willing to ref the spar or not?" He glared at the bucket hat wearing man.

Urahara was back on his feet in an instant, fan out again to cover the grin on his face. "A spar? Oh sure, I can proctor a spar between you two." He pointed dramatically towards the door. "Now then, off we go! I want to get a good spot to watch this one sided beat down!" With that, he walked out the door, listening as the growling sound came back as he did so.

Naruto scowled as he followed Urahara out the door with a grinning Soifon. While he was sure that he was going to lose, the way Urahara said it pissed him off. But that was probably the point. Urahara always did get a kick out of pissing Naruto off.

* * *

 **Underground Training Ground**

Once they made it to the training ground that was hidden underneath the shop, both Naruto and Soifon walked off a bit and then faced one another. Urahara walked over to a nearby boulder and stood on top of it to get a better view.

Once they had reached a good distance into the training ground, Naruto called out to Soifon. "How are we going to do this? Anything goes? Or weapons? Or hand to hand?" He had no idea how Soifon normally fought. He couldn't see any weapons on her, but she could just have them hidden away somewhere.

She grinned at him. "I have heard good things about your skills with a sword from Kisuke. While I can use a sword, I prefer hand to hand combat. That's definitely my specialty. I would like to see where you stand on that field, if you don't mind." She said.

Naruto grinned and nodded. He hadn't fought a taijutsu expert before. Getting into a battle stance, he responded. "That's fine with me. Let's get this thing going!" Soifon's grin got bigger as she too got into a battle stance.

When he saw they were both ready, Urahara called out to them. "Ok, you two! This will be a friendly spar, so no serious injuries! It will go until either Naruto gets subdued, gets his ass beat too much, or calls it quits like a baby." With each condition, Naruto's eyebrow twitched again. Urahara seemed to be pretty sure that Naruto had absolutely no chance to win this. While Naruto himself didn't quite believe he would win this, the way Urahara said it really pissed him off every time.

But that was pretty much true for most things the man said.

"Are both of you ready?" Urahara asked.

Soifon nodded. Her grin turned slightly feral, setting Naruto on edge a bit. "Ready and willing, Kisuke." She said.

Naruto gained a determined expression. If he was going to lose, it would definitely be after he got in a couple good hits. He nodded. "Ready whenever." He declared.

Urahara grinned. "Well then. On your mar-GO!" Urahara interrupted himself abruptly.

Caught off guard, Naruto was unprepared for the kick that came at him from the side. It seemed that Soifon didn't have the problem of being caught off guard at Urahara's antics.

As he was sent flying off to the side, there was only one thought in Naruto's head. _'She is freaking fast!'_ He had barely seen her move! It was as if she was propelled by some unseen force. Not only that, but she kicks _really_ hard, too!

Naruto was able to land on his feet, and it was only instinct that told him to dodge to the side. It was extremely fortunate that he had. Right where he had been a second before was Soifon who had her fist embedded into the earth. Naruto could only gawk at the spider web of cracks and small crater that formed around her. _'The fuck is up with that strength?!'_ He had thought only Tsunade had insane strength like that. He looked up when he heard Urahara call out to them from a distance.

"Soifon, you should let up a bit. I know it has been a while since you fought, but you really should have better control over your strength and speed. Remember, I said not to cause serious injury to Naruto-kun. So please refrain from doing that. It would be annoying to have to heal him, after all." He requested.

"Wow, Urahara. Thank you so much for all of the concern you are showing for my wellbeing…" Naruto muttered sarcastically to himself. And somehow, Urahara actually heard him, because he was quick to respond.

"No problem, Naruto-kun!" He said cheerfully before turning back to Naruto's opponent. "But really, feel free to beat him to the ground, but please don't break him too much." He said while fanning himself.

Soifon grinned sheepishly as she scratched the back of her head. "Oh yeah, sure. I'll try to be more careful from now on."

Naruto was starting to get annoyed with the way that the two of them were treating this. He already knew he was going to lose! They didn't need to keep putting him down like that! He glared at Soifon and got back into a ready stance. "If I'm going down, I'm going to be sure to get at least one good hit in!" He declared.

This action caused Soifon to grin broadly. "Oh yeah?" She challenged. "Then let's keep going!" She said as she rushed him again.

* * *

 **Urahara Shop (45 Minutes Later)**

A groan escaped his throat as Naruto returned to consciousness. He sluggishly sat up from his spot on the spare futon. Once he propped himself up with a hand, he realized just what condition his body was in as all the pain returned to him at once.

With a startled gasp, the hand that wasn't being used to prop himself up shot up to the back of his head as it throbbed in pain. "Son of a…" A muffled curse escaped his lips as he grit his teeth out of pain.

Once the pain subsided, he looked around. Naruto recognized the room as the guest room. It wasn't the first time he had collapsed from some sort of training or spar and woken up here, so he was familiar with the room. Gingerly getting to his feet while wincing all the while, Naruto moved over to the door. He exited the room and headed towards the backroom of the shop.

Upon entering the room, Naruto looked around and saw that both Soifon and Urahara were sitting around the table and talking. But they both stopped when they saw him come in. Urahara smiled at him and motioned towards an open seat. "Ah, Naruto-kun! You're alive. Wonderful, we were so worried about you!" The man said.

Naruto scowled at him. "Sure you were. And I'm also sure that you didn't get a kick out of seeing me get my ass kicked, right?" He asked sarcastically.

Urahara took on an offended look. "Why, I would never do such a thing! It hurts me to hear that you would believe that I would do that, Naruto-kun. Have I really led on such a horrible impression with you?" He asked.

"Yes." No hesitation was present for this statement. Not giving Urahara a chance to speak, Naruto turned to Soifon, who until now had been grinning throughout the conversation. "But you are seriously strong, Soifon-san. And fast. Like _really_ fast."

She smiled at him. "Thanks. I take pride in my speed." She then gained an apologetic look. "I'm sorry about all that, I seem to have lost touch with my strength and speed." Her smile turned feral again. "I've decided to start sparring with Kisuke to fix that." Said candy shop owner suddenly stiffened. This reaction caused a huge grin to spread across Naruto's face. Any pain caused to Urahara was welcome with Naruto.

Naruto looked at both of the other people in the room with him. "But really, you both are insanely strong." He looked up to the ceiling. "Sometimes, it is like your strength is out of this world, or something." He completely missed the amused looks that Soifon and Urahara shot each other. "I mean, I wasn't even able to get a hit in on you at all…" He looked frustrated as he said this.

Soifon gained another amused look when she heard him say this. "What are you talking about?" She asked him. Naruto looked at her in confusion. She rolled up her shirt a bit to show her stomach area. Right in the center of it was a bruise. This seemed to stun Naruto. "Right at the end, you managed to get a hit in on me." She looked apologetic again. "It was that which caused me to hit you harder than I meant to out of instinct and knock you out. You really surprised me with that one." She looked at him quizzically. "You don't remember?" You asked him.

Naruto frowned and shook his head. "No…I don't."

Urahara hummed in thought. "You must have hit your head harder than we thought you did. You should take it easy for now. Probably go home and get some more rest."

Naruto nodded and stood up, wincing again as he did so. "You're probably right. I'm in pain and I'm tired. I will probably turn in early." He turned to Soifon and bowed as much as the pain would allow him. "Thank you for the spar."

She waved him off. "It was no problem. I had fun. You should work on your technique a bit more. Your speed and power are ahead for someone your age, but your form falls behind somewhat in comparison to that same speed and power. Come by some other time and then I can show you how to improve it."

Naruto nodded. "Will do, thanks." He waved at them and turned towards the door, but before he walked through, he paused. After some thought, he turned and spoke. "I haven't seen Yoruichi for a while. He usually comes by to greet me when I'm here. Did something happen?" He asked.

For some reason, Urahara sent an amused look to Soifon. Soifon was the one to reply though, an amused look of her own on her face. "No, nothing happened. Yoruichi just likes to disappear for a while every now and then. I like to do the same. You will see him again soon."

Hearing this, Naruto nodded and turned towards the door again. "See you two later." And with that, he left.

It was silent for a minute, but eventually it was broken when Soifon spoke up. "Do you have any idea what that light was?" She asked.

Urahara gained a serious look as he shook his head. "No, I don't know what it was. But did you notice how part of it looked and felt familiar?"

Soifon nodded gravely. "Yes. While the lighter portion looked new, the darker part of it was just like that aura that those creatures that started to appear on our world had. And the one they turned into when killed." She gained a slightly worried look. "Do you think it is something we should be concerned about?"

Urahara shook his head. "It is probably fine. We can safely say that Naruto isn't one of those creatures, and it only at the end of the fight."

Soifon thought back on the end of the spar.

* * *

 **Flashback (20 Minutes Ago)**

Naruto was panting as he laid on the floor. There was sweat dripping down his face and he felt like his body weighed a ton. He was also in extreme pain and was certain that he would be getting numerous bruises later on. Looking up, Soifon stood nearby. He just couldn't understand how someone could be that fast or strong. This was the kind of level he expected a kage to be at. But both Urahara and Soifon were at such levels.

He grit his teeth in irritation when he saw the smirk on her face. He couldn't even get in a single hit! He doesn't know how long it has been since they started, but he was now on the floor with a bunch of injuries while his opponent was looking like they hadn't even exerted any effort at all!

When she saw him look over to her, Soifon spoke up. "Do you give up? You're good but you need to work harder before you can match me in hand to hand combat." She said.

Naruto grit his teeth in agitation. Was all of that work for nothing? Didn't he improve at all? He had been training for six years!

His thoughts were interrupted when Soifon spoke up again. "There is nothing wrong with admitting when you are beaten. It shows that you know your limit. Just give up now before you get seriously injured." She requested. She shrugged. "Hey, for a kid, you did great. But you aren't ready for this playing field yet." She turned and started to walk away.

Naruto was sorely tempted to just do that. He was in a lot of pain and he was extremely tired. But he also knew that there were times in the future when he may come against someone else who is this strong, and they may not be as merciful. He needed to keep going until he couldn't move anymore. He needed to truly know his limits.

The wind around Naruto began to pick up, but so far only Urahara noticed. "Don't screw around with me." He muttered. This gained Soifon's attention as she looked back to him. She was surprised to see Naruto start to stand. She narrowed her eyes as some sort of aura began to form around him.

She decided to speak up. "Be careful there, you're pretty hurt." She told him.

The wind started to pick up even more as the aura became more visible. It started to become a distinctive mix of silvery-white and purplish-black. Naruto's eyes were also glowing the same color. The blue one was glowing silvery-white while the violet one glowed purplish-black. "Don't. Screw. Around. With. ME!" The aura exploded around him in every direction.

The output of energy completely shocked Soifon and Urahara. They were both so surprised by the aura that they were unable to react as Naruto shot forward with new speed. Soifon only came back to awareness right before she was punched. But it was too late for her to dodge it as Naruto struck her in the stomach.

Soifon grunted at the unexpected strength behind the attack. Before she could stop herself, she reacted with a kick to Naruto's head that sent him flying into a bolder nearby. It was only after he impacted that she realized what had happened.

With widened eyes, she cursed. "Oh, shit!" Both she and Urahara sped over to make sure he was ok. When they got there, they found Naruto on the ground, surrounded by rubble and unconscious.

* * *

 **Flashback End**

Soifon rubbed at her stomach. "It seriously surprised me to see that. I definitely wasn't expecting anything like that."

Urahara nodded. "I agree. I would have asked him if he knew about the aura, but once he admitted he didn't remember I decided it would probably be better if we didn't and let him tell us about it when he wanted to. You agree?" She nodded. "Good. Then we will just wait for him to tell us." He said as he fanned himself. "On to other manners, would you agree about how strong he is?"

Soifon grinned and nodded. "He is definitely at lieutenant level. I can guarantee that much. And he is only twelve right now?" She shook her head. "He has serious potential to become some sort of monster in the future. At least as much potential as Ichigo has"

Urahara smiled and nodded. "Yes, it truly is amazing, isn't it? I'm glad I began to teach him, he really has improved greatly."

Soifon smiled. But after a moment, it turned mischievous. "But that isn't the only thing that Naruto and Ichigo have in common." Urahara looked over to her in curiosity. She grinned at him. "They both find you to be a huge pain in the ass."

The only response she got was a huff and some muttering.

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 14!**

 **Enter Yoruichi/Soifon! If you couldn't figure out that was actually Yoruichi, then you must not be a fan of Bleach.**

 **I have some trouble writing Sai. I sometimes feel like I'm writing Shino or something instead…**

 **When I want two or more people to speak together, is it better to simply say they spoke together or put double quotation marks? I mean like ""this."" Personally, I like the first one better, but I could work with the second.**

 **So I was conflicted on exactly how I would pull off the spar between Naruto and Yoruichi. I wanted to have them spar, but I didn't want to write it and have it totally suck. I think this was a nice compromise. It happened, and I didn't have to actually write it! Double win!**

 **The "Don't screw around with me" part was pulled from Negima.**

 **So I had this idea. There is probably no way I will ever do it. But what if one of the worlds I had Naruto go to was actually the canon world? I can't decide if it is stupid or interesting. What do you think?**

 **And why do these chapters keep getting longer?**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	15. Mission to Wave: Start

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 15!**

 **Shorter chapter compared to the other recent ones this time. My family moved this week and so I haven't really had time to write this chapter. That is also the reason it took so freaking long to get it out. Well, long compared to what I normally do. At least it wasn't a month or something.**

 **Over 200 follows and 100 reviews? Hell yeah. You guys are awesome.**

 **Screw this damn heat wave.**

 **Possible Kingdom Hearts 3 multiplayer? Yes please.**

 **Holy crap. I hate how bad the last chapter was at certain parts. I could easily point out the parts where I was writing it while tired. It made me cringe a couple times.**

 **Forgot to ask this last chapter. I put "Soifon" instead of "Suì-Fēng." Does anyone actually care? I prefer Soifon.**

 **The canon idea was received much better than I expected. I may have to put some serious consideration into it after all. The problem is what time period would I put it in? I am planning on doing the other worlds during the time skip, but when in the timeline will the canon world be in? Would Naruto visit it while it is before the time skip there? Like chūnin exams or something? Or after the time skip? And I am reluctant to do it after the time skip because Naruto himself would not be at that point yet. That needs some thought.**

* * *

 **LordGhostStriker: Good comparison. Thanks for clearing that up. :)**

 **Raidentensho: I have thought about adding some kind of armor abilities, but nothing has been planned. It was more like a brainstorming thing. I'm not against it, but haven't really planned for it. I may add it in the future. And Kingdom Hearts 3 elements? Those do look like fun…**

 **EllieGmanlovesHalo: Pending**

 **Asherrit: There's an idea. But I would probably also want to add a light ability to counter it. But I have no idea what.**

 **FinalKingdomHearts: Is that a question?**

 **erneymatt: I have no idea if I'm doing a pairing yet, let alone who it would be with. I myself like Kairi as well, but hesitate to take that from Sora.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the Story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else, I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Diety Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Diety Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **Training Ground 12 (3 Weeks Later)**

"Come on, get up!" A female voice called. In response, two more voices groaned in unison. In the middle of the training ground were four people. Three of them were genin who were extremely tired from their latest bout of training, while the last was their jōnin sensei who was standing above their prone positions on the ground.

Yūgao clapped her hands to hurry them along. "Come on. Don't you guys want your mission?" Her grin only got wider when she heard three groans this time.

It has been a little more than a month since team 12 was formed and they started taking missions. It had quickly become the normal thing to train every day and then go out on a mission. While this wouldn't be a problem normally, the issue was that all three of the genins were quickly fed up with all of their typical missions, D-ranks.

Despite all forms of protest and/or begging, Yūgao had refused all attempts so far to get her to allow a higher ranked mission. The reason that they were always given was that they were not ready for them yet.

Secretly, her genin believed that she was secretly some kind of sadist.

It was very likely.

Regardless, their current reluctance was due to this knowledge. The three of them were not eager to go out and get another D-rank mission where they would be forced to do some civilians bidding while being ridiculed by the same civilian. That was definitely not how they enjoyed spending their time. At all.

Yūgao put more force into her tone. "Get up! We're going to get a mission!" She said.

With a deep sigh, Naruto heaved himself up onto his feet. Looking over, he saw his two teammates doing the same. Naruto wanted to groan again. He _really_ hated these missions. He looked over to Yūgao and spoke up. "Yūgao-sensei…" He began, gaining her attention. "…How far off do you believe we are until we are capable of taking on a higher rank mission?" He asked.

Yūgao took on a thoughtful look. After a few moments of silence where she looked each of her genin over, she spoke up. "Honestly? Not long now. The three of you work well enough together and you have completed the minimum number of D-ranks needed to take on a C-rank. Right now, I am simply polishing up some of your skills before we head out for a higher ranked mission. So it shouldn't be too long."

This response was slightly unexpected for the three genin. But after she said it, a broad grin stretched across Naruto's face while a wide smile broke out on Yakumo's. Even Sai seemed to have a smile that didn't seem as forced as usual. But his was less of excitement and more of relief.

Nobody liked D-ranks.

"But not right now. You guys are still going to be doing D-ranks for now." And just like that, all form of hope and happiness died out from their eyes. "Now enough stalling, let's go!" And with that, she walked out of the training ground with three depressed genin following after her.

* * *

 **Missions Office**

As the four of them walked up to the missions office, they passed by a woman walking out of it. She was a plump woman with dark brown hair that was kept in three separate poofs. She had on pink lipstick, pink nail-polish and purple eyeshadow. She also had on multiple colored rings. But it was what was struggling in her grasp that really got their attention.

It was a brown cat with a line running down her forehead and three lines crossing that one. Her eyes were an amber color. The cat also had a red ribbon on her right ear.

The cat was struggling with all her might to get free of the woman's grasp as she squeezed the life out of the cat. Instead of frowning at the blatant animal cruelty, both Naruto and Yakumo smirked at the sight. They had instantly recognized the cat as Tora. Like every other genin team in the village, they too had been forced to chase after the demon cat all over the village. Tora seemed to be particularly fond of attempting to claw their eyes out. And because of this fact, the cat wouldn't be getting any sympathy or pity from them.

Naruto even had the nerve to wave cheekily to the cat with a smile as they walked by. While the woman didn't notice, Tora certainly did and seemed to glare back. This only served to make Naruto smirk even more.

Sai, seeing this exchange, spoke up. "That was unadvisable. Now the next time we are sent to retrieve Tora she will be even more violent.

Naruto thought about it. After a moment, he shivered before shaking his head. "That's a problem for future me." He said and continued walking.

Once they entered the missions office, team 12 noticed that they weren't the only genin team there. Ahead of them in front of the desk was team 11. Looking at Narumi and Menma, Naruto immediately noticed that they were both covered in scratches and seemed to be extremely irritated. This made it easy for him to guess who it was that had just brought Tora in.

Team 12 stopped a little ways behind them as to not interrupt the current discussion. It looked as if team 11 had got a mission sooner than normal today and because of it, they had enough time to consider taking out another one.

Minato was currently listing off the possible missions they could take up. But none of them seemed to be anything good. "Hm, let's see now…" Minato said. "You could babysit the chief counselor's three year old. Help his wife do the shopping." His eyes lit up as he looked back up at them. "Oh, or you can help dig up the potato-" He was cut off due to an outburst from Menma.

"No way!" He said as he crossed his arms. "We are sick and tired of all these stupid missions. Give us something better!" He said.

Next to him, Narumi nodded her head. "Yeah, tou-chan! We want something better than these stupid chores we have been getting." She asserted.

Naruto smirked to himself. It seemed that it wasn't just him and his team that were getting fed up with D-rank missions. No surprises there. He tuned back in when Iruka started to speak up after heaving an aggravated sigh.

After closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose, Iruka decided to correct these foolish genin. "You don't get a higher ranked mission just because you are tired of doing your current rank. You are just rookies. Everyone starts off doing this and eventually work their way up to the higher missions." He said.

Menma scowled. "But how long does that take? At some point we will need to take our first higher ranked mission. Why not now? I'd say we mastered the art of painting fences and walking dogs after doing it every day."

Iruka shook his head. "Let me explain this to you. Every day the village gets multiple requests from clients in the form of missions. These missions range from simple babysitting jobs to assassination."

Naruto wanted to roll his eyes. _'Nothing new here…'_ It looked as if his siblings were of a similar state of mind. They both seemed annoyed to be told this when they already knew all of it.

Not noticing any of the reactions he was getting, Iruka continued speaking. "All of the requests get written down on these lists we have and are divided into different rankings ranging from S to D based on the difficulty. The village shinobi system is also divided into similar rankings."

Naruto noticed that Iruka was in full lecture mode now. He sighed quietly. _'This could take a while.'_

Unimpeded, Iruka kept talking. "At the bottom of the ranking are the academy students. Above them are the genin like you, then the chūnin like myself, then the jōnin such as your senseis." He motioned to where Minato sat. Throughout this entire lecture, Minato looked amused at the faces that Narumi and Menma were making. Iruka never noticed, of course. "Finally, there is the Hokage. The leader of the village."

' _Does he even realize he is talking to the children of said Hokage? We all have heard this so many times before…'_ Naruto thought to himself.

Iruka just kept talking. Even Kushina was starting to look impatient with him. "The missions are then assigned by us to the designated shinobi. The rank assigned depends on the experience and rank of the shinobi. If the mission is completed successfully, we get payment from the client." He motioned to Narumi and Menma. "You two are only new genin. D-ranks are all you will be getting for now." It was at this point he looked back over to team 11. He popped a vein at what he saw.

"So we had pork ramen yesterday, so we should have miso tonight." Menma was in the middle of suggesting dinner to Narumi and Kushina. They both nodded along to what he said. More ramen sounded good to them. Minato was growing increasingly amused at the situation but hid it well.

Iruka surged to his feet. "Hey! Listen to me when I am talking, dammit!" He demanded.

This caused all three of the redheads to look over. Kushina smiled sheepishly. "Ah…sorry about that. What were you saying?" She asked.

Before Iruka could respond, Narumi spoke up. "Whatever! I don't care about any of that, just give us a higher ranked mission!"

Iruka scowled and crossed his arms. "No. Not until your jōnin sensei requests for one after confirming you have suitable abilities to pass such a mission." He said in a sage like manner while nodding his head.

This last statement caused Narumi and Menma's eyes to gleam. "So what you're saying is…" Narumi began.

"…If kaa-chan says we're good enough right now, you will hand us a better mission?" Menma finished.

The two of them gained huge grins and turned to Kushina together. Kushina for her part, looked amused at what was going on. She turned her gaze to Menma when he spoke. "Kaa-chan, don't you think we have proven by now that we can take on a higher ranked mission?"

Narumi followed up after him. "Yeah, we have taken so many D-ranked missions already, I know we have passed the minimum by now. Plus, we were super close to each becoming the rookie of the year, we know we are tough enough for it."

Hearing them request a higher ranked mission so simply caused a new wave of anger to rush through Iruka. "It isn't that easy! Not only that, but you are also short a person on your team!" He yelled at them before turning to Kushina. "Kushina-sama. Please tell them how they are not yet ready to take up a higher mission." He requested.

Kushina for her part, looked as amused as her husband at the current course of events. But she knew it was time for her to make a decision. She looked at Narumi and Menma with an assessing gaze. They had been doing well enough, and had reached a decent level. But were they ready for a higher ranked mission?

Everybody in the room was silent as they waited for her to speak up. Eventually, she came to a decision. "They are not quite where I want them to be for a C-ranked mission." She said. Both Narumi and Menma instantly deflated at this. Iruka however, looked satisfied. But then she kept speaking. "However, if there was another genin team willing to go with us, then I would approve." This caused Narumi and Menma to perk back up and Iruka to gape.

Minato nodded. "That could work. Team 12 should be reporting in for a mission any minute now. We can ask Yūgao if she is willing to grant her team this joint mission." He said.

It was at this moment that Yūgao chose to announce team 12's presence and stepped forward. "We are already here, Hokage-sama." She said.

Minato nodded and smiled at her. "Can I assume you already heard the discussion?" When she nodded, he continued. "Good. So what do you say? Are you willing to let your team join team 11 on a C-ranked mission? Two teams may be a little overkill, but both of them only just graduated last month, so it evens out."

Yūgao looked over her team. Taking in their hopeful expressions. Naruto was having trouble restraining himself from showing just how eager he was to take on a higher mission, but knew that he was failing somewhat. Looking over, he noticed that Yakumo also looked excited and that even Sai had some hope in his eyes.

After a moment of deliberation, Yūgao looked back over to Minato. "I am willing to have my team participate in this mission. They are skilled enough for it and it should do them good to take part in a higher ranked mission." She stated with a nod.

Naruto had to clamp down hard on the urge to cheer. A real mission? Not a D-rank? Hell yeah! He noticed that both Narumi and Menma also seemed extremely happy about it. Iruka just gaped even more.

Minato nodded and took out a scroll. While handing it to Kushina who was closer, he started to speak again. "Very well. Teams 11 and 12 will carry out a joint C-rank mission to the Land of Waves. You will be acting as bodyguards."

The genin grew interested at this. "Who will we be guarding?" Narumi asked. "Some kind of famous person?"

Menma followed up. "Or maybe a princess or daimyō?"

Minato smiled. "Hold on a moment. I will call in the client now." He motioned to an attendant. "Please send in the client." The attendant nodded and left the room. After a moment, she returned with an older man.

He had grey hair and glasses, along with a large beard and dark eyes. He wore a sleeveless V-neck shirt with an obi, pants and a pair of sandals. He also had a towel hanging around his neck and a pointed hat. In his hand was a bottle of sake. Even from where he stood, Naruto was able to pick up the scent from the sake coming off of the man.

The man took a single look around the room and frowned. "This is all I get? Five super brats and their watchers?" He looked over the genin again and paused on Sai's blank face. "And this one is super creepy…" He said, causing Naruto to smirk and Yakumo to giggle a bit. Sai only tilted his head.

The man shook his head. "I am the super bridge builder, Tazuna! It is your job to make sure I get back home safe. Even if it costs you your lives!"

Minato continued when he finished speaking. "Team 11 and Team 12, your mission is to guard Tazuna-san as he travels back home to the Land of Waves and then to continue protecting him as he finishes constructing the bridge. Any questions?" None were raised. "Very well then. You will leave at 8:00 tomorrow morning. I leave additional details to your jōnin senseis. Dismissed."

They bowed and left the room. After speaking a few words with Kushina and Yūgao, Tazuna left. Following this, both Kushina and Yūgao turned to the genin. Kushina was the first to speak. "On this mission, as you heard, we will be guarding Tazuna-san. It will be a journey to the land of waves where we will then be guarding him as he completes his bridge."

Yūgao started talking when she stopped. "This mission shouldn't be that high of a risk. Possibly some bandits, but not really much else. Pack for a month of being out of the village. It has already been asked, but I will ask again. Any questions?" There still weren't any questions asked. Yūgao nodded. "Good. Then meet at the east gate at 8:00 in the morning. Make sure to get a good night of rest."

And with that, both Kushina and Yūgao disappeared in identical swirls of leaves. The genins just stood there for a moment before they all started grinning. Except for Sai, he just had a blank look. Narumi grinned and pumped her fist into the air. "Yes! We don't have a crappy D-rank again, this is going to be awesome-ttebane!"

Menma grinned as well. "Plus, we got Aniki along with us on this mission-ttebasa!"

Naruto smiled at them as well. "Yeah, this should be pretty cool. But then again, anything that isn't a D-rank is guaranteed to be way better than what we have been doing."

Yakumo joined in at this point. With a sigh of content, she said, "I am looking forward to this as well. Any mission where I don't have to put up with demon cats or picking fruit is a welcome one with me." But after a moment, she frowned slightly. "Although it seems like we still have an annoying client."

Menma shook his head. "Yeah, you're right. But just having a real mission already makes this infinitely better." He looked over to Sai. "What about you? You've been pretty quiet. What do you think?"

Sai only looked back in response. After a moment, he smiled. "I admit to be relieved that we are done with D-ranked missions, for now." They all nodded along when he said this.

It was at this point that Naruto yawned. He started talking once he was able to get it under control. "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to use this extra time to nap." Last night was nightmare. _'I hate those nights where all Yami wants to do is spar…'_

Naruto didn't care what Hikari and Yami said. He still woke up tired from nights like those, regardless of a resting body.

Narumi rolled her eyes while Yakumo giggled. "Nii-chan, you sleep _way_ too much."

Naruto just smirked and shrugged his shoulders. "I said it before and I will say it again. I just like to sleep." He waved at them. "See you all tomorrow morning. I doubt I will be getting back up anytime soon." With those parting words, he headed back home.

* * *

 **Urahara Shop (The Next Day)**

Naruto walked into the shop and looked around. It had been a few days since he had been here last. The last time was for a few hours of helping out in the shop.

Naruto immediately noticed that there wasn't anyone around. That was a normal thing for when someone wasn't around to man the register. Usually, when someone came into the shop they would call out or ring the bell on the counter. Urahara would then come out and help them. _'I guess that means that Soifon-san isn't around-either…'_ Naruto thought to himself.

Naruto walked over to the door leading deeper into the building and walked through. He headed straight to the tea room. And just like he thought, Urahara was there. Yoruichi was curled up on a nearby cushion as well. They both looked up when he walked into the room.

Seeing who it was, Urahara smiled. "Ah, Naruto-kun, you've returned! Welcome, welcome. What can I do for you?" The man asked from behind his fan.

Naruto shook his head. Was it tiring to always act with such an attitude? Naruto was pretty sure he would never be able to pull it off. Deciding to spend as little time as necessary in this man's presence, Naruto started speaking. "I have a mission. It is higher rank than normal and I will be leaving the village for a while to perform it."

Urahara's eyes sharpened marginally. "Is that so?" He fanned himself for a few moments. "How long will you be away?"

Naruto tilted his head in thought. "We were told to pack for a month. So I would assume if all goes well, then a month."

Urahara nodded thoughtfully. "Hm, can you tell me what you will be doing?"

Naruto shrugged. "Sure. We will be escorting a bridge builder to the Land of Waves then continue guard him as he completes the construction of his bridge."

Urahara frowned a bit. "Land of Waves?" He asked.

Naruto frowned a bit at the tone. "Yeah. That's it. Is there a problem with me going there?"

Urahara slowly shook his head. "Potentially. I've been hearing some bad things about that place for a while. It seems to be overrun by a business tyrant who holds the small country in an iron grip. It is extremely difficult to get anything in or out of that place. And you say the guy you're guarding is a bridge builder?" Naruto nodded. "Then I wouldn't be surprised if he has angered the tyrant and is a hindrance to his plans." He looked Naruto in the eye. "Be careful out there. There is a darker side to this type of business. The owners often delve into the criminal underworld as well."

Naruto frowned. "I see where you're going with this. This mission may turn into something harder than a C-rank if this guy sends someone after us. Someone that isn't a bandit, anyways." Urahara nodded. "Thanks, I will be careful." He tilted his head in thought for a moment. "Who is this business guy you mentioned? What's his name?" He asked.

Urahara fanned himself with a smile as he replied. "The business tycoon's name is Gatō. He owns this whole shipping company as well as being some kind of crime lord. Remember the name."

Naruto nodded as he turned to leave. "Will do. See you when I get back. Tell Soifon-san I said bye."

Urahara smirked at him. "Sure thing." He said as Naruto walked out.

* * *

 **East Gate (7:55)**

Naruto had left the Urahara shop and was now approaching the east gate. He saw that all of the other genins were already there along with Tazuna. While the genins were grouped together, Tazuna was standing off to the side, drinking. Again.

Shaking his head at the drinking habits of the old man, Naruto walked over to the genin. Most seemed excited about the mission they were about to undertake. Sai was just being Sai.

Naruto grinned as he got close to them. "Morning, guys. Ready for this?"

Narumi was bouncing up and down in place. "Don't know about you people, but I am so ready for this-ttebane! I am so pumped to be getting a real mission!"

Yakumo nodded along with her. "I know. I was getting so tired of doing all of those stupid chores for those ungrateful civilians. There were some days where I was tempted to just stab them with a kunai…" This last part was said quietly to herself.

Menma smirked. "With all of us going, it should be a piece of cake."

Sai looked over to him. "It is inadvisable to be overconfident in one's ability while completing a mission. It may lead to mistakes and failure of the mission."

Menma frowned as he scratched the back of his head. "I guess…no need to be such a downer about it, though." He muttered.

Naruto smiled and shook his head. He was going to speak, but was interrupted as two figures appeared in twin swirls of leaves. This scene caused Naruto to sweat drop. _'You would think they rehearsed it or something with the way they time it so well…'_ He thought silently.

Yūgao grinned at them. "Oh good, you're all here. And I assume you've all packed well enough for this?" Nods all around. "Good!" She looked over to Tazuna. "What about you, Tazuna-san? Are you ready to go anytime?"

Said bridge builder took another swig of his sake. "Of course! I'm super ready to go!"

It was Kushina who responded this time. "Good. Travelling at civilian speeds, we should reach the Land of Waves in a few days. If all of us are ready, then let's head out!" And with that, they were on their way to the land of waves.

* * *

 **One Day Later**

' _Ugh…I_ hate _walking at civilian speeds.'_ Naruto just couldn't see the point of travelling at such a slow pace. I mean, sure, the client is a civilian and therefore cannot travel as fast as a shinobi, but surely one of them could carry the old man?

Naruto shook his head when his this thought entered it. That would be too much of a pain in the ass. Letting his gaze lazily drift around the surroundings, Naruto pondered what had happened so far on the mission…or lack of what had happened.

' _I know this a C-rank…but it has been so boring so far.'_ There hadn't been a single exciting thing so far on this mission. All they had done up until that point was walk. Naruto sighed silently to himself as he thought about Urahara's warning. _'I almost wish Gatō did send some goons after us…'_ It was at this point that Naruto noticed something up ahead on the ground in the middle of the road.

A puddle.

It took all he had not to face palm right then and there. _'What a bunch of idiots…'_ There were too many of them on their side for such a small ambush to actually work. He highly doubted they were actually able to fit more than two or three people into a puddle that size. Although, he _did_ just basically ask for something like this to happen. Nice to see his karma is still working.

Naruto discreetly glanced around at his companions to take in their reactions. It looked like the only other genin to have noticed was Yakumo, most likely because she was able to recognize a genjutsu when she saw one. Naruto then looked over at the two jōnin. They truly were the elites of the village. Although he couldn't see any visible signs, Naruto was sure they had noticed judging by the fact that they both started to casually slow down a bit to walk at the back of the group.

Naruto frowned internally in thought. _'Now then…who are the targets? Us shinobi…'_ He slid his gaze over to Tazuna's back. _'…or him?'_ Although, judging from what he already knew of the situation, it was probably Tazuna who was the target. But how to get the rest of the team to know?

His eyes widened after a moment. _'Of course. That's why they went to the back of the group! They are going to pretend to be taken out, and then see who gets attacked…Fine then. Let's do that.'_ And with that last thought, the group finally passed the puddle.

At first, nothing happened. But eventually, Naruto was able to pick up the sound of chains. It was so quiet, he only noticed because he was looking for it.

"Now!" Naruto nearly shook his head in exasperation. What kind of shinobi announces when they are attacking?

"What?!" Yūgao cried out.

"The hell?!" Kushina followed. The two of them were quickly wrapped together in chains as two men stood on either side of them. The chains extended to some weird devices on their arms.

"Two down." One of the men said as he and the other tugged on the shuriken chain. The two women screamed out in pain as their bodies were torn to shreds.

Naruto smirked a bit. _'Wow. What a convincing performance.'_ It really looked like they were killed at the first glance. But Naruto noticed the signs of a quick **Replacement Jutsu**. Namely the logs on the ground. But judging by the fact that neither of the men paid any attention to that, they hadn't noticed.

In fact, the two of them were now advancing onto Sai. But before they could wrap him in the chains as well, Menma, although initially surprised, got over it quickly and used some kunai and shuriken to pin the chain to some nearby trees.

It was just in time too, as the two men were only a couple feet away from Sai. Using the surprise of being stopped as an opening, Naruto shot forwards and kicked the closer man in the chest, sending him tumbling back a bit before he was stopped by the chain.

On the other side of the chain, Narumi was executing a similar maneuver with the other man. While this brief reprieve was happening, Naruto looked over to Tazuna and saw that Yakumo was standing guard in front of him.

Hearing the sounds of chains again, Naruto swirled his head around. He mentally swore at what he saw. The two men had detached the chain from their gauntlets and were now moving independently of one another.

One of the men were rushing towards Tazuna. Normally, Naruto would have rushed after him, but there were two reasons he didn't. The first was because he was simply too far away. The other reason was because the second man was rushing him again.

Naruto threw up his guard and got ready to counter him. But before he could, the man was stopped cold by the appearance of another combatant.

Standing in between the man and Naruto, with her fist embedded in the man's gut, was Yūgao. Hearing a cry of pain, Naruto looked back over to the other man to see Kushina pinning him to the ground.

"You did well." Slightly startled, Naruto glanced around to see Yūgao smiling at him. He smiled back. Yūgao looked around at the other genin. "You all did well." She said.

Kushina grinned as well. "That was fantastic-ttebane! You all worked together and covered each other as needed perfectly!" The man that she was pinning to the ground attempted to struggle, but another painful twist of his arm ceased all forms of resistance. "We should tie these two morons up."

* * *

 **10 Minutes Later**

The two men were now tied to a tree. Now that they weren't being attacked, Naruto took this chance to finally take in their appearances. The first was the man who attacked him. He had shoulder length, wild brown hair and dark eyes. He had a rebreather on that covered the lower half of his face. On his left arm was a large, clawed gauntlet. He had on a camouflage suit with bandages around his waist. He also had on dark colored, knee length sandals and several pouches around his waist.

The other man had shoulder length, dark brown hair and dark eyes. He too wore a rebreather that covered the lower half of his face and a large, clawed gauntlet. But his gauntlet was on his right arm. Like the other man, he also wore a camouflage outfit and bandages around his waist. Furthermore, he too had on knee length sandals. To complete his outfit, he had on a ragged black cape.

Both of them had on a headband from another village that had a slash going through them, marking their status as missing-nin. Taking a closer look at the headbands, Naruto was fairly sure these men were from Kiri.

Naruto was pulled from his thoughts when Yūgao spoke up. "These two are Gozu and Meizu. Also known as the Demon Brothers. They are mercenary missing-nin from Kiri. Known to fight on until the end no matter what."

' _That would explain why they attacked such a large group on their own like that…But it was still extremely stupid of them.'_ Naruto thought.

One of the men, Gozu, started talking. "How did you know that we were there?"

Kushina rolled her eyes. "A puddle in the middle of the road on a day like this? Plus it hasn't rained in a while." She shook her head. "That made absolutely no sense."

It was at this point that Tazuna spoke up with a scowl on his face. "Why did you two let the kids fight if you knew that?" He demanded while looking between Yūgao and Kushina.

Kushina frowned at him. "If we had wanted to, we could have killed them instantly."

Yūgao followed up. "But we needed to figure something out first. We needed to know who they were after. Us, as shinobi." Both of the women shot hard looks at Tazuna. "Or you. And judging by the fact that they didn't save you as the obvious civilian for the last target, it means that you were the target."

Kushina scowled at him. Tazuna had lost his own scowl by this point and looked nervous. "We didn't hear anything about other shinobi coming after you…Our mission was only to protect you against bandits and the like."

Yūgao shook her head. "This mission is now at least a B-rank. It isn't some simple C-rank protection detail anymore. I don't know why you did it, but you obviously were unwilling to pay for a B-rank mission. This is beyond our current team's capabilities."

Kushina looked at him harshly. "It causes problems for us when the client lies about the mission." She looked at Yūgao. "This mission is now beyond specified parameters. We should turn back."

This declaration sent a jot of surprise rushing through everyone else there besides Yūgao. Menma was the first to speak up. "What?! No way-ttebasa!"

Kushina frowned at her youngest son. "Menma, this is beyond your capabilities. No genin team should be sent off to complete a B-rank mission with a chance of escalating to an A-rank."

Narumi shook her head in protest. "But…" She frowned before turning to Tazuna, who seemed extremely scared of the possibilities being laid out before him. "Why did you lie?" She demanded. When he looked taken aback, she pressed on. "Why did you lie about the mission?" She asked again.

Tazuna hesitated before opening his mouth. "My village is extremely poor. We simply cannot afford to pay for anything higher than a C-rank. The hope is that with the completion of my bridge, we will be able to bring in more trade and gain more money."

He then did something that surprised them all. He got on his hands and knees and bowed. "I am extremely sorry for lying to you all about this mission! I really had no other option but to do it."

Yūgao sighed in a frustrated manner. "You do know that if you had simply told the village, we could have made some deal with you, right? Like we do the mission, and you pay us back on a later date."

Tazuna looked ashamed. "No. I did not know that was an option. I was simply too worried about my village to worry about anything like that…I only had getting home to help my family and people in mind."

Naruto frowned a bit. _'Hey, hey. Don't go for the sob story, now…It will make me want to help.'_ But deep down, Naruto already knew he was going to help them anyways.

It looked like the other genin, besides Sai, were less resistant than Naruto was. It was Yakumo who broke first. She looked at Yūgao. "Yūgao-sensei…I would like to continue the mission." She said.

Yūgao frowned at her. "Yakumo, this is too much for you guys. We should head back to the village."

Narumi was the next one to voice her opinion. "I also want to keep going."

Menma supported his sister right away. "Yeah. It isn't right to just drop out in the middle like this and leave the geezer hanging like this." Although Tazuna looked offended at being called a geezer, he did not voice any complaints.

Kushina objected to this. "That really isn't a good idea. The next people to come will probably be stronger than these two."

Naruto closed his eyes in thought. Both sides were absolutely right. On one hand, they weren't prepared for a mission like this. The suggested course of action would be to turn back right then and there and head back to the village. On the other hand, it wouldn't sit right with him to just brush off someone in need like that.

With a deep sigh, Naruto spoke up. Looking at Yūgao only, he said, "I also would like to keep going. While it is true we aren't equipped for something like this, I think we can handle anything they throw at us." He paused. "Or at least, we could probably handle a couple chūnin and jōnin level shinobi with these teams."

The two senseis frowned more and observed the determined expressions on the genins before looking at one another. They seemed to hold some sort of silent conversation. After a minute, the both of them sighed in unison. Kushina turned back to the group. "Very well." Instantly, Tazuna's entire frame relaxed. Following this, the tension leaked out of the genin as well.

Yūgao cut into any form of celebration. "But you must take this seriously. This mission will be getting even more dangerous from here on out. So you must follow any and all instructions we give you, exactly as we say." Nods all around. "Good. We should continue on our way. We want to be in the Land of Waves in two days."

* * *

 **Unknown Location**

"You failed?! What the hell, I paid a lot of money for you lot! You were supposed to be highly skilled shinobi!" An irate voice yelled.

"Stop your stupid whining." A second voice responded. There was a swish through the air like the sound of a blade being swung. A gasp came from the first voice, followed by an audible gulp of fear. "This time, I will go myself. They will die on my blade."

The first voice started speaking again when the second finished. "Are you sure? Apparently, the old bastard hired some skilled shinobi of his own. And now that the Demon Brothers fucked up, they will be more careful."

The second voice growled in irritation. "Who the hell do you think I am? I am known as the devil of the mist for a reason."

Another gulp of fear. "Very well, but take the others with you. I want to get in my money's worth."

"Tch. Fine. But they better not get in my way."

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 15!**

 **So because I'm an uncreative and lazy ass, I am just doing the wave mission.**

 **I would like to get the next chapter out sooner than a week from now again, but I'm not sure what will happen. While my family is now moved into the new place, I myself am moving into a new place today. I actually am putting off heading over there to move in so I could write this chapter.**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	16. Mission to Wave: Rising

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 16!**

 **Ugh, I go in for training tomorrow. Not looking forward to it. I would rather sit around and read fanfiction. But hey, I want the stupid job.**

 **Another long chapter is here.**

 **Wait…when did we pass 100k words? That's awesome! Let's shoot for 200k!**

 **Listening to Kingdom Hearts Music is a good way for me to get pumped enough to write this thing.**

* * *

 **digreg: No big spoilers here, sorry!**

 **The Sith'ari: I will probably do something like that, yeah.**

 **erneymatt: I really am unsure about a pairing. It is kind of like the catchphrases such as "ttebayo", I don't really care either way. I can do with or without them. The only thing that would really stop me is I don't know how well I can write romance. If I suck at writing fight scenes, I shudder to think how I do in romance. I plan to fill the time skip with the world jumping. Xehanort influencing Kyūbi? Pending. Will the family ever figure out what is going on? Probably some parts. The entire thing? Eventually, I guess. But not all at once.**

 **OmegaDelta: Sometimes, I do too…**

 **itwasadarkandstormynight: For something so simple, your username is surprisingly annoying to type. Anyways, keyblade use? I know when I want to reveal the keyblade. But I won't be doing it until then.**

 **LazyAssassin24: Pending. But leaning towards forms.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the Story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else, I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Diety Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Diety Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **Edge of the Land of Waves (Two Days Later)**

It has been two days since the encounter with the Demon Brothers, and the group has yet to find any more opposition on their way to the Land of Waves. However, they know it is unlikely that the trip will remain this easy.

Following the scuffle with the Demon Brothers and the decision to keep the mission going, the group picked up the pace and headed towards the Land of Waves. They were now in a boat belonging to a contact of Tazuna's and were crossing an extremely foggy body of water to reach the shore of the Land of Waves.

After a while, the man rowing the boat spoke up. "We're nearly there. The bridge should be in sight soon."

Soon after he said this, the silhouette of a giant bridge came into view. Although it was obviously unfinished, it still managed to impress the foreigners there. Menma whistled lowly at the sight. "Wow, old man. Nice bridge you got going there."

Tazuna twitched at the old man comment, but he grinned widely when Menma finished his sentence. "I know, right? It's such a super bridge!"

Yūgao nodded with a smile. "Yes, it is impressive. You should be proud of it."

Tazuna smiled even more. But after a moment, the smile became more subdued. "I am proud of it. But I will be even more proud when it manages to free my country." He seemed lost in thought for a few minutes. Eventually, a determined expression worked its way onto his face. "Listen…" He began, getting their attention. "…I want to thank you again for doing this. I get you didn't have to agree to keep the mission going, especially because I lied about it, but you agreed to anyways. I'm extremely thankful for that."

Yakumo smiled at him. "We're happy to help."

Tazuna smiled back, before becoming serious again. "And because you agreed to do this, I would like to give you the rest of the details surrounding the situation."

Instantly, everyone else gained serious expressions too. Nodding, Kushina motioned for him to keep speaking. "Go on."

Tazuna nodded. "I know who the identity of the person who wants me dead." He began. Although he also knew, Naruto kept quiet and let Tazuna do the explaining. "You've probably heard of him before."

Yūgao tilted her head. "Who is it?"

"His name is Gatō, a shipping magnate."

This drew wide eyes from the rest of the group. It was Kushina who found her voice first. "Gatō? As in the guy who owns the Gatō shipping company? That Gatō?"

Tazuna nodded grimly. "That's him. Officially, he is only the person who runs a super shipping company. But in reality, he is a terrible man. He secretly sells drugs and other things that are illegal while using shinobi and gangs to take over other businesses and small countries."

Sai tilted his head. "Small countries such as the Land of Waves."

It wasn't really a question, but Tazuna answered anyways. "Yes. About a few years ago, he set his eyes on the Land of Waves. By using his vast wealth and underhanded tactics, he quickly managed to take over the entire shipping industry. Gatō has a monopoly on all business and traffic going in and out of the country. There is only one thing that is standing in his way."

Yūgao voiced her thoughts. "The bridge."

"And since you're the head of the construction, he would want you out of the way. By any means." Narumi added.

Menma finished the line of thought. "That's why he sent those shinobi after you. He sees you as a threat, and wants you out of the way."

Tazuna nodded. "Yes. That's exactly it. This bridge is my country's last hope of digging ourselves out of this mess. If I fail, then that's it. Gatō wins."

A depressed silence descended upon the group. Eventually, the silence was broken by Tazuna's contact. "Tazuna, it looks like we have managed to get this far without being noticed…but I am not sure how much longer it will last. We should hurry and head for the shore."

Hearing this, Tazuna nodded. "You're right. Let's go for it." The man nodded and turned the boat towards the desired direction. After a few more minutes of silent travel, the boat entered a tunnel. They were quiet with the anticipation of finally reaching their destination after days of travel with their guards up.

Soon, the boat emerged from the other side of the tunnel. The Konoha shinobi silently marveled at the peaceful looking village that they encountered on the other side. On either side of the river were houses that were set up on stilts that led into the water. And spread out in the area were trees that complimented nicely with the surroundings. Overall, it looked like a serene place to live. But they were not fooled by the looks alone. With the description of the living situation and the oppression just given, it was easy to spot that the village had fallen upon hard times.

Once the boat was ashore, they exited and turned back to Tazuna's contact. Seeing he had their attention, he spoke up. "This is as far as I go. I wish you the best of luck."

Tazuna smiled and nodded at the man. "Thank you for taking this risk." The others voiced similar sentiments. The man nodded, and started up the motor in the boat. With a final farewell, he left. After he was gone, Tazuna turned to the shinobi escorts. "Ok. Get me home safely!"

Kushina nodded. "Sure thing. We should head out right away." She looked over the group. "Be on your guards. The next person to come after us will be tougher than a couple of chūnin." When she got nods in response, she turned and led the way.

For the next fifteen minutes, the group travelled in silence. They all were aware that they could be attacked at any moment, and that fact put them all on edge. Although Tazuna seemed to be taking it the worst as he was constantly looking around and jumping slightly at every little noise. At one point, he even got annoyed with Yakumo when the girl stepped on a twig.

While it was understandable for Tazuna to be jumpy about every little thing as he was a civilian, it didn't explain why Menma was also attempting to look in every direction at once. Eventually, as they were passing a nearby lake, Naruto let his curiosity get the better of him. "Menma…" he started, getting his attention. "…what are you doing?"

Menma smirked in return. "If we're going to be attacked, I'm going to be ready for it!" He whirled back around to look at his surroundings. "I dare anyone who wants to attack us to do it. We'll kick their asses!" Suddenly, there was a rustling sound off in a nearby bush. Before anyone else could react, Menma pulled out a kunai and launched it in the direction of the noise.

In response to this, all of the shinobi immediately readied themselves for a fight as well. When a minute passed with nothing happening, Menma stomped over to the bush. After pushing aside the leaves, he froze. "Oh…whoops." They heard him say quietly.

Curious at what he found, Narumi followed him over to the bush. When she reached him, she peered over his shoulders to see what he was looking at. When she saw what it was, she gasped. This gasp was immediately followed by a hit to the back of her younger brother's head.

"Ow! What was that for?!" He questioned her.

She shot him a glare. "That was for scaring this poor rabbit." She scooped it up into her arms. Cradling it to her chest, she started to pet it in an attempt to soothe it. "Look at it. It actually fainted out of fright."

Naruto frowned when he got a look at the white rabbit. _'Isn't that a snow rabbit? Why would there be a snow rabbit in this region?'_ There wasn't any snow anywhere _near_ this region. It just didn't make any sense. _'That must mean it was brought here by someone. But what for? Is it a pet? But then why would it be out here on its own? Unless it ran away, it must have been released…'_ But why would someone bring it here just to release it? The only useful thing it could probably do is be a good emergency replacement…

Naruto nearly facepalmed right then and there. _'I am so freaking stupid.'_ While he would have like to continue belittling himself for not realizing the situation sooner, he decided to examine his surroundings again. Off to the sides, Kushina, Yūgao, and Sai were doing the same.

Naruto frowned to himself as he surveyed the area. _'That rabbit was brought here for the specific reason of being a replacement. The fact that it is here means that so are the people who brought it. We are probably already being watched. They can attack at any moment now. But when? And from where?'_ That was when he heard it. The sound of a blade cutting through the air as a projectile hurtled towards them.

He was about to warn the others, but Kushina was a step ahead of him. Before he could even open his mouth, she was yelling out to them while pulling Tazuna to the ground. "Get down!" The others immediately complied and threw themselves to the floor.

They were able to narrowly dodge a huge sword that was going to decapitate them as it hurled over their heads and imbedded in a tree nearby. By the time Naruto bounced back to his feet and looked at the sword, there was already a man standing on it.

It was a tall man who seemed to be muscular and had pale skin. His hair was a black and was cut in a short, spiky style. The bottom half of his face was covered in bandages like a mask. He had on a Kiri headband that was facing sideways. He was currently shirtless but had a belt that crossed in the front of his chest that probably acted as a holster for the sword. His pants were baggy and colored blue with vertical stripes. To complete his outfit, he had on wrist warmers that went up to his elbows.

Naruto instantly froze when he saw the man. Ever since he had begun learning how to use a sword, Naruto has grown interested in who the best swordsmen in the world were. This of course led him to the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. He has seen pictures of all the members in the recent years, and this man was easily recognizable as one of them.

Naruto tensed. "Zabuza Momichi…" Things had just got a whole lot more difficult if one of the Seven Swordsmen was their enemy.

Zabuza glanced at Naruto. "What's this? My reputation precedes me. This brat actually knows who I am." He zeroed in on the sword on Naruto's back. "Although, I would be severely disappointed if an up and coming swordsman didn't know who I was…"

Menma grinned. "It doesn't matter who you are! We're going to take you down!" He made to move forward but was restrained by Kushina.

"Menma! This isn't the time for your arrogance to get the better of you! This guy is own a whole different level compared to those chumps from earlier." She scolded.

Zabuza looked at Kushina. "It looks like I'm not the only big name here right now. Kushina Uzumaki-Namikaze, the Red Hot-Blooded Habanero is here too." He then looked at Yūgao. "I don't know who you are, but I can tell you're up there in strength too." He chuckled. "Well, while I do love bloodshed, this time I would prefer it if you would just hand over the old man."

Tazuna, who had been shaking in place up until this point, started to tremble even more. Yūgao shook her head. "Sorry, we can't do that." All of the Konoha shinobi got into battle stances. It was at this point that Yūgao spoke again. "You can't seriously be thinking that you are able to take all of us on by yourself, can you?"

Zabuza seemed to smirk under his bandages. "I admit. I wanted to come here alone at first, but seeing who the opposition is, I'm glad to have some backup."

Their eyes widened. "Backup?" Kushina repeated.

"Indeed. Zabuza-san did not come alone." A voice said. The Konoha shinobi glanced to the side where another figure was walking out of the line of trees.

It was another man who appeared. He was a man with crimson eyes and dark hair that was cut short. He wore a blue long sleeved shirt that had grey stripes near the wrists. His pants were a dark brown that were tucked into his light brown boots. He also wore light brown gloves and a leather breastplate. On one of his fingers, over the glove, was a flashy ring.

Kushina frowned when he saw him. Glancing to Yūgao, she spoke up. "I don't recognize him, do you?" Yūgao shook her head in response.

Hearing this, the man quirked a small smile of amusement. "I'm not surprised. I'm not a famous missing-nin like Zabuza-san. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Metoro Konjiki. And it would appear that we are enemies today." And without any further ado, he thrust his hand forward and launched some kind of small projectile at Yūgao.

Acting on her instincts and reflexes alone, Yūgao to block the projectile. Although she barely made it in time. She narrowed her eyes at what she just blocked. _'A ball of steel? And it seemed to form from his hand…'_ But she didn't see him pull it out at any point, so where had he gotten it from?

Seeing that the fight was starting, Kushina called out to the genin. "We'll take care of these two! You all protect Tazuna-san!" And with that, she raced off to meet Zabuza while Yūgao was busy with Metoro.

The genin immediately complied and surrounded Tazuna. Seeing that Tazuna was shaken by what was going on, Narumi grinned at him. "Don't worry about it, old man! Nothing bad is gonna happen with us here-ttebane!" She assured him.

"Wow, you sure are confident, aren't you?" Came a voice from nearby. Immediately, the group tensed further and those who weren't facing the right way whirled around to see who had spoken. They were slightly confused at what they saw.

It was another man. He looked identical to Metoro. Right down to the outfit. The only difference was that instead of wearing a ring, he had on a gaudy earing.

Yakumo looked back and forth between the man that Yūgao was fighting and the one in front of them. Eventually, she voiced what she thought was going on. "You left a clone here to kill the client?"

The man chuckled and waved a dismissive hand. "Nah. That over there is my little brother." He flashed them a grin. "Hey there! You've already met Metoro. My name is Etoro!" He smirked at them. "Sorry, but I need that geezer you have there. Would you please hand him over?"

Naruto smirked back at him while shaking his head. "No can do. We've sort of grown to like him. We would prefer his continued health."

The man gave a dramatic sigh as he slumped his shoulders, but there was a smile on his face. "Ah, that's too bad. I was hoping this would be a simple mission where we can just walk up and kill him." His smile turned bloodthirsty. "But I guess this can be more fun…"

Naruto turned serious. Without looking at them, he spoke to Narumi and Menma. "Narumi, Menma." He began, getting their attention. "Let my team handle this."

Protests immediately shot up. Menma scowled. "How come, Aniki? We can fight too."

Naruto shook his head as team 12 stepped forward. "We still need to protect Tazuna-san. I'm not doubting your abilities, but we shouldn't all leave the client just to get into a fight. We need to remember the mission. My team has a better chance of overwhelming an enemy due to having a third member."

Narumi scowled as well, but conceded to his point. "Fine. Just be careful, Nii-chan."

Naruto smiled. "Of course. No need to worry."

Etoro's smile grew even more bloodthirsty. "You're a confident one as well! Oh man, I can't wait until I can see that smile fall off your face as you drown in your own blood!" And with that, he created flames in his hands and hurled them to where team 12 was standing.

Naruto immediately flew into action. "Scatter!" They did so, and not a moment too soon as the flames struck the ground where they were. But then something unexpected happened. While the flames certainly looked hot, they completely incinerated the area! In the immediate vicinity to the point of impact, everything was a molten mess! It even melted part of the ground!

This sight set Naruto on edge. _'Something is up with those flames! They shouldn't be that powerful…And he created them without and hand seals as well…'_ Comprehension came to him quickly. "A bloodline…" He whispered.

Etoro seemed to hear him, because after Naruto voiced his thoughts he started to laugh. "You're pretty smart, kid! That's right, I have the Lava Release bloodline. My flames can melt anything in their path!" He conjured more fireballs. "Especially people!"

The next few moments was spent with team 12 jumping and dodging all of the flames that came at them. It seemed impossible for them to get close as whenever they tried, Etoro would simply surround himself in a ring of fire to keep them away.

Soon though, Naruto came up with a plan. As he dodged another shot of fire, he leapt closer to Yakumo. "Yakumo, how long would you need to create a genjutsu that would allow us to get close and finish this?"

She frowned as she looked back at the cackling man that Sai was currently distracting. "He seems slightly unbalanced in the mental aspect. So I would probably only need a minute or two." She assessed.

Naruto smirked. "Is that all? That's easy." Seeing her smile in return, Naruto leapt in to help Sai. Knowing that he couldn't get close to the pyromaniac, Naruto decided on his next course of action.

Why not fight fire with fire?

With this train of thought, Naruto thrust his hand forward. " **Fire**!" He yelled. A fireball promptly appeared and shot towards Etoro. This seemed to momentarily stun the man, but he recovered quick enough to block it with his own flames.

After the flames subsided, the man sent a grin at Naruto. "Well, what do you know? That's a pretty cool trick, kid. Although they don't hold a candle to my flames, it is still impressive that you can manage that much…"

Naruto smirked back. "Oh yeah? Let me show you how strong my flames are when I really get fired up!" He knew he would eventually be overpowered. He was fighting the man using something similar to his own skillset. But all he needed was buy two minutes for Yakumo. That much he could do.

Etoro laughed again. "Fine then! Let's have a little firefight!" He followed this declaration up with another shot of fire.

Naruto leapt to the side and shot a couple more fireballs in return. The area was soon scorched even more.

* * *

 **Over with Narumi and Menma**

The younger two of the set of triplets were both gaping at the scene in front of them. Because they were guarding Tazuna, they were forced to do nothing more than watch the different fights going on in the area. While they were awed by the jōnin level fights going on nearby, they were completely stunned by what their older brother was doing.

"Menma…Did you know that Nii-chan could shoot fireballs?" Narumi said quietly.

Menma numbly shook his head. "No. I had no idea he could do that." Come to think of it, he wasn't really sure about what Naruto was able to do. Sure, he knew that he could use a sword, but he had never even seen Naruto use it.

Narumi was travelling along the same train of thought. As much as she hated to admit it, she had long grown used to Naruto not training with the rest of the family. In the past, she was more aware of it. She used to try and get him to join, but that had started to die off at some point a few years ago. Because of that, she did not know what Naruto was good at. Sure he was the rookie of the year, but that just meant that he was the best at the things taught in the academy.

After a few moments, Narumi's eyes widened further. "Menma, look! Nii-chan is doing that without any hand seals!"

Menma gaped when he noticed. "What? But how?! I'm pretty sure the guy they are fighting has some kind of bloodline, but what about Aniki? He shouldn't be able to do that! We're only genin!"

Narumi shook her head in wonder. "I don't know…" A wide grin appeared on her face. "…but that's totally awesome!"

Menma's face quickly broke into an identical grin.

* * *

 **Back with Naruto**

' _Duck!'_ Naruto quickly ducked out of the way from a wave of flames that shot at him. _'This guy is seriously tough!'_ Even with the support Sai was providing through his ink animals, they were unable to land a single hit on Etoro. He just burned everything that got even remotely close to him to a crisp. _'Come on Yakumo, hurry it up!'_ While he had vastly improved his stamina when it came to casting spells from when he started, it was impossible to keep it up forever. Eventually, he would need to take a break from firing spells.

It was then that Etoro's eyes grew wide with horror. "What? No! No!" He became frantic as he started quickly swiping his arms as if trying to get something invisible off of him. "Why aren't you listening to me? You're my flames, so you can't burn me!" He was growing increasingly distressed by the moment.

Naruto was seriously confused by what was going on. He lost control of his flames? But…there was nothing there…

After a moment, Naruto's eyes widened in realization. _'Yakumo! Her genjutsu made him believe he lost control of his flames!'_ Not wishing to lose this chance, Naruto swiftly unsheathed his blade and dashed at Etoro. Within seconds, he was within striking distance with his blade swinging down to behead him. _'Yes!'_ Clang!

Naruto's eyes widened in surprise when his sword was blocked a second before it could cut into the enemy. Looking to see who had done it, he saw someone new.

It was a man with dark green hair that went down to his shoulders and spiked at the bottom. Two long bangs framed his face and he had purple eyes. He had on a navy blue, sleeveless jumpsuit that was white on the sides. He also had on open toed sandals that went up to his calves and a warmer on his right arm. On his left hand was a black glove. Strapped to his back was some kind of umbrella. Partially obscured by his hair was an Ame headband. But it was the sword that really got Naruto's attention.

It was a blade that appeared to be made out of solid yellow lightning or something similar. The hilt was an odd shape as it resembled something that, to Naruto, looked like two horns curled towards one another. Naruto instantly recognized the sword.

"The Sword of the Thunder God." He said quietly in awe.

Hearing this, the man smirked. "Oh? You know about this blade." He applied more force, pushing Naruto back. "Then you know that I am invincible with it!"

Not wishing to get forced into submission so easily, Naruto jumped back to regroup. "If you have that sword, then that must mean you're the traitor, Aoi Rokushō."

In return to this, Aoi only smirked. "Indeed I am." He turned to the still panicking Etoro and whacked him upside the head. "Snap out of it, moron. I can't believe you let yourself be forced into such a position that I had to come out and save your ass."

Etoro looked around in confusion for a moment before comprehension came to him. A fierce scowl quickly worked its way onto his face as he snarled at team 12. "You damn brats! I'm going to kill you for that!"

Aoi swiftly held out his hand to stop him. "Wait." His eyes zeroed in on Naruto. "I want the kid with the sword." He smirked as he pointed the Sword of the Thunder God at the crimson blond. "I want to fight him with our blades."

Etoro growled, but nodded. "Fine, whatever. I owe you one for pulling my ass out of the fire just now. But consider us even."

Aoi smirked. "Fine. Easy enough."

Naruto, who had been listening to the entire exchange, grew more apprehensive. _'Ok, what do I know about this guy? He defected as a chūnin a couple years ago and fled across the border. Apparently went to Ame and was allowed refuge there and became a shinobi for them. If I had to guess, he has been relying on that blade to get by in the last couple years. Because of that, he probably hasn't really improved that much overall from when he was in Konoha. If I had to guess, he would be high chūnin to low jōnin.'_ He took a deep breath. _'I can do this. Especially in a battle of blades.'_

Aoi, seeing the determination blossom onto Naruto's face, grinned sinisterly. "Oh good. You're ready to die." He crouched low. "Well then, let us begin!" And with that, he charged at Naruto.

Naruto dashed forward as well and met him partway. Clang! Their swords clashed together as they struggled for dominance over one another. After a moment, they broke away before bringing their swords back to try and cut the enemy.

Clang! Over and over again, their swords met as they both tried to get in a hit. But neither one was able to land anything on the other person. While Aoi was reportedly jōnin level, he simply did not have the skill with a blade that Naruto had.

After another clash, they both jumped back again. But this time, instead of rushing each other again, they both dashed to their respective sides, making a circle. After a few seconds, Aoi smirked. Acting quickly, he threw a few kunai at Naruto. "There!"

Naruto saw the incoming projectiles and acted accordingly. "I don't think so!" He swiftly brought his blade up and deflected each of them.

* * *

 **With Narumi and Menma**

"Oh, wow." Narumi feebly said.

Menma gulped. "Ok. So he _does_ know how to use that sword after all." He should never have questioned his brother's ability to use the sword. It was now obvious that Naruto was very good with the thing.

Narumi was practically vibrating in place. "Oh, I _so_ want to learn how to use a sword now! It would be so awesome-ttebane!"

Menma grinned as well. "It so would-ttebasa! Aniki is freaking amazing with that sword!"

Even Tazuna, who was previously too shaken to do much of anything, was awed by the skills that the boy was showing.

* * *

 **Back with Naruto**

Aoi was cackling a bit as he fought Naruto. "Come on! Is that all you got? You can do better than that!" He called out as he repeatedly swiped his blade in an attempt to get at Naruto. But like Naruto himself, he was yet unable to land anything.

' _Swipe from the left. Block and return with a thrust. Missed. He's countering with a blow from the right. Still stretched out from the thrust, roll forward. Spring to your feet and dish out a cut to his back. Dodged again. DUCK!'_ Naruto narrowly missed having a thunder sword digging into his face as he ducked down just in time. Throughout the entire fight, Naruto hasn't had much of a chance to focus on anything _but_ the fight. The only times he had room to breathe was when they temporarily broke away from one another.

After another exchange of blows, they jumped away and began to run in circles again. _'Man, he isn't that good with a blade, but he is still low jōnin level.'_ In fact, Naruto wasn't too eager to see how this fight would go if it wasn't a sword fight.

He broke out of his thoughts when Aoi dashed at him again. Naruto was beginning to get used to his movements and predicting his moves. _'A one handed thrust.'_ Whoosh! Naruto tilted his head to the side to dodge it, the buzzing of the thunder blade in his ear. The blade quickly pulled back. _'Next, a side slash.'_ Naruto jumped back to dodge this strike. Aoi wasn't to be deterred however, as he followed after him. _'From there, a straight slash down. Time to break his stance!'_

Naruto quickly reversed the sword in his hand so the pommel was facing up. Using that side, he met the Sword of the Thunder God head on. Clang! This caused the lightning sword to bounce back and Aoi to stumble a bit with it.

"What?" Aoi gasped as he stumbled.

' _Now!'_ Seeing the opening, Naruto lunged forward to finish the fight.

Despite being surprised, Aoi was quick to recover. Using the momentum of his sword bouncing back up, he quickly pulled it behind his back and kept it going as he switched hands. He smirked viciously. He quickly brought his blade back out in the other hand and made a stab at Naruto.

Naruto, seeing this at the last moment, was unable to completely alter his course and was hit. As he tried rotating out of the way, the blade cut into his arm, causing him to tumble onto the floor as blood seeped out of his wound.

"Nii-chan!"

"Aniki!" He heard his siblings cry out together. He gripped at his arm. It wasn't a terrible wound, but it still hurt like hell. He glared up at his opponent as he started to laugh.

"You're good, kid. No denying that! You put up a wonderful fight, but with this blade I am invincible! Nobody can stand up to the might of the Sword of the Thunder God!" He began to stalk forward to finish Naruto off, but stopped when he heard a cry of pain off a little ways away. Both he and Naruto turned. And while Naruto stilled at what he saw, Aoi's smile grew wider.

Etoro was now standing above the prone form of Sai, who looked slightly singed even from where they were. Etoro's manic grin was back as he taunted his opponents.

Seeing this scene, Aoi grinned down at Naruto. "Well, it seems like one of my partners sure is enjoying himself. Such a shame that your teammate can't say the same." He began to laugh again.

Naruto glared at him. Furious that he and his friends were put into such a situation. But then he noticed that Aoi completely left himself open. Probably because he thought he would notice any attacks before they hit him. Quickly, a plan formed in his head. He hadn't tested this version of the spell in the field yet, but he really wanted to get that stupid grin off of the bastards face.

Discreetly, Naruto brought his uninjured arm forward. He smirked when Aoi didn't notice. Now was his chance. " **Fira**!" He called, shooting a blast of fire that was bigger than the others at Aoi.

Aoi, caught off guard, was unable to dodge or block the attack. "Argh!" He cried as he was launched back.

Naruto grinned. **Fira** was currently his strongest fire spell. And although he could definitely feel the drain of using it instead of **Fire** , getting a hit in on this bastard was worth it. He turned serious again as Aoi pushed himself to his feet.

The man's jumpsuit had a hole in the front where his chest was exposed. And Naruto could see exactly where his attack had hit as that was where there was a big burn wound. There was some blood oozing out of it and onto the floor.

Aoi looked absolutely murderous. He was shaking from his rage of actually letting his guard down to the point where Naruto was able to wound him. He had even seen the kid launching fireballs earlier! He shouldn't have forgotten about it.

He started to stalk back over to Naruto. "You little bastard. I'm going to kill you!"

"Etoro!" However, before he could walk any further than a couple feet, a shout rang out throughout the clearing. Looking over, they saw it was Metoro. It was obvious that he had just been through a battle. There were numerous cuts all over his body and he was favoring one side. In his hand was a steel sword.

Naruto frowned when he saw it. _'Where had that come from? He didn't have it on him earlier…'_ Most sword users kept their swords on them in order to be able to draw it out quicker. It was extremely inconvenient for a sword user to have to unseal their blade in order to fight.

Metoro landed next to his older brother. "Zabuza is about to go down. I don't want to be here when he does. We should leave and try again later."

Hearing this, Naruto looked back over to the lake. Kushina and Zabuza were still fighting, but it was obvious that Zabuza was being overwhelmed by Kushina. Hearing someone land beside him, Naruto looked over to see a slightly battered Yūgao standing there.

Etoro frowned, but nodded. "Yeah. I don't want to fight the Habanero. Let's bail." He turned to the Konoha shinobi. "Well then, it looks like our time has been cut short. We'll have to do this again sometime." He looked over to Aoi. "You coming?" He asked.

Aoi scowled. And while he really wanted to pay Naruto back for that damage he had just been forced to take, he too feared the Habanero. And without the Konjiki brothers there as well, he would be forced to fight the other jōnin as well. He sighed and sheathed his sword. "Yeah, I'm coming…" He turned back to Naruto with a glare. "I will pay you back later for this. Remember that." And with those final words, the three of them left the area.

Naruto began to get to his feet in order to pursue them, but was stopped by Yūgao. "Don't. Our mission is to get Tazuna-san home safely. We aren't about to go looking for a fight with an enemy that may know the area better than we do."

Naruto frowned, but nodded. That was the right choice, as much as he hated to admit it. He got up and walked towards his teammates. By now, Sai had gotten back to his feet. "You alright?" Naruto asked him.

Sai seemed slightly surprised that Naruto was asking if he was ok, but nodded his head. "I am fine. I was only lightly burned. Now that I have had a chance to see his move set, I believe I can better fight him the next time, given the chance to recover my energy and prepare." He reported.

Naruto nodded and looked over to Yakumo. "What about you, Yakumo? Are you hurt?"

She shook her head. "No, I had some area wide genjutsus up so he couldn't get close. I was trying to get him under another genjutsu, but he kept on breaking each one I threw at him." She seemed frustrated that she couldn't do more.

Naruto grinned at her. "Don't worry about it! We'll get them next time!"

After a few moments, she smiled back. "Of course. We'll beat them back to wherever they came from if they dare show their faces again." Naruto grinned in response.

They then walked over to the group guarding Tazuna as they kept an eye on the fight between Kushina and Zabuza. It was obvious to all of them that Kushina was dominating the fight, so there was no need to interfere.

Once they got close, Narumi ran over to Naruto, Menma only a step behind. "Nii-chan! That was totally awesome!"

Menma decided to put in his own bit at this point. "Except for the part where you got cut." He said.

Narumi didn't miss a beat and immediately nudged him in the side. "Shut up, Menma!" She turned back to Naruto. "But…well, yeah…the fight was awesome except for that part." She said apologetically.

Naruto smiled and waved them off. "Don't worry about it. It isn't a terrible wound, and I managed to hurt him in return." He then frowned. "But I won't be letting him cut me again."

Yūgao grinned at him. "That's probably a good idea. I know I hate it when the enemy manages to cut me. You should try to avoid that in the future."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Thank you, sensei. As always, your words are filled with encouragement and drive me to improve." He said sarcastically.

"Gah!" They all turned to look at who made that noise. Zabuza was up against a tree with multiple kunai sticking out of his arms and legs. Kushina was kneeling in a branch above him.

She gave him a dark look. "You're finished." She said.

Zabuza glared up at her. "Damn it all. I won't let it end here!"

Kushina shook her head as she pulled out another kunai. "Sorry. But you will die here." But before she could do anything, two senbon shot out from the nearby trees and stabbed into Zabuza's neck.

"Geh!" Zabuza stiffened for a moment, before falling forward onto the ground. The genins gasped in surprise while the jōnin stiffened. They all looked over to see where the senbon came from and they saw a person standing in a nearby tree.

They had long black hair that was done into a bun with two locks framing the face and pale skin where it was visible. They wore a standard Kiri pinstriped outfit that stopped at the knees. Over this was a green haori with white trimmings. Around the waist was a brown sash with a fringed tail that was wrapped around twice. The footwear choice were light brown platoon sandals with straps that were also green. There even appeared to be nail polish that matched the green color. On the person's face was a white mask that had curved eye holes and a red wavy design in the place of the mouth. The Kiri symbol was etched into it.

Given the mask, Naruto identified the person as a hunter-nin in his head. But still… _'Is that a guy or girl? I really can't tell. Some of that build says guy, some of it says girl. I wish I could see the face, it would probably make it easier to tell…'_

Naruto tuned back into the world as he/she began to speak. "You were right. He did die."

' _What the hell. I can't even tell with the freaking voice…'_

Kushina jumped down next to Zabuza and began to check for a pulse. After a few moments, she shook her head. "He's dead alright." She looked back over at the hunter-nin. "Judging by your mask, I guess you're a hunter-nin from Kiri."

The hunter-nin bowed slightly in greeting. "Yes. I must thank you for your assistance. I have been tracking Zabuza for a long time, waiting for such a chance to come by." He/she disappeared in a swirl of mist and reappeared crouched next to Zabuza. Kushina, by now, had already moved off to the side. He/she looked back over to the Konoha shinobi. "Your battle is now over. I must leave to dispose of the body." He/she nodded again. "Farewell." And with that, the two left in another mist **Body Flicker**.

Kushina seemed to sag for a moment and sigh, but quickly bounced back. She whirled around to face the others. "Well, we lived through the fight and the client is safe! That's a win in my book!" She said with a grin.

Yūgao shook her head in amusement. "Yes, but we aren't done yet. We should head to Tazuna's home now."

Hearing this, Tazuna finally recovered from everything he just saw. "Hahaha! You guys have my super thanks!"

The genin also relaxed soon following this. But Naruto was still thinking about the scene that just played out. Something about it seemed…off to him. Like something happened that shouldn't have. He just couldn't figure out what.

"Should that hunter-nin not have disposed of the body right here?" A voice said from next to him.

Naruto quickly looked at Sai, the one who had spoken. That was it! That's what was off about the situation! Hunter-nins are supposed to dispose of the body right away, but that one took it.

Yūgao and Kushina stilled. After a moment, Kushina cursed. "Shit. You're right. We just got tricked."

Yakumo tilted her head in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Yūgao was the one to answer. "Hunter-nins don't take the body to a different location to destroy it. It is procedure to do it right away. For proof, all they would really need is the head. Keeping the body around for any longer would risk the mission, so they don't. But that one didn't dispose of it right here and now."

Menma tilted his head to the side. "So? Why does that matter?"

Yūgao looked at him. "It matters because that could mean that what we just saw was only an act to get Zabuza to safety."

The ones who hadn't figured that out yet jumped a bit. Tazuna quickly refuted that. "What? But she said herself that there was no pulse! He was dead!"

Kushina frowned. "The senbon…" She said quietly, then repeated it louder. "The senbon. That isn't a typical weapon to use to assassinate someone. But it _is_ a medical tool." She shook her head. "If you knew the body well enough, it wouldn't be impossible to put someone into a death-like state."

That statement threw the group into silence. It was eventually broken by Yūgao. She turned to face Tazuna. "Tazuna-san, how long until we reach your home?"

He shook his head. "Not long now. Only twenty minutes or so. Maybe a bit more."

Kushina nodded. "Good. We'll head out right away." She turned to face the genin. "Get in formation around Tazuna-san. Our mission isn't done, yet!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

* * *

 **Tazuna's House (45 minutes later)**

Team 11, Team 12, and Tazuna were now seated in Tazuna's home. They arrived as the sun was setting, and after being greeted by Tazuna's daughter, they moved on to the tea room. The two jōnins ordered the genins to report on what had happened to them during the battles. They were now going to discuss future plans.

Yūgao looked over to Tazuna. "It is safe to say that Zabuza is alive. But he probably isn't in any condition to fight. We most likely have about a week before he returns. We will prepare for that."

Tazuna was surprised, but then he gained a hopeful look. "You mean…you're going to stay? Even with those super strong guys as opponents? You are willing to take on the mission still?"

Kushina rolled her eyes. "I hate this situation. A lot. But we already said we would keep going. While it would have been acceptable for us to turn back after the Demon Brothers, we didn't. Now, it would reflect terribly on Konoha if we left. It would give us the reputation of abandoning missions when some danger came around. Nobody would pay attention to the fact that we have a bunch of genin with us." She sighed and shook her head. "No, we are going to stay." But then she gained a predatory look. It was quickly mirrored by Yūgao. "But we are also going to train."

Menma looked excited at this. "You mean you're going to teach us some badass technique?"

Yūgao shrugged her shoulders with a smile. "Well, who knows? It could happen. But not right now. Starting tomorrow." She looked over at Tazuna. "You're not going to the bridge tomorrow, right?" A nod. "Good. Then we will use that chance to get them started on a little training." She then looked back over to the genins.

Kushina looked over to the genins. "We will take turns with keeping watch. I will go first. Followed by Naruto, Narumi, Sai, Menma, Yakumo, and Yūgao. Any questions?" None were raised. "Good. Then rest up for training tomorrow."

"It won't do you any good." A voice said from the doorway. They all looked over to see a boy standing there.

He had spiky black hair and dark eyes. He wore green overalls with a yellow shirt and a pair of simple sandals. On his head was a blue and white bucket hat.

While Naruto was twitching at the sight of the hat, Tazuna called out to the boy. "Inari! Come over here and give your grandpa a hug!"

The boy promptly walked over to the old man. "Welcome back." He said.

Tazuna placed a hand on Inari's head. "Inari, say hello to these people. They are the super ninja who protected me on my way home.

Inari regarded them for a moment. "They're all just going to die." He said blandly.

Naruto narrowed his eyes as Yakumo and Narumi gasped. Menma shot to his feet. "What was that?!" He tried walking over to the boy, but was held back by Kushina.

"There's no way you can win against Gatō." Inari replied.

"What?!" Menma tried to get to him, but Kushina wouldn't let go.

"Calm down." She told her youngest son.

Menma glared at the boy. "Listen up! We're awesome shinobi from Konoha! We're gonna send all of the bad guys packing! I don't know what your problem is, but there isn't anything that's going to stop us-ttebasa!"

Inari was silent for a minute. They couldn't see his expression well because his head was dipped and the brim of his hat was blocking it somewhat. But after a bit, he looked back up. "What? You must be stupid. There's no such thing as heroes. I'm warning you now, just give up."

"What?!"

"I said calm down-ttebane!" Bam! Menma was subsequently silenced with a fist to his head. Inari shook his head. He opened his mouth to speak again, but was interrupted.

"Inari-san." Everyone looked over to Naruto. "You should remember that no matter how dark the situation is, there is always a light." Some of the people in the room frowned in confusion, but Naruto kept on talking. "The heart may be weak, and sometimes it may even give in. But I've learned that deep down, there's a light that never goes out." Inari's eyes widened. "The situation might never be perfect, but if you just give in, it can't get any better. There is always hope. What you're doing right now, is giving up. And that's what Gatō wants. You're playing right into his hands by simply giving up and not fighting for what you believe in." Naruto shook his head. "If you're not willing to go that far, we will do it for you."

Inari stood there for a moment, simply staring at Naruto with wide eyes, but after a minute, he turned and fled the room. The rest of them sat there in silence for a few moments. But eventually it was broken by Yūgao. Naruto was quickly learning that she was often the fastest to shake off her surprise. "Well then. Remember the sleeping order. You're dismissed for the day. Again, be ready for training in the morning. The future is a little worrying right now."

The genins and Tazuna nodded and left the room to go and get prepared for bed or whatever other things they needed to do. Soon, it was just Kushina and Yūgao in the room.

* * *

 **Hallway**

Naruto was now walking through the hallway after stopping by the restroom. As he passed by a bedroom, he paused as he heard a noise. Standing closer to the door so he could hear better, he stilled at what he heard.

The sound of crying.

* * *

 **Bedroom**

Inari was crying over an old picture. The picture was a partially torn one of a friendly looking man. They both had huge grins on their faces.

' _Why? Why am I crying? I don't want to!'_ But he couldn't help it. That boy, Naruto, sounded so much like Kaiza, it just hurt to listen to him. It brought back so many painful memories. Both happy and sad ones.

Inari paused as he heard something from outside his window. It sounded like…a guitar? Curious, Inari headed over towards it and looked outside. His eyes widened at what he saw.

* * *

 **In front of the House**

Naruto was sitting outside in front of the house. He had found a stool on the porch and dragged it out to the front yard. With his back to the house, he unsealed his acoustic guitar. It was a simple black one with a white flame design on it.

He started to strum a few chords. After doing this for a minute, he began to play.

 **Simple and Clean (NateWantsToBattle Cover)**

When you walk away

You don't hear me say

Please, oh baby don't go

Simple and clean is the way that you're making me feel tonight

It's hard to let it go

You're giving me

Too many things, lately

You're all I need

You smiled at me, and said

Don't get me wrong I love you

But does that mean I have to meet your father?

When we are older you'll understand what I meant when I said no

I don't think life is quite that simple

When you walk away

You don't hear me say

Please, oh baby, don't go

Simple and clean is the way that you're making me feel tonight

It's hard to let it go

The daily things (like this and that and what's what)

To keep us all busy

Confusing me

That's when you came to me and said

Wish I could prove I love you

But does that mean I have to walk on water?

When we are older you'll understand it's enough when I say no,

And maybe some things are that simple

When you walk away

You don't hear me say

Please, oh baby don't go

Simple and clean is the way that you're making me feel tonight

It's hard to let it go

Hold me, whatever lies beyond this morning

Is a little later on

Regardless of warnings

The future doesn't scare me at all

Nothing's like before

Hold me, whatever lies beyond this morning

Is a little later on

Regardless of warnings

The future doesn't scare me at all

Nothing's like before

 **End Music**

And with that, Naruto finished playing. He sat there for a moment, but then jumped when he heard some clapping coming from behind him. Whirling around, he was surprised to see Narumi, Menma, Sai, and Yakumo standing there. Narumi and Yakumo were clapping while Menma stood there with a grin. Sai was just standing there, but Naruto could've sworn that there was a small smile on his lips.

He was promptly glomped by his sister. "Nii-chan, that was amazing! I didn't know you could sing and play guitar!"

The others walked over to them as well. Yakumo smiled at him. "You've played a few notes or chords before practice a couple times, but I've never heard you play an actual song or sing before."

Narumi shot Naruto a look. "She knew? Why would you tell her and not me?!"

Naruto shrugged weakly. "It just never came up."

She glowered at him. "Well, now you're going to have to play for me sometime!"

Naruto sighed, but didn't argue. It just wasn't worth it. Menma smirked at his older brother, but then a thought came to him. "Aniki…I've never heard that song before. Where did you hear it?"

Naruto froze. After a moment, he began to look a little uncomfortable as he averted his gaze. He mumbled something they were unable to hear. Menma frowned. "What? Speak up."

Naruto mumbled again, this time louder, but they still couldn't understand him. Yakumo shook her head. "Naruto, you need to speak louder than that."

Naruto sighed. A red tinge invaded his cheeks. "I…wrote it myself." He said quietly. He glanced at them again before quickly averting his eyes once more. What? This was the first time anyone has heard him sing a song he wrote himself. He was nervous!

All was silent for a few moments before Narumi backed up from him. He nervously peeked at her face, and was stunned to see the stars shining in her eyes. "You wrote that?" She asked him. He nodded minutely. She immediately tackled him to the floor in another hug. "That's amazing! Oh Kami, I can't believe you never told me you could do that!" The others soon backed her up with similar sentiments.

Hearing this, Naruto finally allowed himself to relax. It was nice to know he wasn't about to get ripped into over the song he wrote. He grinned back at them and thanked them. But after a minute, he paused. He sent them all annoyed looks. "You guys should be going to bed. We all have training tomorrow and we will need our energy."

Menma shot him his own annoyed look. "Oh yeah? What about you?" He challenged.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "I have the next shift for watch, so I won't be missing much anyways. Plus, playing the guitar is soothing to me." He pointed to the door. "Now scram. All of you. I'm serious." There only one or two more weak protests before they went back inside to go to bed. Once they were finally gone, Naruto slumped his shoulders.

He only hoped that he got his point across. Glancing up to a second story window, he managed to see a bucket hat quickly duck out of view in order to not be seen. Naruto smiled to himself.

Yeah, he was pretty sure he managed to get his point across.

* * *

 **Back in the Tea Room.**

Yūgao turned away from the window to face Kushina with a small smile. "You must be proud." She said.

Kushina was surprised at this. All she could manage was a small, "What?"

Yūgao shook her head as she headed for the door. "I said you must be proud. Naruto is a wonderful young man. He has a kind heart, good beliefs, is talented in music, fantastic at kenjutsu, and is even able to use those jutsus that don't need hand seals. He is a wonderful person." She couldn't see it because her back was turned, but Kushina's eyes widened as she gave a small start of surprise.

Kushina raised a question in a small voice. "How skilled do you believe he is in kenjutsu, right now?" She asked.

Yūgao turned to her with a small frown as she thought about it. "Considering that he just faced off a reported jōnin in a sword fight and manage to finish it with a draw, I would say extremely skilled." Yūgao shrugged her shoulders. "Sure, he was injured, but so was the other guy. The fact that he was able to keep up at all amazes me. Granted, the guy was probably low jōnin, but he still had the speed and strength of at least a high chūnin. As a genin, that's impressive for him to match." She smiled at the redhead. "You and Minato have raised him so well. So again, you must be proud." And with that, she left the room.

Kushina sat there for a few minutes, going over what she just heard. Half of what she was just told she only learned about Naruto today. She scrunched her face up somewhat as she thought harder and harder about what she knew about Naruto. Has he always been this skilled? Did he hide it? And why wasn't she able to answer these questions?

"Ugh!" Kushina gripped the side of her head as pain shot through it. Unseen to anyone, her eyes flashed a darker purple for a moment, before dying back down. Recovering, Kushina shook her head. "What was I thinking about?" She tilted her head in thought. But after a minute of silent thought, she shrugged.

Must not have been important if she couldn't remember it.

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 16!**

 **People! I've got _reasons_ for the crap I pull. So don't shit on me until you see the entire scope of things. _Then_ you can ridicule me for the stuff I write.**

 **Sure Kog, you can totally fit the entire Wave arc into two chapters. Hell, you can probably just make one long chapter!**

 **God, I'm such a dumbass.** _ **Everything**_ **is smaller in my head.**

 **I have no idea what the Konjiki brothers look like. They aren't OC characters. They are from Gaara Hiden: A Sandstorm Mirage. I do not believe that their appearance was ever covered, so I just tried modeling it after the beginning outfit from Sword Art Online. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I hate making up outfits.**

 **I modeled the fight between Naruto and Aoi after the one in Rurouni Kenshin episode 7. The one between Kenshin and Jin-e. What you've got to remember is that Aoi is still a jōnin. I'm willing to call him a weak one, but he is still a jōnin. Naruto and Sasuke tag teamed him in canon and got their asses kicked, for the most part. I'm also willing to say that both Naruto and Sasuke were low to mid chūnin in skill at that point. I call semi-bullshit on that fight.**

 **Hm…do I want Haku and Zabuza to die…?**

 **I semi-try to portray Menma as canon Naruto. Not completely, but when I need a canon Naruto moment, I give it to him.**

 **If you would like to hear an acoustic cover of Simple and Clean, check out NateWantsToBattle. That's actually what I listened to as I wrote that part.**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	17. Mission to Wave: Climax

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 17!**

 **When the lazies hit, they hit hard. It took me a little bit to get off my ass and write this.**

 **Thinking back, Red Like Roses Part II by Jeff and Casey Williams would have also worked last chapter. Maybe even better…Oh well. I like Simple and Clean too. Plus, I've never heard an acoustic version of that. Also, Naruto technically didn't know about Kaiza yet.**

 **New word count record!**

* * *

 **Adjuster: Sorry, this has been the plan for a while. Plus, I couldn't exactly have them suddenly ignore Naruto after expressing that they won't, right? Also, it wouldn't fit in their personalities. There were three guys. Aoi, Metoro, and Etoro. I thought they were necessary because there were more people on the mission. Yūgao could take someone on by herself, and I wanted Naruto to fight someone on his own too. That meant I needed three people.**

 **HeartlessNobody13: Glad you like it :) To answer the only thing I am willing to answer, yes. Naruto will have companions that travel with him between worlds. I think I have them already picked out. I have for a long time. The only reason I say "think" is because I may still think of better people, but I doubt it.**

 **plums: An emo song to soothe the emo boy. But even then, Simple and Clean is a fantastic song. The guitar may be silly to you, but I like it. Unfortunately, I plan to go along with canon and alter it as I continue. So yeah, this early in the story is a guarantee for things to be similar, if not the same. And didn't I already tell you he isn't leaving the village? That he already has bonds there? Also, I never indicated that Ichigo made it off the world or not. Only that he wasn't there to do Urahara's bidding. You say "survivors" as if they die when they don't make it off the world. That isn't the case. For example, Simba's world in was swallowed by the darkness in Kingdom Hearts 1 and yet everyone was there in Kingdom Hearts 2. It isn't like they die if they don't make it off. I plan to get to that later. The arrancars? I'll admit adding them to the story has crossed my mind, but I still need to decide where in the Bleach timeline that world is. I haven't really indicated much about that yet.**

 **Drakon45: :P Sorry. Not answering that.**

 **Kavell Anderson: Please refer to the previous response.**

 **SoraNoKitsune24: Darkness :P**

 **LazyAssassin24: I like it! I may just do that. I had totally forgotten I could do that. Props to you. And I plan to add content to the time skip using the Kingdom Hearts story.**

 **Red Eyes. B God: Sorry. Not answering that.**

 **Anon: That would qualify, yes.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the Story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else, I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Diety Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Diety Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **Last Updated: 12/18/17 (Minor wording alteration)**

* * *

 **Nearby Woods (The Next Day)**

After a good night of rest, the group left Tazuna's home in order to go to the forest nearby to train. Kushina opted to leave a few clones behind in order to guard Tazuna and his family. This way, they had some basic protection and the shinobi could focus on the training. Although they did this, Kushina and Yūgao weren't worried about the enemy showing up this soon based on their reluctance to fight them without Zabuza.

Menma was practically skipping along during the entire walk. You can just tell with a single glance he was excited to be learning some "badass technique." He had been incessantly questioning both Yūgao and Kushina what they would be learning ever since they had gotten up that morning. Speaking of which…

" _Now_ will you tell us what we're gonna be doing? We're practically there already!" Menma pleaded. Naruto rolled his eyes when he heard this. If they hadn't told him yet, then they weren't going to until they felt like it.

Yūgao shook her head in amusement. "You don't even know where we are going." She pointed out. "Plus, if we _are_ that close, you shouldn't mind waiting that little extra bit until we get there." She said with a grin. Hearing his request get denied, Menma huffed and crossed his arms. This action caused amused smiles to come to most of their faces as they kept walking.

Soon, they came upon a river in the middle of the forest. A little ways away, they could also make out a small clearing. Once they had reached the river, Kushina and Yūgao stopped walking and turned to face them. Kushina was the one to address them. "We found out about this place last night when we asked Tazuna-san. It is perfect for what we are going to have you guys be doing."

Menma was bouncing up and down again. "So _now_ we finally get to know what we're gonna be learning? What is it?! What is it?! Oh. I bet it is something awesome like some S-rank jutsu, isn't it-ttebasa?!"

Naruto sweat dropped at this. As if they would really teach some genins something like an S-rank jutsu.

Kushina grinned and shook her head. "No…you and Narumi will be learning…" Once she heard her name, Narumi also started to look more and more excited. She paused as she took in their excited looks. "Water walking!"

Dead silence.

Menma looked like he had just been told that Christmas was cancelled for the next ten years. "…Water walking? That's it? No super cool jutsu? No badass technique? Just water walking? A semi-basic exercise?" Even Narumi looked extremely put out by this revelation.

Kushina shook her head with an amused smile. "You really think that either you or Narumi is ready for a high level jutsu? With _your_ levels of chakra control? Really? The two of you would never be able to learn anything in time!" Both of the younger redheads flushed when they were reminded of how poor their chakra control was. Being an Uzumaki already made it harder. But being a jinchuriki on top of that? It was pretty much guaranteed that they wouldn't have the best chakra control.

Narumi tried to throw up some level of defense for themselves. "But…it's not like we could really help it…" she said weakly.

Kushina gave her a small smile. "I'm not saying it is your faults. It isn't surprising, really. But that doesn't mean that you shouldn't be working on it. You two will eventually get good control if you keep working on it." This seemed to pick their moods back up. But they froze when Kushina gave them an evil grin. "But for now, time to go walking in the freezing water!" Menma and Narumi both sighed in a dejected manner and trudged after the grinning Kushina as she walked over to the nearby river.

Yūgao shook her head at Kushina's antics. She then turned to face her own genin team with a smile. "Well, now that they have gotten down to business, we should too. Sit down for a bit while we talk." She motioned to the ground as she sat on it as well. The three genins complied and sat on the floor, wondering what they were going to talk about.

Yūgao nodded once before speaking up. "First thing is first. Knowing Zabuza's personality, he will want a rematch with Kushina. And my own opponent has expressed a desire to fight me again to finish our battle. Assuming he remains truthful to his words, that leaves the other three. Etoro, Aoi, and the fake hunter-nin."

Naruto chose that moment to recall how he and Aoi finished their battle. "Right before he left, Aoi stated he would 'pay me back' for hurting him. He will probably come after me when we meet again.

Sai nodded. "Etoro has also expressed a desire to continue the battle between himself, Yakumo, and I. If he did not lie, it is safe to assume that he will be challenging us again."

Yūgao nodded. "That all works out." She gained a serious look, causing Yakumo and Naruto to grow slightly worried. "I know that this is your first mission above D-rank. And you shouldn't have to do something like this so early in your shinobi careers…but I need you three to continue your fights without Kushina or myself helping you, at least until we can finish our own opponents. Kushina will be taking on Zabuza again and I will be continuing my fight with Metoro." She looked at Naruto. "Based on what we were told, you and Aoi walked away on even footing…But he was the one who managed to draw first blood. Do you think you will be able to hold off long enough for some back up to come and help you?"

Naruto thought back on his fight with Aoi. While it was true that he was the first to get hurt, he also wasn't using his full arsenal…and he was extremely reluctant to use it. But if he had to, he would. But he wasn't sure if Aoi was also holding back. After some more thought, Naruto nodded his head. "Yeah, I could do that."

Yūgao nodded in return and turned to look at the other two. "What about you two? Could you hold out long enough for someone else to finish their fight and come to help you?" She asked them.

Yakumo looked worried for a few moments, but then a steely determination entered her eyes. "Yes, we can do that." She said. Yūgao smiled at her resolve.

It was then that Naruto remembered something. "Yūgao-sensei…" He began, getting her attention. "What about the last enemy? The fake hunter-nin? Who will fight him?" He still wasn't completely sure of the gender…But for now, he would assume it was a male.

Yūgao motioned towards the river. "We will leave the fake hunter-nin to Narumi and Menma. They might have the easiest battle."

This caused all three genin to look at her questionably. "How so?" Yakumo asked.

"The fake hunter-nin didn't join the fight. Only choosing to appear in order to rescue Zabuza. That could mean two things. Either that their plan was to hold him as a surprise reserve to rescue those that couldn't get out of there, like Zabuza. Or…"

Sai interjected. "Or they are not completely suited for combat." He finished.

Yūgao nodded. "Yes. We are not going to completely assume right away that is the case, but it is a definite possibility. It would be fortunate if that was the case, though." She shook her head. "Anyways, let's focus on your opponents." She looked between Sai and Yakumo. "Your opponent uses the lava release. A mixture of fire and earth release." She smiled at them. "But you lucked out a bit. He uses the flame version of the lava release."

Sai nodded. "Meaning that we can combat him with water release. Although it may not be enough to completely nullify his flames, it would help."

Yūgao grinned. "Exactly. And luckily enough, I know a simple enough water release jutsu that you can probably learn well enough in a week. Although, as Sai stated, it will probably not be enough to completely subdue his flames. But that isn't the purpose here. You only need to buy enough time for someone to come and help you finish him." Hearing this, both Yakumo and Sai nodded.

Yūgao then turned to Naruto. "You may have one of the tougher fights. Only someone with enough experience with a sword will be able to completely block and counter all of Aoi's attacks. Meaning only Kushina, myself, or you will be able to fight him. But as the two of us are busy with Zabuza and Metoro, you will need to fight him on your own. There isn't much I can do to help you there besides spar. I will ask you again. Do you think that you will be able to handle him long enough for the back up to get there?" She asked him.

Naruto nodded. "Yes. I am sure I will be able to hold him off long enough for help to arrive." He paused for a moment. "I may even be able to defeat him. He was arrogant in his weapon, and that could be his downfall. He wasn't even that good with it. The hardest part was keeping up with him. I wasn't really allowed many moments to breath and collect my thoughts. All of my focus had to go into the fight." His eyes lit up as a thought came to him. _'Actually…I think I may have something that can give me an edge…'_

Yūgao nodded. "Yes, that fits with what we know about Aoi. He has always been slightly arrogant. He likes to toy with his opponents and mock them. Like you said, that could be what you use to take him down." She looked at each of her genin again. "So. We all know what's going to happen and who we will fight. We have about a week before Zabuza should be up and running again, so we will train in that time." She then stood up and grinned down at them. "Let's get to it!"

All three of the genin quickly followed her example and stood up. "Right!" They chorused.

* * *

 **Nearby Trees**

Hiding behind some trees nearby, was Inari. He had been growing increasingly curious about the shinobi ever since he had met them the day before. Although, most of his curiosity was directed towards Naruto.

Hearing their plans of battle, he wanted to scoff and walk away. But he couldn't. Not even two days ago, he would have done exactly that. He would have called them fools and walked away, believing that they didn't have a chance. That it was all for nothing.

But now…

' _Could they really do it? Could they really beat Gatō and his men?_ He _died fighting Gatō. Could they actually win?'_ He recalled Naruto's words from the night before. He sounded so _sure_ of his words that Inari really wanted to believe that they could help change things around here.

With a troubled expression, Inari silently turned and walked away. It seemed like such a strange idea at this point.

Actually having hope.

* * *

 **Bridge Construction Site (A Few Days Later)**

"It's too early for this…" Naruto stretched as he released a huge yawn. He would much rather be sleeping right then. Or training. But because he was probably the one who needed the least amount of training, he was the one chosen to guard Tazuna as he worked on the bridge.

It's not that he really minded, he could train in the Station of Awakening while he slept if he really wanted to. It was just that Tazuna got up _so freaking early_ to work.

Naruto looked around. There wasn't really much for him to do. All around him, there were only men who were hard at work on the bridge. Also, not that he would while on the job, but he couldn't even take a nap if he wanted to! It was too noisy with all of the hammering and sawing from the workers. Naruto let out a sigh of disappointment. But hey, it was an important job.

"You seem to be pretty bored." Naruto looked over to see Tazuna standing nearby with a large piece of lumber slung over his shoulder. "What happened to the other brats?" He asked.

Naruto shrugged. "They're all training in the forest near your place."

Tazuna sent Naruto a curious look. "And you don't have to?"

Naruto smirked. "I would love to be out training or napping right now. But if I wasn't here, then who would pull your ass out of the fire if you were attacked?" Tazuna huffed. But there was still an undercurrent of nervousness in his face. "But really, I'm here because I need the least amount of work. The others are going to be fighting people who they aren't completely suited to fight. I'm just going up against another kenjutsu user. I can handle that."

Tazuna hummed noncommittally as placed the lumber in the desired spot. But his attention was soon drawn away by someone calling out to him. "Tazuna! You got a minute?"

Tazuna looked up towards the approaching man. "Sure. What do you need, Giichi?" He asked the approaching man.

Giichi rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Listen. I've been thinking a lot lately, and I've decided…I want to stop working on the bridge."

Tazuna seemed stunned. "Wait…What? That's it? After all we've done and how much progress we've made, this is it? You're quitting just like that?!"

Giichi shook his head. "We've been friends for a long time now. I value that friendship. It's why I've stayed with you on this project so far. But let's be realistic here. If we keep this up, then we will all be killed. It is only a matter of time before Gatō gets fed up with us enough to send his goons after us. And if you die, then the bridge will remain unfinished anyways." He shook his head. "We should just quit now, while we can still get out of this with our lives." Naruto just watched the scene in silence.

Tazuna's head was lowered. You couldn't make out his expression. The silence stretched on for a while. Looking around, Naruto saw that many of the other workers had stopped working and were standing around to watch the confrontation. Looking at their faces, Naruto saw that many of them had nervous expressions as well. Although, looking closer, there were also some who looked like they were with Tazuna and were willing to put their lives on the line. Naruto tuned back into the argument when Tazuna started to speak again.

"No way. I won't do it. This bridge is our country's last hope. We need it in order to break free of the depression that Gatō has forced us into. I refuse to just give in and let him win." Tazuna shook his head. "There is no way you could ever convince me to just give up and walk away from this." Tazuna then walked past Giichi. "You can go ahead and quit if you want to. If you wish to walk away from this, I won't stop you." And with that, Tazuna got back to work.

* * *

 **Marketplace (Later That Day)**

"We getting stuff for dinner?" Naruto asked Tazuna as they walked down the street. Following Giichi's declaration, only a couple more workers approached Tazuna with the desire to quit working on the bridge. Although he didn't agree with it, Tazuna understood their desire to quit working on the bridge. It was extremely dangerous to openly defy Gatō as he was doing.

"Yeah. Tsunami is cooking again. She gave me a list of the things she needs. So all we gotta do is grab the stuff."

Naruto nodded silently. Looking around, he hid his disgust at the state of the village. There was blatant poverty all over the place as people struggled to get by. Once or twice, Naruto even heard shouting about thieves and saw people running away from stands and shops with some food in their hands. The thing that really got to Naruto though, was the fact that each time, it was a child that did it. Every once in a while, there were children huddled together on the sides of the street. It was obvious that they were orphans and didn't have a place to go home to. The more he saw, the more he hated Gatō.

"Here's the shop." Naruto was pulled from his thoughts as Tazuna spoke as he entered a store. He silently followed the head bridge builder in. Looking around, Naruto observed that there wasn't much of a selection. Each of the shelves were sparse with food. Suddenly, Naruto stopped as he felt someone shifting through one of his pockets.

Faster than they could react, Naruto lashed out and grabbed the wrist of the would-be thief. He glared at the man, who had stilled in surprise. "Sorry. But that's not happening." Naruto then ended the short exchange with a swift punch to the man's gut. The man stood no chance as he crumbled to the floor in pain.

Tazuna watched as this happened before shaking his head and paying for the food he had collected from the meager selection. The two of them then walked out of the store. Tazuna shot Naruto a sidelong glance. "You sure don't hold back, do you brat?"

Naruto shook his head in disgust. "While I understand that his situation may not be the best, resorting to stealing from a twelve year old isn't how you should do things." Suddenly, Naruto stopped as he felt someone else reach for his pockets. Naruto growled as he turned around. But when he got a look at who was trying to steal from him, he froze.

It was a little girl.

She had shaggy, shoulder length brown hair and blue eyes that were wide with surprise. She had on something that could only be called rags. After a moment, she smiled up at him and raiser her hands with upturned palms. "Please?" She asked him.

Naruto took a moment to study her further. "Where are your parents?" He asked her. The depressed look was all the answer he needed. Naruto sighed. Reaching into one of his pockets, he took out a small sealing scroll. He opened it and pushed some chakra into it. Poof! In a puff of smoke, some fruit appeared in his arms. It wasn't much, just some apples and the like. He had them for when he wanted a snack while on the road or while guarding Tazuna. He gave them to her. She seemed shocked that he was willing to give her that much. "Here. It's pretty much all I have on me. Be sure to share it with your friends."

She beamed at him and nodded. "Thanks, Nii-chan!" And with that, she turned and ran off down the street.

Naruto simply watched her run off before turning to Tazuna who had remained silent throughout the exchange. "It's been like this ever since Gatō showed up." Tazuna began. "The adults are too scared to stand up for themselves and fight back. While the children suffer and live in the streets." He shook his head. "That's the reason I won't give up. I've said it before and I'll say it again. That bridge is our last hope. And I refuse to let it die."

Naruto gave him a small smile. "You shouldn't. These people need something like that. Something to give them hope. Right now, you and the bridge is that hope." Naruto grinned at the old man. "And I'm behind you all the way. I know you can free this country."

* * *

 **Tazuna's Home (A Few Days Later)**

"We're back…" Two tired voices said together. Naruto looked up from the meal in front of him to look at the two who said it. When he saw the state they were in, he couldn't help the snickers that escaped from his mouth.

Both of his siblings stood in the doorway. Each one of them were shivering from the cold. But that wasn't surprising as they both were soaked to the bone. Despite this, they both had massive grins on their faces.

Naruto knew what those grins meant. "Oh? Did you two finally master water walking?" The grins grew even wider as the two shivering redheads nodded their heads. Naruto shook his head. "It's about time." He motioned towards the hallway. "Both of you should go and get changed before you catch a cold." They nodded again and moved off to get changed.

After about ten minutes, the two of them came back in. They quickly plopped into their seats. Menma let out a sigh. "I'm beat. It took us so much longer than I would have liked to get that down…"

Narumi nodded with a smile. "Yeah, but we did manage to learn it. That means we have definitely improved."

Kushina smiled at them. "Now that the both of you have mastered water walking, you should see that your jutsus will be easier to use and will take less chakra to perform. But it's mostly the first thing that was important for you two. You two have done well." She then went back to her meal.

Narumi and Menma soaked up the praise with wide grins, but they also shot Naruto discreet glances. Naruto saw this and knew what was on their minds. He gave them a small smile and shook his head. Their expressions seemed to dim, but they nodded minutely.

Once they were finished eating, Yūgao spoke up. "It is about the time that we can start to expect Zabuza and the others showing up." This immediately sobered up the other people in the room. "Because of this, we will all start to travel with Tazuna to the bridge." She looked at each of the genin. "You all know who you will most likely be fighting. And you know that all you need to do is hold off long enough for either Kushina or I to come to your aid. Each of you have some sort of plan for the fight." She smiled at them. "I know you can do it. Each of you is strong."

"How?"

Off to the side, Inari had been silent as he watch the scene play out before him. He had a conflicted look on his face. He just couldn't understand how these people could be so calm about it all. It seemed to defy all sense of logic to him. Gatō was an unstoppable force. How could they expect to actually go up against him and win? But he paused as he remembered Naruto's words. Did he really think it was that easy?

"How can you be so calm about it all? Aren't you nervous? Scared? You are going against Gatō! How can…" He lowered his head, shadowing his face. After a moment, he raised it again to show tears in his eyes. "…How can you be so brave?" Although the question was directed to the entire group of shinobi, it was clear that he was mostly talking to Naruto.

Naruto was silent as he looked back into Inari's eyes. After a few moments of silence he answered. "We are brave because we have to be."

This answer stunned Inari. "What?" He asked weakly.

Naruto pressed on. "What's the alternative? To just quit and go home?" Naruto shook his head. "Never. I would rather die right here and now than do something like that. To just abandon these people to their fate and go back to save myself. That is something I would never forgive myself for doing. These people need help. I'm going to give it. Wouldn't you rather go down fighting for what you believe in than wallowing in despair like a coward? Would you really just let someone as dark as Gatō win that easily?"

Inari sat there for a while. And like the confrontation before this, he silently left the room after a minute. Although this time, he had on a look of deep thought. They simply watched him go.

All was silent for a moment. But eventually, it was broken by a voice. "Thank you." Naruto looked over at the speaker and saw it was Tsunami.

Tsunami was a woman with long, blue hair. She often wore a pink short sleeved shirt with the end of the sleeves and collar being red in color.

She was looking at Naruto with a small smile. Naruto tilted his head in confusion. "For what? That?" He motioned towards the door Inari had just walked through.

Tazuna nodded. "You're giving him hope. That's something he hasn't felt in a while. Not since Kaiza died…" He finished quietly.

Naruto frowned in confusion. "Kaiza?" He asked.

Tsunami nodded. "Yes. Kaiza was someone who came here a while ago. He was a very brave man, always working as hard as he could. If he had a goal in mind, he never gave up until he managed to achieve that goal."

Tazuna continued when she stopped talking. "Kaiza became something of a father to Inari. You often saw Inari following Kaiza around…Inari often had a huge grin on his face when he was with Kaiza…"

Yakumo frowned. "What happened to him?" She asked.

Both of the Land of Waves inhabitants became more downcast. "Gatō happened." Tazuna answered. "Kaiza was against Gatō from the beginning. Always right up there in his way, trying to stop him from coming in whenever he could…" Tazuna shook his head. "Eventually, Gatō got fed up with Kaiza and how he kept on getting in the way." He stopped talking.

Sai spoke in the silence that followed. "Gatō killed him."

Tsunami seemed to begin to tear up. Tazuna heaved a heavy sigh. "Yes…Kaiza was executed in the middle of the village during the day. Most of the village saw it…including Inari."

Both Yakumo and Narumi gasped as their hands flew to their mouths in horror. Naruto and Menma gained dark looks.

Tsunami continued. "After Kaiza's death, the cheerful Inari seemed to just stop existing. He never smiled anymore. And he became extremely quiet. He withdrew on himself, unwilling to let anyone in."

Tazuna took a long swig of his sake. "He was such a super bright and happy boy." He gained an extremely angry look. "Gatō took all of that away from him. I want to bring that smile back. And I will. Once we break free of Gatō's control, that bright smile will return." He grinned at Naruto. "So I want to thank you. You have started to give him hope again. Something that most of us had already lost a long time ago."

The rest of the time at the table was spent in silence.

* * *

 **Outside Tazuna's Home (The Next Day)**

It was the next day, and the group of shinobi plus Tazuna were standing outside of the house as they prepared to head to the bridge. Although there was no guarantee of a battle that day, they wouldn't be surprised if there was one. The enemy should have had enough time to recover by now.

Tsunami hugged her father. "Be safe. Don't do anything stupid." Even with all of the shinobi protection, she was extremely worried for everyone working on the bridge. Especially her father.

Tazuna grinned down at her. "Don't worry! I have these super shinobi with me!" He said with a laugh.

Tsunami smiled at him. "Of course." She turned to the shinobi. "I apologize for all of the trouble my father has given you, but please continue to look after him."

Kushina ignored the indignant yell Tazuna gave and smiled back at her. "Of course! We'll protect him. Don't worry about it!"

Tazuna huffed at being ignored, but there was a smile on his face. He turned towards the road. "Alright, let's get a move on, people! I want to finish this bridge sometime this century!"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Probably because your old drunken ass is going to kick the bucket any day now from old age or alcohol poisoning…" He said quietly. But his siblings and Tazuna still heard him. And while both of the younger redheads snickered, Tazuna shot him a dirty look.

With that, the group started to head to the bridge.

* * *

 **The Bridge**

"W-What the hell is this?!" All across the bridge, bodies were strewn out. They were all the bridge workers that were working under Tazuna. This was the sight that the group arrived at the bridge to see.

Tazuna ran up to a nearby worker on the ground, and upon seeing that he was alive, kneeled next to the man and lifted his upper body up gently. "What happened here? Who did this?!" Tazuna asked him.

The man weakly look up at Tazuna. "It…it was a monster…" He said.

Naruto narrowed his eyes. _'Those wounds…They were done by a large blade…Zabuza was here…'_ Suddenly, a dense mist started to form on the bridge. While this may normally have not been a problem, the chakra flowing through the mist gave a reason for alarm.

Kushina was the first to react. "They're here! Converge on Tazuna-san!" They swiftly did as they were told and surrounded Tazuna.

"I'm back for round two, Habanero…" A bodiless voice said. They were unable to pinpoint the exact direction it came from.

Kushina smirked. "I knew you would be. Why don't you come out so we can talk face to face?"

The voice chuckled. "Well, if you insist." And just like that the mist cleared a bit to show their surroundings. And when it did clear a bit, they were able to see that multiple figures appeared around them, surrounding them from all sides. Naruto wasn't too surprised, that was the obvious move to make in this kind of situation. Looking closer, Naruto saw that they all looked like Zabuza. But his attention was drawn to his brother and sister when he noticed how their hands holding the kunai were acting.

They were _shaking._

Zabuza had noticed it too. "It looks like two of your genins are shaking from fight."

Kushina's smirk grew wider. "I wouldn't be too sure of that…" She said.

"What do you mean by that?"

Menma gained a smirk of his own. "It's simple, really…"

Narumi mirrored his smirk. "We're shaking from excitement!" And with no further words, the two of them blurred into action, swiftly slashing into all of the clones. Within moments, all of them were gone, leaving pools of water on the ground.

"Well then, _that_ was impressive." This time, they were able to clearly pinpoint the voice. They all swirled around to get a look at where it came from. A little ways down the bridge stood five figures. The mist cleared to show them more clearly. "Wasn't it, Haku?"

"Indeed. That was fast." Haku responded.

Yūgao looked over at them. "How nice of you all to join us."

Etoro grinned. "No problem! We wouldn't want to miss this, would we?" His grin gained that psychotic look again. "After all, you only get killed once!" He focused on Sai and Yakumo. "I've been looking forward to this, brats. I really want to finish killing you."

Aoi smirked as he zeroed in on Naruto. "You as well. I want to make you pay for what you did."

Naruto smiled innocently at him. "You mean when I sent you back with your tail between your legs? If you really want to repeat that, I would be happy to help you with that…" The dark look he got in response was all he needed to feel satisfied with that statement.

Zabuza shook his head. "Enough. Haku, start us off."

The masked shinobi nodded. "Right." He then blurred of towards Tazuna.

Menma rushed forward to meet him. "Not gonna happen!" Clang! Kunai met senbon as the two of them clashed.

Haku looked at Menma. "You _are_ fast. But…" He blurred out of sight again, only to reappear behind Menma. "…are you fast enough?"

"He doesn't have to be, I'm here too!" Haku was forced to jump back in order to doge the kick that Narumi sent his way.

Haku looked at his two opponents. "Two on one? Going to try and corner me with numbers?" He paused for a moment. "Very well. Let us see you corner me with this!" He brought his hands together in a hand seal. " **Ice Style: Demonic Ice Mirrors**!" He stated. Suddenly, all of the water on the floor rose up, and formed some kind of ice constructs. Going by what the technique was called, Naruto guessed that they were ice mirrors.

' _Another bloodline…'_ He was pulled back into focus when a shout reached his ears.

"You should focus on your own opponent!" Knowing what this shout meant, Naruto swiftly brought his blade out. Clang! Just in time too, as if he was only a moment later he would have been impaled on the Sword of the Thunder God. His line of sight was suddenly filled with a grinning Aoi. "That was dangerous, what if you looking away had gotten you killed?"

Naruto grinned. "Then I guess it is a good thing that you absolutely suck then, huh?"

Aoi's grin immediately fell off of his face. "I'm going to kill you, brat. And I'm going to enjoy doing it!" Aoi pushed harder with his blade, forcing Naruto to jump back.

Naruto got into a battle stance. Quickly glancing to the side, he saw that his teammates, Kushina, and Yūgao were all engaged in battles already. It seemed that they had started when he did. Naruto looked back to Aoi. "Well then, shall we begin?" He challenged.

Aoi grinned again. "Yes, we shall!"

 **Play Naruto the Movie 2 OST-Sandstorm**

The two rushed at each other. Clang! Their blades met for a moment before they both side stepped one another. As one, they both swirled back around to hack at their enemy, and their blades met once more. This time, they struggled with one another to overpower each other.

After struggling with each other for a moment, they broke away once more as they both jumped back. Aoi was the first to rush in again as he made a swipe at Naruto. Naruto jumped back again to dodge, but Aoi was still coming at him. Naruto made a slash at him, but Aoi jumped over and brought his blade forward.

' _Oh Shit!'_ Naruto was still extended from his attack, he wasn't able to bring his blade forward to block, and it was too late to move out of the way. Acting quickly, the most Naruto was able to do was tilt his head to the side.

Naruto hissed in pain as he felt the thunder sword cut a gash into his cheek. Like the previous time he was cut with this blade, it wasn't terrible, but still hurt.

Naruto took this chance to take his own sword and use it to bring it down upon his enemy's sword. This forced the Sword of the Thunder God to be driven into the ground.

However, this had the adverse result of causing Naruto to lower his blade as it pushed Aoi's down. Aoi used this chance to kick Naruto. _Hard._

"Gah!" Naruto felt a rib crack at the impact as he was sent flying away. He rolled on the ground for a good distance as there was _that_ much power behind the kick. Naruto was able to gain control of his momentum as he heard the sound of a blade being pulled from the ground.

Looking up, Naruto was surprised to see that Aoi was already upon him with his blade coming down. Naruto immediately jumped back in order to dodge it. _'Holy shit! He isn't hold back nearly as much!'_ When it came to his skills with a sword, Naruto was able to match him. But he was hard pressed to keep up when it came to things such as speed and strength. Aoi was older and more experienced than Naruto was. And as such, could even the gap in sword skills with pure muscle power and speed. Naruto was extremely strong for a genin, but he was still fighting a jōnin.

Naruto was broken from his thoughts again as he had to duck in order to dodge another slash that would have taken off his head. He rolled back and quickly returned to his feet to parry another blow. This repeated for a few moments as Aoi was unrelenting in his attacks.

Soon, Naruto's back was pressed against a wall. With no time to think any further as another strike was coming down at him, Naruto jumped up onto the thing that was behind him. It was then he realized it was a stack of lumber that was as tall as he was.

Aoi didn't let Naruto getting the high ground deter him as he brought his blade forward and obliterated the stack. Naruto jumped up and into the air to dodge. It was then he got a good look at Aoi's face.

He was _smiling._

The sight of Aoi's smile irritated Naruto, but he tried to keep a cool head as he planned out his next attack now that he had a moment to breath. _'Damn it all! I'm not going to let him win that easily. Time to fight back!'_ With that thought in mind, Naruto landed on the ground and rushed at Aoi.

Aoi blocked the first blow, but Naruto quickly jumped back in order to try again. Rushing at the enemy, Naruto sent a slash that was dodged with a duck. Not giving him any time to get back into a position to attack again, Naruto kept the blows coming as he sent more and more attacks at Aoi.

Aoi's smile had slid off his face and was replaced with a snarl. He brought his blade forward to hack at Naruto. Naruto, seeing a chance, used his own sword to deflect the blow to the side and create an opening. Aoi's eyes quickly went wide with surprise.

Not wasting a moment, Naruto lunged at Aoi, only for the man to try and turn his body out of the way. However, like Naruto in their previous fight, he was unable to move out of the way completely and had his arm cut into.

Aoi jumped back as he seethed with rage. "Once again, you manage to wound me." He began to stalk forward as he leaked killing intent. "I'm going to enjoy killing you painfully." He said quietly.

They rushed at each other once more, and their blades quickly met. They struggled to overpower one another. Aoi was grinning in malicious glee. "Yeah, I'm going to kill you alright. A little brat like you, who dares to go against someone like me who is invincible with this blade. You are too foolish to live." He applied more strength, and Naruto was forced to roll out of the way.

Almost before he could recover, Aoi was making another stab at him, followed by a kick. This one was then followed by another slash. He moved at a pace that Naruto had even more trouble keeping up with compared to before.

Slowly, more and more wounds started to appear on Naruto. Cuts on his arms, slashes on his chest and back, it all started to add up. Naruto was huffing from the exertion that this battle forced him to be under. _'He really wants me dead…And he is trying even harder from before…'_ He grit his teeth. _'I was stupid for trying to fight a jōnin head on like this…'_

Aoi started to laugh again. "Are you done already? Ready to admit defeat and give up?" He said.

Naruto smirked as he got into another battle stance. "This isn't over yet. I still got a trick or two up my sleeve."

Aoi smirked in a mocking manner. "Oh? Is that right?" He gestured for Naruto to continue. "Then by all means, go ahead."

Naruto's smirk grew wider. "You asked for it." His grip on his sword tightened. Then he opened his mouth. " **Aero**!" Suddenly, a whirlwind picked up around Naruto, surround him in a gale of wind.

Aoi raised an eyebrow. "A little gust of wind? Seriously? That's it?" He shook his head. "And here I thought you actually had something worthwhile. Admittedly, it is impressive that you are able to do that without any hand seals, but it still isn't enough."

Naruto just kept on smirking. "Is that so? Well then, by all means, let us continue."

Aoi grinned darkly. "Yes, let's!" And he rushed at Naruto again, but he was jumped back when he felt himself get slightly hurt. "What?!" He couldn't see what it was. It wasn't all too strong, but it caught him off guard and caused a bit of damage. The only thing it could have been is, "…The wind. It causes damage." That couldn't be right though! It was easy to identify attack based wind from those that weren't. The ones that were meant to cause damage always had a sharp and razor-like look to them. But he couldn't see anything of the sort on this one!

But Naruto's grin confirmed this statement. "It was kind of obvious, wasn't it?" His grin turned mocking. "What's the matter? Scared off by a 'little gust of wind?'"

Aoi snarled. "Not on your life!" And with that, he rushed back in. All he needed to do was finish this before he took too much damage. With this thought in mind, Aoi ignored the slight damage he was taking as he engaged Naruto in another clash of blades.

Like before, Aoi was able to get in some additional hits on Naruto. But unlike before, he was taking just as much damage due to the whirlwind. And that wasn't all, it seemed like he was somehow dealing the crimson blond less damage than he was earlier. He grit his teeth in anger at the knowledge that some genin was matching him in a battle.

After a few more blows, Aoi saw that the smirk was back on Naruto's face. The sight of it made him growl. "What so amusing, brat?"

Naruto only chuckled. "Oh nothing. Just thinking about how surprised you will be." He shook his head. "Knowing how much of a loser you are, you will probably be too shocked to continue."

Aoi snarled as he lunged at Naruto. Clang! Their swords met in a shower of sparks as they struggled against one another again. "And what will I find so surprising?"

Naruto's smirk grew. "You know. Just the fact that I can do more than just a whirlwind with that move." Aoi's eyes widened. He was about to jump back, but it was too late.

" **Aero**!"

A large blast of wind slammed into his gut. Because his sword was still locked in battle with Naruto's sword, he was unable to block it. He was launched backwards as blood leaked from his stomach area.

"You lose." Aoi's eyes widened even further, but before he could do anything, a black sword slashed him across the chest. A deep gash was formed as blood sprayed everywhere.

Aoi glared weakly at Naruto as he fell to his knees. "Damn you…brat." He fell forwards onto the ground.

 **End Music**

Naruto simply stood there for a minute, panting. The whirlwind had also died down. That battle had taken a lot out of him. And on top of that, he was forced to hold up **Aero** for the duration of that final bout. That also took some of his energy.

After another minute of rest, Naruto walked over to Aoi. He checked for a pulse. It was there, but extremely weakened. He would probably bleed out soon. That knowledge caused Naruto to freeze. He felt sick knowing that he might have just caused someone to die, but shook his head to clear his head of such thoughts. There was time for his potential first kill later, for now, he had to help the others.

"Naruto!" Someone calling his name claimed his attention. Looking over, he saw it was Yūgao who was approaching. She stopped when she reached him and looked down at the fallen form of Aoi. She seemed extremely surprised. "You did this? On your own?" She looked back at him.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head in a sheepish manner. "Yeah. He underestimated me for a bit. I was able to surprise him in the end and create a big enough opening for me to do that."

She nodded. "That is impressive." She then glanced over at the bridge. Naruto followed her gaze to see the other battles going on. It seemed like they were the only two finished. Naruto wanted to go off to help, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. He looked back to Yūgao in question. "You need to go and guard Tazuna-san." She instructed.

This shocked Naruto. "What? But why? The plan was for those who finish their battle to go and help those who were still fighting. I would get in the way if I went to fight Zabuza, but I can still help with the other two!"

Yūgao shook her head. "Change of plans. I checked in on both battles on my way over here. Your siblings are holding their own well enough while Sai and Yakumo will need some help soon. I will go help Sai and Yakumo while you go and guard Tazuna-san. He should be over there." She pointed in a direction. "The reason you need to do this is because we left him unguarded and besides Sai and Yakumo, the others will win their battles soon enough." She looked him over again. "Besides, you look like you need some rest." She stated.

Naruto scowled but nodded his head. He knew that she was right. After another moment, he heaved a deep sigh. "Fine. But I don't like it."

She smiled at him. "Noted. Now go on. I need to help your teammates." And with that, she sped off to intercept the cackling form of Etoro as he spewed more flames from his hands.

Naruto sighed again, but shook his head. He had his orders. He sped off to where Tazuna was supposed to be. Once he spotted the old man, he ran over. Tazuna, who had been looking extremely nervous before then, looked slightly relieved at the sight of Naruto. "Good to see you're okay, kid."

Naruto smirked, "It would take more than that to finish me off."

Tazuna looked him over. "But you still super look like you got your ass kicked for a bit."

Naruto scowled up at him. "Screw you, old man. I won, didn't I?"

Tazuna opened his mouth again to respond, but was cut off by an evil presence suddenly bearing down on them. The two of them froze as Tazuna's knees became weak. "W-w-w-what the he-hell is t-t-this?"

Naruto had froze the moment he felt it. He recognized this. He had felt it six years ago. He would never forget this feeling. As if to remind him of the reason he would never forget it, the large scar on his chest started to tingle.

' _The Kyūbi.'_ That thought terrified Naruto. Not for the reason that it could be breaking free, but for the reason of what that meant for Narumi and Menma. He could still clearly recall how the last time one of them used this power, it caused them damage as well.

Naruto swirled around to look at the dome of ice. And not a moment too soon.

BAM!

A figure exploded out of the side of the dome and went skidding across the bridge. Although he couldn't make much out due to the dense mist. Soon following the first person were two others. Both of their outlines were tinged in red. This instantly alerted Naruto to what was going on. _'Not just one of them, but both! This is bad!'_ He watched as the first figure got to their feet as the other two closed in on it. But then something odd happened.

Narumi and Menma stopped.

The two of them seemed to just stop moving all of a sudden, only a few feet away from the one Naruto could only assume was Haku. After a moment, the feeling of evil and death faded, leaving behind only the normal tense atmosphere of a battlefield.

Naruto was surprised at this turn of events. They stopped? But why? He was pulled from his thoughts as Tazuna spoke up. "Holy crap. I super felt like I was going to die there…That was intense."

Naruto only smirked at him. "You sure it wasn't because you finally felt your old age catch up with you?" This earned him another glare. The two of them then looked back as the two figures moved towards the lone one again. But Naruto frowned as he noticed something strange. He couldn't make it out that well, but it almost looked as if the lone one was just standing there, not going on the defensive.

But at the last moment, it moved, and the other two froze when they made contact. Naruto was growing increasingly frustrated that he couldn't see what was going on. But before he could do anything to get a better look, one of the figures vanished, only to reappear in the middle of the battle that Naruto thought was between Kushina and Zabuza.

It jumped into the path of one of the figures as it charged at the immobile one. Halting the advance. It was at this point that the mist finally began to clear. Naruto squinted his eyes to get a better look, and he was surprised at what he saw.

Zabuza was restrained in his position by numerous glowing chains. Naruto recognized them as Kushina's **Adamantine Sealing Chains**. Standing a foot away from the chained form of Zabuza were two people, Kushina and Haku.

Haku was impaled on a katana that Kushina held up to the hilt.

Kushina's eyes were wide with surprise, no doubt from the fact that Haku had suddenly jumped in the way of the blade.

Naruto was shocked by this turn of events. "He actually sacrificed himself to save Zabuza…" Hearing a gasp, he looked over to see both Narumi and Menma standing nearby.

Zabuza chuckled a bit as the chains began to fade. "Great job, Haku." He gripped his sword.

Naruto's eyes widened at the sight. _'He's actually going to cut through him to get to her!'_ Kushina, seeing this, quickly grabbed Haku and jumped back. Once she landed, took back her blade. She gazed sadly down at the boy. After a moment, she used her free hand to close his eyes.

Zabuza grunted. "Tch. With him dead, you were able to move out of the way…"

Menma was growling. "He just gave up his life to save you, and that's all you have to say?! You-"

"Menma!" A shout from Kushina halted his advance. She never looked over at him as she kept her eyes on Zabuza. "Do not interfere. This is my fight." She instructed.

Menma seemed to battle with himself for internally for a moment before he reluctantly stood down. It looked like Narumi was facing a similar struggle.

Naruto looked back over to Kushina as she rushed back at Zabuza. It was obvious that this fight was over. Zabuza was incredibly injured, and while Kushina had just gone through the same battle, she was in much better condition as she dismantled him in the fight he was watching. After failing to land a blow with his one good arm, Zabuza grew increasingly frustrated. He rushed at Kushina.

Naruto winced as he watched Zabuza's remaining arm get stabbed into.

"Gah!" He cried as he jumped away.

"Now both of your arms are useless." Kushina said. "There is no way you can realistically keep on fighting." Kushina looked around. "All of your allies have been defeated as well. This is the end."

Hearing this, Naruto looked around. Off a little ways away was the rest of team 12. It seemed like Sai needed some support to walk, but besides that, he couldn't spot anything that caused significant worry.

"Oh. You all lost. I must say, you were the biggest wastes of cash I have ever spent a cent on."

At the intruding voice, they all looked over. Standing a distance away was a man. He was an extremely short man with puffy brown hair. He wore a small pair of sunglasses on his face and a black suit with a purple tie.

Behind him were at least a hundred men. All carrying some sort of weapon on them.

Naruto didn't need more than one guess to identify who this was. "Gatō…" He said quietly.

Gatō smirked. "In the flesh, brat." He looked back over to Zabuza. "So much for the coveted demon of the mist, eh?" He looked around. "In fact, all of you were a huge waste of money." He grinned evilly. "Good thing I'm not paying any of you."

Zabuza glared at him. "What was that?"

Gatō smirked. "Did you really think I would dish out all of that money for any of you? What an idiot you must be!" He shook his head. "It's simple, really. I hire you missing-nin for some of my grunt work. Then, when you are all tired from fighting, I kill you. Simple as that." He motioned to the men behind him. "That's why these gentlemen are here."

Zabuza stared silently for a little while. "Habanero…It looks like out fight is over." He said.

Kushina regarded him for a moment before nodding. "Looks like it." They both looked back over to Gatō as he suddenly strode forward.

"That right…" He said as he came to a stop next to the body of Haku. "I still owe this one, don't I?" His grin grew wider. Suddenly, he lashed out with a kick. "You piece of filth! Injuring me like that! You're lucky you're dead!"

This sight infuriated Naruto. Haku gave his life to protect the person he cared for. That earned him Naruto's respect. But here this bastard was, pissing all over that as he kicked Haku's body.

Menma and Narumi seemed to get angry as well. Menma began to walk forward. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!" He was swiftly stopped as Kushina grabbed onto the back of his shirt.

She gave him a stern look. "Don't just jump in like that. We're outnumbered here."

Narumi glared at Zabuza. "Why aren't you saying anything? Are you just going to stand for that?" She asked him.

Zabuza didn't even look back. "Haku was simply my tool. Nothing more. He served his use by protecting me." All was silent for a moment. But it was then broken by a voice.

"You're lying." Everybody looked over to Naruto. "You're lying right now. Both to us, and to yourself. Haku cared about you. Just like you cared about Haku." He pointed at Zabuza. "Otherwise, you wouldn't be crying right now, would you?"

And it was true, a few tears were leaking out of Zabuza's eyes. The man sighed. "Shut up, kid." Zabuza shook his head. "You may be right. Maybe as humans, we just can't completely get rid of our emotions." Sai jolted a bit as he said this. Zabuza then began tearing away at the bandages covering his mouth with his teeth. "Kid, you got a kunai you can lend me?"

Naruto was silent as he looked at Zabuza. After a moment, he sighed. "Yeah, sure." He took a kunai out and tossed it at Zabuza.

Zabuza caught it in his mouth. "Thanks." He said around it. And without any further words, he rushed off towards Gatō.

Gatō screamed a bit at the sight. He quickly turned and fled back towards the goons he brought with him. "Kill him! Kill him quickly!"

"Sure thing!"

"One injured shinobi against all of us? Easy!"

Despite these assurances, Zabuza would not stop. Naruto watched as they were all cut down as they got in his way to Gatō. Even though he had numerous weapons sticking out of him, Zabuza refused to stop. Eventually, he broke through the crowd and made it to Gatō. Zabuza stuck the kunai into Gatō's chest. He seemed to say something more, but Naruto couldn't hear from where he was. Zabuza then backed up, and then brought the kunai back, cutting off Gatō's head.

Gatō's body fell lifelessly down. They all watched as it did so. Soon after, Zabuza's body did as well.

All was silent for a while. Naruto wanted to look away, but he couldn't. He owed Zabuza that much. Narumi, Menma, and Yakumo all tried to look away, but were stopped by Yūgao. "Don't look away. This is the end of a powerful shinobi who lived a difficult life. Think of it as some sort of final respect." They nodded and reluctantly look back.

But that was when they noticed something. The crowd of thugs were growing restless. Eventually, a shout was heard above the crowd. "That was my paycheck!" Similar shouts were soon following this one. Soon, malicious looks were sent their way. "You think it's over just because Gatō's dead? It ain't that easy!" One of the men in the front shouted. Another stepped forward. "We will just go to the village to find our meals!"

Naruto scowled at this. He was tired of fighting and wanted to rest. Plus there were a lot of them. But before anyone could move any further, another party announced their presence.

With the whoosh of an arrow cutting through the air, a crossbow bolt imbedded into the ground in front of the bandits. They all looked back to see where it had come from. Everyone was surprised at what they saw. Tazuna was the first to speak. "Inari?"

Indeed, Inari was standing there with a crossbow in his hand. Behind him was a large crowd of villagers. Each of them held some sort of household weapon. Whether it be a pot, kitchen knife, or in some cases, even a broom. Inari grinned. "The hero always shows up late, right?"

Naruto smirked. "Oh? Are you willing to fight for what you believe in now?"

Inari grinned even wider. "Yeah! This is our village, and it's about time we made sure it stayed that way!"

"Pfft." A laugh was heard coming from the crowd of goons nearby. Looking back over, they saw that many of them had humorous expressions on their faces. One of the men in the front spoke up. "You think that a bunch of people wielding pots and pans is gonna scare us?"

"That's pathetic!"

"No way are you going to drive us off!"

Although they stood their ground in the face of the jeering, many of the villagers started to gain slightly nervous looks. It was then that Naruto heard it.

"We should just tie up the men and make them watch as we have some 'fun' with the women! The shinobi too!" This was met with a large amount of cheering.

Naruto froze. _'He just said…'_ Blood started to pump into his ears. This man. This scum. This filth. This _piece of trash_ had just threatened to do something like that in front of him?

Slowly, a whirlwind started to pick up around him. Naruto's eyes were shadowed by his bangs. People started to notice his trembling form.

"Nii-chan?" Narumi spoke quietly.

The wind started to pick up. Soon, a light began to form around him. "You dare?" Naruto spoke quietly, but everybody still somehow managed to hear him. "You dare to threaten these people like that in front of me? And the people I care about too?" He shook his head. "I can't forgive that."

The light exploded out as the wind picked up even further! Naruto lifted his face as he glared at the crowd in front of him. His eyes were glowing. Everyone on the bridge was frozen in shock. "I won't even let you get close to them!" And with that, Naruto shot off.

At speeds that he surpassed anything he has moved at before, Naruto shot towards the men. He stopped in front of them. He brought his arms back. A silvery-white glow came into being in one of his hands while a purplish-black glow formed in the other hand. "Get lost!" With that shout, Naruto brought his hands forward and the two lights combined to form an intense blast of energy. It was a mixture of both silvery-white and purplish-black. Although, there seemed to be more of the purplish-black substance in that attack. With a single attack, he had managed to decimate two thirds of the enemy forces.

This sight shocked everyone even further. After a moment, a shout was heard. Then another, and soon more followed.

"Demon!"

"Monster!"

"I'm not fighting that thing!"

Similar shouts rang up throughout the remaining enemy forces as they fled from Naruto. Naruto just stood there, panting. After a moment, the glow faded from his body and eyes as he slumped from fatigue. He looked back up. He was shocked at what he saw. He stumbled back. "Did…Did I do that?" He was slightly sickened by the fact that he had just killed all of those people. He sank to his knees as another wave of fatigue hit him. He ignored the cheers of the villagers as they celebrated the fact that he had just killed all of those people and saved them.

"Nii-chan?" He jolted as he felt someone place a gentle hand on his shoulder. He looked over to see the concerned face of Narumi. "Are you alright?"

He opened his mouth to speak, but found that he couldn't. Instead, he opted to simply shake his head.

Narumi hugged him. "It is okay, Nii-chan. You did nothing wrong."

"I…I killed all of those people. And I feel sick for it, but I know they were scum. Nothing but rapists and murderers."

"You're right, Aniki. They were nothing but scum." Naruto looked over and saw that Menma was there too. "Think you can make it over to the others?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah. I can do that." And with that, he hefted himself to his feet. The three of them walked over to where the others were. They were standing with Tazuna and his family.

Yakumo looked at Naruto with awe. "Naruto…That was…"

Naruto shook his head. "I don't want to talk about it." He couldn't believe he lost his cool like that and used his twilight powers in front of them. He knew that he couldn't keep it a secret forever, but he didn't want to reveal it this soon…

Yūgao frowned at him in a thoughtful manner while Kushina regarded him with a pained expression. Although Naruto couldn't tell the reason.

In order to change the subject, Naruto looked over to Inari. "You gathered the crowd?" He asked.

Inari nodded with a grin. "Yeah, after your clones rescued us, I went to everybody and gathered the people who were willing to fight!"

This surprised the others. Yūgao was the one to speak up. "Rescued them? From what?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head in a sheepish manner. "I was worried that Gatō would try and pull something while we were away, so I left some clones back at the house just in case. They popped a while ago and informed me that Gatō had sent some of his men to kidnap Tsunami and Inari."

This seemed to shock the others. Yūgao smiled at him. "Nicely done, Naruto. I hadn't even thought of that."

Kushina gave a hesitant nod as well. She then looked over to Zabuza. After a moment, she walked over to him. It seemed that he was still alive, as he moved his head slightly to look at her. After a few quiet words that Naruto couldn't hear, Kushina moved to remove the weapons from his body. She then picked him up and carried him over to Haku. When they reached him, Kushina placed Zabuza down next to him.

They all remained silent as Zabuza gave his final farewells. A moment of silence was given for the two once Zabuza had passed. After a minute, one of the villagers walked over to Tazuna with a grin. "Tazuna. We're going to go back and spread the news. You coming?"

Tazuna sighed and nodded. A smile was tugging at his lips. "I'll be there soon. Go on without me." As the man nodded and left, Tazuna turned back to the Konoha shinobi. "What now?"

Yūgao smiled at him. "Now, we rest and recover from our wounds. Our job isn't done until the bridge isn't complete, so we will be sticking around for a little while longer."

Tazuna smiled at them. "Right." He then turned towards the village. "Well then, let's go! It's time to celebrate!"

Yūgao shook her head in amusement. She turned to the genin. "Go ahead and go with him. Kushina and I will take care of the clean up here."

They all nodded and began to follow Tazuna. But after a moment, Naruto paused. "Hold on a second." He said. "I wanna go grab something." Before they could question him, he ran off.

He soon came upon the bloody form of Aoi. He ignored the prone man and moved towards the Sword of the Thunder God that was nearby. The blade part of it had retracted into the hilt, so he nearly overlooked it. He picked it up and turned around to move back over to the others. But his eyes caught sight of something.

It was a small bolt of lightning attached to a chain. Naruto frowned in confusion at it as he picked it up.

"A Keychain?"

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 17!**

 **Holy crap. This was so much longer than I expected. Like really, what the hell.**

 **For some reason, I find it really hard to remember to add Tazuna's "super." For whatever reason, it was just easier for me to remember to do the things like "ttebayo."**

 **I should've saved that Kingdom Hearts quote for this chapter. You know, the one I had Naruto say last chapter about the heart? It would have fit in either place, but I think it would have been better here.**

 **Now obviously, as Naruto hasn't even started to use his keyblade out in the open yet, he won't be using the keychain for a while. I just wanted him to have that one and couldn't figure out where else I could give it to him.**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	18. Mission to Wave: Falling

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 18!**

 **Ugh. School. I'm back in it. And to make things worse, I'm working. I even worked today...I miss the lazy days.**

 **I doubt I will be doing more than uploading once a week now. Lazy+School+Work is not a good combination.**

 **This was uploaded later in the day than I normally do…but whatever.**

 **A lot of people asked me why I didn't just have Naruto use his keyblade. The answer is simple. I wanted him to reveal his twilight powers first. I also wanted to make some progress with the neglect situation. The keyblade will be revealed soon-ish. I already know when. Just wait until then.**

* * *

 **Drakon45: For now, nope. But I might change that later to fit any future ideas.**

 **Morgan d'Arc: I disagree. It is still one whether I use it or not. But don't worry about it, I already know when I will reveal it.**

 **LazyAssassin24: I have how Naruto will travel from world to world already planned out. But I'm not willing to reveal it, sorry. And that possibility has crossed my mind, but we are still a long ways off from anything like that happening.**

 **HeartlessNobody13: I haven't really considered giving Naruto any skills with seals. You are correct with every point you made, but I just never really thought about it. Naruto knows how to use a storage scroll, but so do most shinobi.**

 **commandravage: I know, right?**

 **Guest: Soon-ish.**

 **FinalKingdomHearts: Please refer above to statement directly before review responses.**

 **Shadekiller13: Thanks! And I know what you mean. There are stories on the site that have some awesome ideas, but I have so much trouble reading them because of the bad spelling and grammar. I would hate myself if I released a chapter that I found hard to read just because I had to work through the grammar. I don't even think my grammar is the best, but it is still bearable.**

 **kavell anderson: I'm sorry. You seem to think that I plan these things out :P**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the Story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else, I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Diety Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Diety Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **A Few Days Later**

It has been a few days since the battle on the bridge that ended with the victory of the Konoha shinobi. Since that time, the overall mood of the village has picked up and there were constant celebrations throughout the night, every night. It was even impossible for any of the Konoha shinobi to walk down the street without at least receiving some greetings and cheerful waves from the villagers. Naruto in particular received some extra cheerful greetings due to the fact that he was seen as the one who saved them from the final threat.

If only he saw it that way as well.

Ever since that day that he lost his temper and slaughtered those people, Naruto has been plagued with doubt. He wasn't stupid. He knew what he used in that attack. There was more darkness than light in that beam, and that's what worried him. He was aware enough to know that he was trying to use an attack that had a twilight base, meaning an equal mixture of light and dark. But that attack had more dark than light. That could only mean one thing.

He had let the darkness inside his heart control him for a bit.

If that could happen once, who was to say it wouldn't happen again? And what if the next time it was even worse than slaughtering some murderers and rapists? What if he hurt someone important to him? Or someone who just happened to be nearby? That's what terrified him, the possibility of hurting someone because he couldn't control himself.

But that wasn't the only thing that has been bothering him. He has been having these weird dreams too. And not the usual ones.

He needed to talk to Yami and Hikari.

* * *

 **Zabuza and Haku's Graves**

The group of Konoha Shinobi were gathered around two graves that were side by side as the sun set off in the distance. These two graves were a little ways off from the still unfinished bridge. The graves were in the middle of a small, grassy area that overlooked the bridge. On one grave was Haku's obi. Stabbed into the ground behind the other was Zabuza's sword.

The group was silent for a moment as they each thought back on the last few days. Eventually, the silence was broken by Narumi. "Kaa-chan…" She started.

Kushina looked over to her. "Yes?" She asked.

Narumi hesitated for a few moments. "What Zabuza said…about shinobi being tools…is it true? While we were fighting, Haku said the same thing…" She turned to Kushina along with some of the other genin. Naruto was only half listening as he stared at the grave.

Kushina looked sad as she gaze at her daughter. She then looked at each of the expressions on the genins faces. Her gaze lingered on Naruto for a few moments, but he didn't notice. She then turned back to Narumi. "What Zabuza was referring to…was the perfect shinobi."

Narumi looked down. "So he was right…"

Kushina shook her head. "But there is no such thing as the perfect shinobi."

This surprised the genin. Menma was the one to speak up. "What do you mean, kaa-chan?" That didn't make sense to him. Someone out there had to be considered the perfect shinobi, right? Maybe a kage?

Yūgao looked over to him. "She means that nobody has been able to become the perfect shinobi, although there are people out there who have tried to create one. All humans have emotions. These emotions can be suppressed to extreme levels, but they cannot be completely erased. Deep down, some of those emptions will linger, no matter what."

Unseen to all of them, Sai was shifting in place.

Kushina nodded her head. "She's right." She looked back over to the graves. "We are all human. We have our flaws. Some would say that emotions are one of them." She shook her head. "Even the kages have emotions." She paused for a moment before continuing. "But who knows? If the perfect shinobi was ever really created…how powerful would they be? They could grow to be the strongest." They stood in silence.

"That's wrong."

They all looked over to the one who had spoken. Naruto was looking down at the graves with his eyes shadowed by his hair. "That's incredibly wrong. At best, a shinobi without emotions would be able to make decisions without their emotions getting in the way." He shook his head. "But that shinobi would never be as powerful as a shinobi with emotions. True power comes from fighting for something you care deeply for. That's something the perfect shinobi would never be able to do."

They stood in silence for a few moments. Eventually, Yūgao called attention back to herself. "Okay, it has been a long day. You guys are all able to go back and spend the rest of it how you like." She smiled at the small cheers that broke out between a couple of them. "Tazuna-san said he still needs a little bit to finish the bridge. So until then, we are staying here. Dismissed."

Menma quickly bound over to Naruto with a wide grin. "Hey Aniki, spar with me!"

Naruto gave him a small smile. "Sorry, no can do." He interrupted himself with a wide yawned. "I'm tired. I'm going to turn in early." He started walking off in the direction of Tazuna's home.

"What? Come on, Aniki! I want to spar with you! I want to see how I do against those cool attacks you have-ttebasa!"

Narumi giggled as she followed after her brothers. The other genins soon followed after them as well. Yūgao shook her head in amusement before looking over to Kushina. "I'm going to head back as well. What about you?"

Kushina shook her head. "I'm going to stay out here for a bit and watch the sunset."

Yūgao nodded her head with a smile, but it soon turned teasing. "Wow, never would have guessed you of all people would enjoy something relaxing like that…Have you actually matured?"

"Shut up-ttebane! Even I enjoy things like this once in a while!" Yūgao laughed as she followed after the genins.

All was silent in the clearing. Kushina just stood there, gazing at the sunset. _'Those abilities that Naruto showed…why didn't I know about them?'_ That has been plaguing her mind ever since the battle at the bridge. But whenever she thought about it, a massive headache would appear, and then she would drop the topic quickly, figuring she was tired. But she never forgot about it.

' _And now that I think about it, he also used some jutsus that didn't need hand seals when we first got here…why didn't I think about it then?'_ She grunted as the pain came. But she didn't stop thinking about it this time. _'It doesn't make sense! How does he have those abilities? We never taught him those!'_ The headache multiplied as she froze. _'Wait…what did we teach him?'_ Why couldn't she remember what she taught Naruto? There must have been something! And this stupid headache was so annoying!

She clutched the side of her head as the pain grew. Unseen to anyone, her eyes were glowing a purplish-black. _'What is up with this headache, I mea-'_ She shook her head from side to side. _'Focus, Kushina! Worry about the pain later, your son comes now! Why didn't you know he could do those things?'_ Now her entire form was starting to glow purplish-black and the headache kept on getting worse, but she wouldn't let it distract her.

' _The skill with a sword, those fire and wind jutsus, the strange glow and beam of energy. I know that neither Minato nor I taught him those! So what did we teach him? What did we spend our time together doing?'_ Why couldn't she remember any of the times she spent with her son? She could feel her focus fading again, but she was staring intently at the sunset. The transition of light to dark sort of reminded her of that beam of energy Naruto used, so it helped her focus.

' _Why? Why? Why? Why? Why can't I remember anything I did with Naruto? I must have done something with him! Some training, some advice, something!'_ But no matter what she did, she couldn't remember anything. The pain stagnated as she glowed some more.

' _Did I…not spend any time with him?'_

And then, all at once, the glow exploded outwards and dispelled from her body. The pain soon subsided as tears came to her eyes. She slowly looked back in the direction of Tazuna's home and spoke one quiet word.

"…Naruto…"

* * *

 _"What the hell?! Who are you?!"_

 _"Do you…have someone who is important to you?"_

 _"When a person has something important to protect…that's when they truly become strong."_

 _"You don't know how hard life can be!"_

 _"It's alright to cry when you're happy!"_

 _"Why?"_

 _"How should I know?"_

 _"Kill me."_

 _"Say something! Weren't you friends?!"_

 _"…You don't…Need to say anymore…"_

 _"Don't look away. The end of a man who lived a difficult life."_

 _"A hero shows up at the last second, right?"_

 _"He was born in a snowy village."_

 _"I'm going to be a ninja in my own way!"_

* * *

 **Station of Awakening**

Naruto jolted into awareness as the last scene played out in his head. He rubbed his eyes tiredly. _'Another one of those dreams…'_ He sighed before looking around. "Hikari? Yami? You there?"

"We're right here, moron."

"Tch." Naruto turned around and sent a light glare towards Yami. "Well, sorry for not being able to spot you through the back of my head. I still have yet to master that technique." He responded.

Yami smirked at him. "Well, you should get on that then."

Naruto opened his mouth to retort but was cut off by Hikari. "Enough, both of you. We have more important things to discuss." She leveled a look at Naruto. "This is about the end of the battle on the bridge, right?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "You saw?" He asked quietly.

Yami snorted. "Hell yeah we did." She shrugged her shoulders. "It wasn't that surprising, really."

This response stunned Naruto greatly. "What? What do you mean it wasn't that surprising? I lost my temper and killed all those people! And not only that, I also let the darkness influence me for a bit!"

Yami shrugged. "So? Not like those men were worth anything. They were just a bunch of rapists and murderers."

Hikari nodded her head. "As sad as I am to admit it, she's right. The world is a much better place without them in it." She paused as she tilted her head in thought. "In fact…it might even be a good idea for you to kill all of the people that are like that you come across. Or hunt them down yourself."

Yami's smirk grew. "Oh, maybe you could even threaten them a bit as you do it. Make them piss themselves in fear." She waved a dismissive hand. "You know, give them a taste of their own medici-"

"SHUT UP!"

They both stopped talking and turned to Naruto. He was shaking from rage as he glared at the two of them. His eyes were even starting to glow a bit as a wind picked up around him.

"Shut up, both of you! I cannot believe I'm actually hearing you say that! I. Killed. Those. People. They are dead-ttebayo! I used my abilities to do it after I heard them threaten the people I care about! Yes, they were terrible people, but I still took human lives! And here you are saying that I should simply move on and even hunt down more people to kill! I could never do such a thing and be able to keep moving forward so easily! To make it all worse, the darkness influenced me a bit when I did it! I gave into my rage and let it control me! What if I do it again? What if the darkness takes advantage of my emotions again and makes me hurt someone I care about or someone who isn't involved at all. I would…never be able…to…forgive…" He trailed off as he got a look at their expressions.

Hikari had a big smile on her face while Yami was covering her mouth to hide her sniggers. Comprehension soon came to Naruto. "It was another test…" He said quietly.

Hikari's smile grew even wider. "Yes, it was. We apologize for deceiving you in such a way, but we had to do it."

Naruto sighed as he closed his eyes. He responded as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "I really hate it when you guys pull a mind game on me like that-ttebayo." He said tiredly.

Yami only smirked as usual. "Well, what did you expect? It was necessary."

Naruto looked over to her. "Oh? And why is that? For what possible reason would you two try and convince me that it is okay to massacre people as long as they are bad people? And that being influenced by the darkness isn't a problem."

Hikari looked at him with an apologetic gaze. "We needed to make sure you felt remorse for those kills. That you were aware of what it meant to take a human life. You have been trying to act normal for the last few days, despite what happened. Not only that, you have also been telling the others you were fine."

Yami picked the conversation when Hikari stopped talking. "We also needed to make sure that you were aware of the danger the darkness poses to you. That you aren't immune to its influence. The darkness is the most dangerous when you do not realize the danger. Never let your guard down."

Hikari started to speak once more. "If you had agreed with us and decided that you didn't need to feel any remorse and that the darkness influencing you was okay, then we would have had a problem." She smiled at him. "But you didn't agree. You outright told us to shut up and that what you did was terrible. That, more than anything, proves you are still a good person."

Naruto was silent for a few moments. After some thought, he sagged his shoulders and looked away. "Thank you."

The two of them smiled at him. Yami shrugged her shoulders. "Don't worry about it. We're here to help." That damn smirk reappeared. "I mean, you obviously need all the help you can get."

As Naruto glared at her, Hikari interrupted before another fight could break out. "But anyways, we have an idea we would like you to consider."

Naruto tilted his head. "What is it?" He asked.

Yami's smirk turned mischievous. "You should ask that candy shop owner about a place called Karakura Town."

Naruto frowned slightly. "Karakura Town? I've never heard of it."

Even Hikari smirked this time. "We would have been shocked if you have heard of it. You should ask him about it. Depending on what he says, you could consider being more honest about your abilities with him."

This shocked Naruto. "What? You would actually have me tell him about my twilight abilities? And my magic?"

Yami nodded. "Yep. Just ask him about Karakura Town, if he tells you about it, then you will see why."

Naruto looked conflicted. "Why? Why should I tell him about my abilities?"

Hikari tilted her head. "Why not? Do you not trust him?"

Naruto shook his head rapidly from side to side. "That's not it! I trust him…"

"That's why."

Naruto's face contorted into a confused expression. "Huh? What do you mean?"

Yami rolled her eyes. "It's because you trust him that you should tell him." She sighed. "It would be a good idea for you to tell someone bout your abilities. You shouldn't keep it all bottled up. Yeah, you have Hikari and me, but you should tell someone else. Plus, he knows how to fight. He may be able to help you further implement your twilight abilities and magic in your battle style in ways that we cannot."

Naruto frowned as he thought about it. After a minute, he slowly nodded. "Alright…I'll ask him about Karakura Town and go from there."

Hikari smiled at him. "Thank you for considering this." She tilted her head again. "Was there something else you wanted to talk to us about?"

Naruto frowned a bit before his eyes widened. He had almost forgotten. He looked at the two of them suspiciously. "Be honest with me. Have you two been giving me weird dreams again?"

They frowned at him. Yami shook her head. "Not me." She glanced at Hikari. "You?"

Hikari shook her head as well. "I haven't been sending any dreams to you."

Naruto was growing increasingly confused. "What? If it wasn't you two…could they be natural? But they seem like such weird dreams…"

Hikari was quickly growing curious. "May I ask what it is that you have been dreaming about?"

Naruto frowned some more as he looked at the ground as he thought about how best to explain it. "I've been dreaming about…well…myself. But at the same time, it seems like it is someone else."

Naruto didn't notice, but their eyes widened when he said that. Yami was the first to respond. "What does that even mean?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "Well, I've been having these dreams where I have been living this other life. I am an orphan, I look a bit different, and I am an only child. I am still a shinobi of Konoha, but I am a part of team seven with Uchiha, Haruno, and Kakashi. In the dream, we take similar missions to the ones I have done, all the way up to and including the Wave mission. But instead of two teams, it is just us that go. We take the mission, it starts up the same way, and relatively ends the same way. The biggest difference is that we only went up against Zabuza and Haku. Not only that, I didn't have a sword in the dream. And it looked like the only technique I knew was the **Shadow Clone Jutsu**. The dream me even became friends with Haku! Another difference was that the mob of thugs ran when they saw the villagers, so I don't know if the dream me also had twilight abilities." He tilted his head in thought. After a moment, he pulled a disgusted face. "I was also wearing that horrible orange jumpsuit from when I painted the monument!"

As he continued to talk, the eyes of Hikari and Yami grew wider and wider. The two of them were soon holding a quiet conversation. They looked back when Naruto finished speaking. Hikari was the first to respond. "Is that the entire dream?" She asked quietly.

Naruto tilted his head. "Just about, yeah. You know what it is?"

Hikari and Yami looked at each other again. After a moment, Yami answered. "It's probably nothing much. Maybe you have just been having an active imagination or something."

Naruto frowned. "Really? I don't think so, but I guess that could be it…But I just thought…"

Hikari shook her head. "Like we said, we haven't been sending you any dreams or visions. So that must be it."

Naruto tilted his head in thought. After a minute, he slowly nodded. "I guess so…"

Yami interrupted his train of thought. "They will probably go away soon, so don't worry too much about it." She said.

Naruto shrugged. "Sure."

"After releasing all those built up emotions like that, you must be drained. You can go ahead and rest up with actual sleep if you want." Hikari told him. Why did she sound slightly hurried?

Naruto smiled gratefully. "That sounds awesome. I'll do that." He waved at them. "See you two next time."

Yami smirked at him, but something felt off about it. "Try and stay out of trouble. Although knowing you, you might not be able to."

Naruto rolled his eyes, but didn't respond He closed his eyes in preparation to return to his body. After a moment, he woke up as he returned to his body.

* * *

"…That was…"

"I know…"

"But it is too soon!"

"I know! It probably doesn't mean much, for now. It shouldn't become anything substantial for a long time. So we will worry about it then."

A sigh was heard. "I suppose…We shouldn't be too surprised, really."

A snort was given in response. "But it still caught us off guard with the abruptness."

"Yes it did…"

"…NGC, huh?"

* * *

 **The Bridge (One Week Later)**

A week has passed since Naruto had spoken to Hikari and Yami and in that time, those weird dreams he had been getting had stopped. In addition to this, Naruto has also noticed something odd about Kushina. Half the time when he saw her, he could have sworn she was looking at him before quickly averting her gaze. But he could never catch her doing it. To be honest, it was slightly unsettling to him. He had done his best to ignore it, but he would be relieved when the mission finally ended.

The Konoha shinobi were now standing at the entrance to the completed bridge while being bombarded with farewells and well wishes from the villagers. Most of them were being bashful about the entire thing, but Menma was soaking up the attention.

Naruto tuned back into the world as Tazuna started speaking. "I want to thank you all again for everything you have done for me and my people. With your help, we have managed to complete my super bridge."

Yūgao smiled in return. "And thank you for allowing us to stay in your home."

Tsunami smiled from her spot next to her father. "For everything you have done, it was the least that we could do."

Menma grinned as he put his hands behind his head. "Yeah, I guess we _are_ kind of heroes, aren't we?"

He was immediately hit upside the head by his sister. "Shut up. Don't get a bloated head."

Naruto rolled his eyes at this. But his attention was soon drawn to Inari as the younger boy approached. He looked really hesitant as he stared at the ground and opened his mouth a few times. When it was clear that a little push was needed, Naruto decided to give it. "What's up?"

Inari swallowed. "I just wanted to say…" He started quietly, but quickly gathered his determination and looked Naruto in the eyes. "Thank you for everything! I swear that I won't give in anymore! I will keep fighting for what I believe in with everything I have!"

Naruto smirked at him. "You better. It would suck for me to have to come here and kick your butt into gear again because you were moping about the situation."

Inari grinned in return. "No need to worry about that! It will never happen!"

Naruto nodded. "Good."

"Nii-chan, come on!"

He looked over as he heard his sister call out to him. The rest of the Konoha shinobi were standing a little ways away and were waiting for him so they could begin heading home. Naruto turned back to Inari. "I gotta go. Remember what you just swore, alright?"

Inari nodded. "Of course!" Naruto grinned again before walking away with a wave. But after a few steps, he froze. Everybody looked curiously at him. But before anybody could speak up, Naruto slowly turned around.

He looked at Inari with a look that no one could identify. "Hey, Inari. Could you do something for me? This will also be helpful to you…"

Inari nodded resolutely. "I will help however I can."

Naruto shifted from foot to foot as he glanced around nervously. "Cool…Um…could you…please…" He took a deep breath. "Burn your stupid hat."

Inari was stunned into silence. "Wha-burn my hat?" He must have misheard that, right?

"Yes. Your bucket hat. Please burn it. To ashes."

"But…Why?"

"Trust me on this."

"But I like that hat…"

"It is for the best."

"Are you sur-"

"Yes."

"…Fine. I don't know what is going on in your head, but I will do as you ask."

Naruto gave a relieved sigh. He smiled at Inari. "Thank you." He turned around again. "See you later." And with that, he continued on his way.

As Inari watched the Konoha shinobi leave, Tazuna and Tsunami walked up to him. After a few moments of silence, Tazuna spoke up. "Oh, wait. We still have to name the bridge."

Tsunami gave him an exasperated look. "You haven't done that yet?"

Tazuna grinned in an unapologetic manner. "Nope!"

Inari interjected before they could bicker too much. "I have an idea…" They looked at him. "Remember that attack that Naruto-nii used in the end? The one with the mixed colors? It was kind of like a mixture of light and dark. What if we call it The Great Twilight Bridge?"

Tazuna grinned. "The Great Twilight Bridge, huh? I like it! It's a super name!"

* * *

 **Hokage Office (Few Days Later)**

The group of Konoha shinobi was able to reach Konoha much faster now that they did not have any civilians with them. Once they reach the village, Kushina and Yūgao immediately requested an audience with the Hokage. When a mission is bumped unexpectedly, that's a problem. When a C-rank mission assigned to a bunch of genin is bumped to an A-ranked mission, that's a big problem. That kind of thing needs to be reported to the Hokage.

Once they were ushered into the office, Minato requested that they report. He listened silently as Kushina and Yūgao recounted what happened on the mission. Although his eyes widened more and more as they kept talking, he did not interrupt. Once they had finished, he simply sat there in silence for a minute. Eventually, the silence was broken when Minato spoke up.

"Are you telling me…that on a simple C-rank escort mission…you encountered not only one of the seven swordsman, but also his two underlings, a traitor, and three bloodline users?" He asked in a quiet voice.

The two jōnin nodded. "Yes, sir."

Minato sighed. "Genin team 11 and genin team 12, you have done well. This mission will be classified as an A-rank mission and you will be paid as such. Genins are now dismissed. The jōnins and I will be talking about this further." The five genins nodded and started to head for the door. But Naruto paused after a moment.

"Oh, I almost forgot." He turned around and walked over to Minato's desk. Reaching into his pack, he pulled out some sort of handle and placed it on the desk."

Minato's eyes widened. "This is the…"

Naruto nodded. "Yes. This is the Sword of the Thunder God. I retrieved it from traitor Aoi Rokushō."

Minato looked at him. "Nicely done. You will receive a bonus in your pay."

Naruto nodded and quickly followed the others out the door. He never noticed the violet eyes that were following him. Once they were gone, Minato turned to the two jōnins. "You gave me the abbreviated version, I now want all the details. Start from the beginning." He instructed.

* * *

 **Hokage's Office (Later)**

Minato and Kushina were now the only two that were left in the office. After finishing the report and getting dismissed, Yūgao had left. Now that they were alone, Minato sent a concerned look at his wife after signalling for the hidden guards to leave. "Kushina-chan, what's wrong? You seemed distracted earlier. Was it what happened on mission?"

Kushina bit her bottom lip. "Well, yeah. It's…about Naruto."

Minato frowned in confusion. "Naruto? He seemed fine." He gave her an amused look. "Are you sure you're not just worrying too much?"

Kushina frowned and shook her head. "No, that's not what I meant. Minato…did you know he could use jutsus without hand seals?"

Minato's eyes widened in surprise. "What? He can?" They had said in the report that he had defeated his opponent, but they didn't go into every single detail.

Kushina nodded. "Yeah, along with his sword, that's how he fought against the enemies. He was shooting fireballs and blasts of air at them. He was even able to create a whirlwind around himself that damaged his opponent when he got close." She gained a slightly distressed look. "I never taught him that. I can't even do that! Do you know how he learned them?"

Minato shook his head with a thoughtful frown. "No, I don't. This is the first time I'm hearing about such a thing. I had no idea he was able to do that."

Kushina was growing increasingly frantic. "That's another thing! What do we know he can do? I…" Her voice grew quiet. "I don't remember what he is good at. I don't even remember teaching him anything…" Tears were forming in her eyes again.

Minato got up and hugged her. "Hey, don't worry about it. You are probably just having a hard time remembering because of how busy you have been. Remember, you've been running all over the place for a while now. What with the suppression seals for the Kyūbi we've been working on, keeping up with your own training, and making sure everyone else in the house doesn't accidently kill ourselves."

Kushina shook her head and pushed him away. "No! I'm sure of it-ttebane! We haven't taught him anything, have we?! We didn't spend any time with him, we didn't help him train, and we weren't even there for him! Tell me I'm wrong, tell me right now something we did with Naruto. Something we taught him. Somewhere we went with him. Anything!"

Minato opened his mouth to do just that, but stopped. The reason for this was simple.

He couldn't.

He couldn't remember anything that he had done with Naruto. Not a jutsu he had taught him. Not a conversation they had around the house. Not even the last time that he had seen him use any techniques.

He thought about it more and more, but nothing came to mind. He was even gaining a headache from how hard he was thinking.

Kushina gave a sad smile. "You see? You can't either, can you?" She shook her head and headed towards the door. Before she opened it, she spoke quietly. "I'm sacred, Minato-kun. I'm scared that we messed up when it comes to Naruto. That we were horrible to him and never even realized…" She opened the door and walked out. The door closed behind her.

Minato gripped the side of his head as the pain grew. It was so great it was even starting to distract him! He shook his head. He needed to focus!

He looked at the picture on his desk. It was an old one from when the kids were only four. It was of the five of them. The three kids had been playing outside when Menma had tripped and fallen into a shallow pond. Both Naruto and Narumi had quickly doubled over in laughter at the sight of a soaking wet and sputtering Menma. They were so involved in their laughter that they never noticed Menma get up and walk over to them. They only noticed he was there when he pushed the two of them in as well. Kushina and Minato had soon come over to see what all the noise was about only to find the three of them wrestling in the water. Kushina had instantly cooed over the cuteness and demanded that Kakashi come over from the tree he was in and take a picture. The situation wasn't the best what with the three kids soaking wet and shivering, but Minato didn't care in the least as he wrapped his entire family in a hug as the photo was taken.

Looking at the bright smile on Naruto's face in the picture, Minato tried to recall the last time he saw that smile, but he couldn't. Unnoticed by anyone, Minato's blue eyes had started to glow a purplish-black.

' _We were all so happy back then. What happened? I used to love getting out of the office early and going home to play with the kids.'_ Naruto was often the first to notice him and come rushing over. _'Oh no. I never did get around to training him! Even though I promised I would! And he stopped asking around the time he started the academy.'_

The pain was growing but Minato hardly noticed as he was thinking about his family. A purplish-black glow started to emanate from his body. Soon, the pain stopped growing. _'Come to think of it, I never really questioned where he kept on going after the academy began…I never even questioned how he learned to use a sword… What did I teach him? I can't remember…'_ It all led to one conclusion.

' _Did…Did I never bother to spend time with him at all?'_

All at once, the glow around his body exploded out and disappeared from his body. The pain from his headache also disappeared. He gazed at the grinning face of Naruto in the picture.

"Oh no…What have I done…?"

* * *

 **Urahara Shop (Same Time)**

After getting dismissed, Naruto had quickly separated from the others and headed towards the Urahara shop. He wanted to ask Urahara about Karakura Town as soon as possible. He was extremely curious as to what he could possibly say that would convince Naruto to tell the annoying candy store owner about his abilities.

Reaching the shop, Naruto entered and looked around. There was nobody around. _'Guess that means that he is in the back…'_ Heading towards the door, Naruto entered it and walked through the building towards the tea room. Once he entered, he saw that Urahara was sitting at the table again with Yoruichi next to him.

Urahara looked up when he entered and smiled when he saw him. In the blink of an eye, the man was attached to Naruto again. "Ah, Naruto-kun! It is wonderful to see you again! I missed you so much!"

Naruto growled. "Get off me, you moron!" Naruto roughly shoved him to the floor. "I swear, I will kill you one day."

Urahara smiled behind his fan and opened his mouth to respond, but paused. After a moment, he frowned at Naruto. "What happened?" He asked in a serious tone.

Naruto was surprised by the question. After a moment, he gave a rueful smile. "You noticed? I'm not sure if I should be surprised…" Yoruichi had come up to him and settled in his lap after Naruto sat down.

Urahara's frown deepened. "You are obviously fatigued and something is on your mind. You didn't even have all of the normal annoyance in your tone just now." Urahara looked him in the eyes. "I will ask again. What happened?"

Naruto sighed sadly as he absently pet Yoruichi. "The mission went terribly. It was bumped to A-rank partway through. You were right about Gatō. It ended with needless deaths and me losing my cool." He grew quieter. "I wound up killing some people…"

Urahara was silent for a few moments. "Start from the beginning."

* * *

 **Tea Room (One Retelling Later)**

"After that, the bridge was finished, we said our goodbyes, and we came home." Naruto was looking down at the table as he finished his story.

Urahara was silent as he thought about what he was just told. But after a minute, he said something that Naruto wasn't expecting.

"Do not dwell on the deaths."

Naruto's head snapped up. "What?! I killed those people! I killed them in something as petty as a fit of rage! And you're telling me to forget about it?!"

Urahara shook his head. "No. I'm not." He held up his hand to stop Naruto from speaking when he opened his mouth. "I am telling you not to dwell on it. I am not telling you to simply forget about it. You said it yourself, they were rapists and murderers. And while I am not saying that means it is a good thing you went and killed them, you still saved those people. You cannot ignore that fact."

Naruto looked down again. "But…"

"Naruto, look at me." Naruto looked up. Urahara had put down his fan and placed his hat on the table. "You are not a bad person. You are a terrific person who is protective of the people you care about. You only responded how any person who cares would. Do not forget that. You aren't some monster for killing them. You would only be a monster if you didn't care that you killed." He gave Naruto a sad smile. "Those tears in your eyes show me that you know the severity of what you've done and are taking it seriously. That's how I know. So again, please do not dwell on the deaths."

Naruto was stunned. After a minute, a smile crept onto his face. He bowed his head. "Thank you…" He said so quietly that Urahara almost missed it. In return, Urahara nodded.

"Well of course! I'm here to pick up after your faults, after all! You obviously can't do it on your own!" And the moment was instantly ruined by the same man who created it.

"Gah! Why do you have to be so freaking stupid! I was actually starting to respect you a bit there-ttebayo!" When had he put that stupid hat back on?

"Oh? Whatever do you mean, Naruto-kun? I was simply imparting more words of wisdom on my young pupil…"

The response to this was another growl. "You are the most infuriating person I have ever met. I cannot believe that someone with your personality actually exists."

Urahara shrugged with a grin as he started to fan himself. "I can't help it if people are simply too boring to handle someone of my caliber."

Naruto sighed and rubbed his temples. After the headache started to go away, he looked back up. "There was something I wanted to ask you."

"What is it? Urahara-sama will do his best to answer any and all questions you have."

"Can you please tell me about a place called Karakura Town?"

Dead silence.

Urahara stopped fanning himself as he froze. Naruto was actually a bit worried about him. He had never seen Urahara react to anything like this. But before he could speak, Urahara responded. "What was that?"

Naruto frowned a bit. He never noticed that Yoruichi was also staring at him. "I asked about a place called Karakura Town. I've never heard of it."

Urahara leaned back a bit. "May I ask where you heard that name?"

Naruto smirked a bit. "That would depend on your answer."

Urahara frowned at him. But Naruto ignored the look and stared back at him. Eventually, the silence was broken by Urahara. "Very well. I will tell you. Karakura Town is the town that I resided in prior to coming here."

Naruto tilted his head. That was interesting. "Oh? Why did you come here then?"

"Because Yoruichi and I were forced to."

Naruto blinked. "What?"

Urahara sighed. "It was swarmed by these strange creatures. It was like there was no end to them. No matter how many we killed, more would appear. And we couldn't even identify what they were made of. They didn't seem to be organic as they were made up of this strange energy. Despite the many forms we encountered, that was always true. They were always made up of some purplish-black substance."

Naruto's eyes widened. That sounded like…

Urahara kept talking. "Eventually, we were overrun by them and the entire place seemed to be consumed by the same substance. I don't really know what happened, not completely. All I know is that one moment I was fighting off the creatures, and the next Yoruichi and I are waking up in Konoha. But I've come to one conclusion. I believe that we are-" He was cut off by Naruto.

"You are from another world."

Urahara instantly pinned Naruto with an intense gaze. "Yes. That's exactly it. How did you come to the same conclusion?"

Naruto leaned back as well and stared at the ceiling. He was having trouble processing what he just heard. Urahara and Yoruichi were from another world? And that would mean Soifon was as well! And he never knew? He mulled over the information he was just given. After reviewing it all, he sighed. "This is what she meant by hear what he has to say…" He muttered.

"May I ask you to please clarify on that?"

Naruto looked back at Urahara. "You're from another world. By the sound of it, your world was attacked by the heartless and swallowed by darkness."

Urahara frowned at him behind his fan. "Heartless? Is that what they are called? And what do you mean my world was swallowed by darkness?"

Naruto sighed. This was going to take a bit. He needed to explain the concept of light, darkness, and other worlds too. "Okay, here's how it is…

* * *

 **Tea Room (One Explanation Later)**

Urahara was silent as he reviewed all of the information he was just given. While he knew by now there were other worlds, to hear that such things as light and darkness played a huge role took some thought. After he felt he understood everything, he looked back up at Naruto.

"Okay, I get what you're saying. The heartless came to my world and found the heart of the world, thus allowing the world to be swallowed by darkness. Do you know what happened to the world from there? And the people on it? Were we all scattered throughout other worlds?"

Naruto shrugged. "Sorry, can't say for sure. I know it is possible for someone else to have made it off the world as well, but I can't say who or where they would have gone. Even you winding up here was chance."

Urahara sighed. "That's fine. And the world? What happened to it?" He gained a sad look. "It happened years ago, is it completely gone by now?

Naruto frowned. "Can't say for sure. I know that once a world is swallowed by darkness, then the world and its inhabitants are placed in some sort of stasis. Time simply stops there. I have no idea what happens after that." He adopted an apologetic look. "Sorry, I don't know any more than that."

Urahara shook his head. "Don't worry about it. This is already a lot more information than what I had before." He looked Naruto in the eyes again. "And? What else?"

Naruto was confused. "What? What do you mean? I don't know anything more than that." He had already explained about light, darkness, and about other worlds.

Urahara smirked. "How do you know about all of this? I'm not doubting your information, it actually makes sense considering what happened, but how did you get it? You aren't just a shinobi of this world, are you? What role do you play?" His expression quickly turned serious. "Does it have something to do with how you can use light and darkness?"

Naruto jumped a bit in surprise. "How do you know about that?!"

Urahara's smirk quickly returned to his face. "The spar." When a confused look was given, he elaborated. "You don't remember it, but you used some strange ability at the end of the spar you had with Yo…Soifon. You were beaten quite badly when you used it, and actually managed to get a hit in. But it was so sudden that Soifon acted on instinct and sent you flying. You hit your head. That was how you lost your memories of the end of the fight." Urahara leaned forward. "So? Want to share?"

Naruto smiled tiredly. "So that's it…Yes, I can use both light and darkness. Together, they are called twilight. And my ability to use twilight is directly related to the reason that I know all of this."

Urahara grinned. "Oh? Do I get to hear another story?"

Naruto smirked bitterly. "Yeah, this time it's about someone named Xehanort and his quest to reach something called Kingdom Hearts…"

He still didn't like this story.

* * *

 **Tea Room (One More Retelling Later)**

The tea room was silent as Naruto gave Urahara a chance to think over everything. By now, Naruto had also told him about Xehanort, Kingdom Hearts, Terra, Aqua, Ventus, Hikari, Yami, Keyblades, and about how he was the chosen wielder of twilight. To be honest, Naruto was a little nervous. While he trusted Urahara greatly, this was still the first time he has ever told anyone all of this. He didn't know how Urahara would react. He tensed when Urahara opened his mouth.

"Wow! You sure are special, Naruto-kun!"

Naruto was dumbfounded. "…What?"

Urahara had a huge grin on his face as he fanned himself. "I mean, come on! You were actually chosen by what is arguably a deity to become her champion! You get these cool powers, an awesome weapon, and the chance to travel to different worlds. I sure do know how to pick my students, don't I?" He started laughing.

Naruto just stared at him. After everything he was just told…this was Urahara's reaction. "That's it? Just laugh and accept it?"

Urahara grinned even more. "That's it." His smile grew more sincere. "Thank you for trusting me enough to tell me this. I understand why you have been so secretive with it all, but I'm glad you decided you could tell me."

Naruto blushed and looked away. "You're an idiot…but you're still a good guy. I've put up with you enough to know that."

Urahara nodded. "So? After hearing all that, what do you think?"

Naruto blinked. What? That didn't sound like it was directed towards him…

"That was all very interesting. And it clears up quite a bit."

Naruto jumped at the deep male voice. He nearly gave himself whiplash in his haste to look down. He just stared dumbly at the black cat in his lap. Was he finally going insane from spending too much time with Urahara?

Yoruichi stared back at him. "Yes? What is it? Do I have something on my face?"

"…You can talk…"

"Yes, I can. Very observant of you to notice."

"No. I don't think you understand. You are talking."

"Once again, I agree."

"You're a cat."

"Nice to know your eyes still work."

Naruto's brain finally caught up to what was happening. "What the hell?! You could talk?! This entire time?!" He ignored the laughter coming from across the table. He would hurt the bastard later.

Yoruichi nodded. "Yes, I could. The entire time."

Naruto gaped. Then an angry expression came to his face. "I knew I wasn't crazy! You really were laughing at me! All those times I fell out of a tree or had to put up with Urahara, I always thought your expression was one that looked like you found what was going on funny! You really did find it all funny!"

Yoruichi smirked. So that wasn't his imagination either! "Yes. I do find some of the things you do humorous." The cat then turned serious. "But back on topic, thank you for sharing this."

Naruto stared for a bit. He was telling Urahara, but this should be okay. Technically, he has known Yoruichi for even longer. Naruto numbly nodded his head. "It's fine. I'm glad I did it."

Yoruichi nodded. "About what you said when it comes to using darkness…how good are you at resisting it?"

Naruto looked away. "I thought I was doing well. But then I went and got influenced in Wave. It pushed me towards killing those people…"

Yoruichi shook his head. "All the more reason you shouldn't dwell too much on what happened. While it doesn't excuse killing indiscriminately, you weren't in the right state of mind at the time." Naruto didn't respond to that and they sat in silence for a few minutes.

Urahara drew the attention back to himself with a clap. He quickly stood up. "Alright! The time has come for you and me to spar, Naruto-kun! I would like to see everything you are able to do. From your kenjutsu to your magic to your twilight abilities!" He turned towards the door with his fan pointed in front of him. "To the training grounds!" Yoruichi quickly followed after him.

Naruto shook his head. "He's still an idiot…"

* * *

 **Underground Training Ground**

Naruto and Urahara were now standing across from each other in the training ground. Urahara drew his blade. "I'm ready whenever, Naruto-kun!"

Naruto nodded and reached for the sword on his back. "Wait!" He paused and turned towards Yoruichi. "Do not use your sword. Use your keyblade." The cat said.

Urahara nodded. "Oh, I forgot to mention that. Please use your keyblade. I would like to see you in action using it."

Naruto smirked and held out his hand. Two Become One soon appeared in his hand in a flash of light and darkness.

Urahara peered at it from where he stood. "Oh? That looks very interesting…"

Naruto's smirk grew as he got into a battle stance. "It gets a whole lot better…"

Urahara smirked in return. "Is that so? I look forward to seeing it."

"Don't worry, you're gonna get a full blast of it!" And with that, Naruto rushed at Urahara.

* * *

 **There we go! All done with chapter 18!**

 **Wave arc, complete! Finally, I really didn't expect it to be that long…**

 **Okay, this is something I have been wondering for a while. What is the plural of genin? Is it just genin? Or is it genins? The same for chūnin, jōnin, and jutsu.**

 **The NGC is an idea I had a while ago. There is a very good chance that I won't be touching upon that in forever and a half, but I wanted to plant the idea now.**

 **Progress with Kushina and Minato! The people who have been pestering me about that can finally back off a bit!**

 **Naruto knows about Urahara and Yoruichi's origin. Finally! And he even knows Yoruichi can talk.**

 **I'm actually not 100% sure what happens to the worlds that are swallowed by darkness. But judging by the fact that Simba's world was swallowed by it in Kingdom Hearts 1, but was perfectly fine in Kingdom Hearts 2 with everybody still there and not even talking about it, I'm going with this. In this story, the worlds that are swallowed enter a stasis where time stops in the world. This has the bonus of letting me have Urahara and Yoruichi be away from their world for the past six years but not break the timeline there.**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	19. Chūnin Exams: Prelude

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 19!**

 **Little bit of a shorter chapter this time in comparison. I finally just sat down and wrote it. I was in the mood to write it so many times this week, but it was always while I was doing something else. I was probably in the mood for it those times because I would have rather been doing that than sitting in class or working…**

 **Oh. It's our two month anniversary…I missed uploading a chapter on the first month anniversary, but here we are. Still surprises me that I have kept this thing going for so long.**

 **I worked super slowly on this chapter. I can normally get 1,000 words done in around 45 minutes to an hour, but this one took around an hour twenty for every 1,000 words. I kept getting distracted.**

 **The urge to add a pairing grows stronger…but it may still die out…**

 **Holy crap. The Kingdom Hearts Wiki was closed? That's weird. Good thing I still have the khwiki…But a lot of wikis suddenly closed. But they will probably be back soon.**

 **Why do people keep on asking me the same questions? If you would bother to read the ANs, then you could very likely figure out the answers. But hey, you probably won't even read this, right?**

 **And why do I keep on answering them…?**

* * *

 **Xandarius: Ok, got it. I will stop using "s" at the end of things like "Genin."**

 **redlox2: I remember something like that happening, but not much. I only played through Dream Drop Distance like twice. Things like drive forms and transformations/armor are still under consideration. And I would** _ **love**_ **to hear how you knew that there was a connection between this Naruto and canon Naruto. :) I don't think I have indicated anything before now.**

 **Justaquestion12: Sorry about that. I have private messages turned off because of something that happened a while back. I'm not really looking for anything like armors or keyblades. Not now at least and probably not for a while. There is actually a chance I will never add armor. If you are still interested in the future, I will hit you up then.**

 **Shobu556: I remember that, too. That is actually one of the main things that led me to that conclusion.**

 **megaslayer321a: I am going to have Naruto stay on his world up to the time skip. The world hopping portion will come in then. And I am still trying to decide if I will put that under a whole different story or have it be a part of this one.**

 **Goose Attack: Meh :P I know it isn't a jumpsuit. I just know I've read other stories where they call it that so I jumped on the bandwagon. I didn't really think it mattered enough to care. And he didn't say anything at first because it wasn't for certain that it would have an impact on the mission. Then he didn't say anything when they were attacked because it was about to come out anyways.**

 **Bardock380: Thanks for the compliment! And to answer your question: nope :P**

 **ice of darkness: Sorry about that. I have private messages turned off because of something that happened a while back. Unfortunately, I cannot use that because it conflicts with something I have planned in the future.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the Story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else, I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Diety Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Diety Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **Underground Training Ground**

Boom!

"Whoa there, that's pretty dangerous!" Urahara and Naruto had been sparring for a while now. And like Urahara had requested, Naruto was using everything in his arsenal this time. He held nothing back as he threw everything he had at his opponent. And despite the fact that he had yet to land anything solid on the candy store owner, Naruto had a wide grin on his face. This was the first time that he has ever fought someone with everything he had, besides the times in the station of awakening. Both Hikari and Yami knew everything he could do, while Urahara did not. It was fun to keep throwing new techniques at him to try and catch him off guard.

"And there's more where that came from!" Naruto was panting greatly with beads of sweat rolling down his face. While he said that, he could tell that he was reaching the end of what he could do. _'I'm starting to run out of steam…I probably have enough energy to try one more thing, but it will be the end.'_ With his next course of action set, Naruto crouched low in preparation.

Seeing this, Urahara grinned. "Oh? Going to try something else, Naruto-kun? Are you sure that you will be able to actually hit me with it?"

Naruto smirked. "Honestly? Probably not. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to try!" Before he could get a response, Naruto rushed back at Urahara.

Urahara quirked an eyebrow at the approach. _'A basic frontal assault? That can't be it, can it?'_ Not voicing his thoughts, Urahara prepared himself to counter whatever was sent his way.

"Try stopping this one!" Naruto lunged at him. Urahara raised his blade to counter the Naruto's keyblade, but nothing ever came at him as Naruto jumped to the side and dropped some smoke bombs at the last moment. The area was quickly covered in smoke as the bombs exploded.

Using the chance, Naruto disappeared from Urahara's line of sight.

Urahara tensed as he looked around in order to find him. But there was just too much smoke to do it. _'Now then…which side is he going to come from?'_

The silence stretched on for a few minutes with no developments. _'What is he waiting for? He knows there is no way that I would actually let down my guard…So what is taking so long?'_ Eventually, Urahara decided to be the one to make a move. _'Fine then. I guess I will have to make him show himself.'_

Urahara raised his blade and tensed his body. After a moment, he slashed the air in a circle around him, creating a rush of wind in every direction. The wind he created caused the smoke to get blown away. Once he was able to get a clear look at the training ground, a frown came to Urahara's face. The reason for it was simple.

Naruto was nowhere in sight.

' _What where did he go?'_ Urahara looked in every direction, but was unable to spot him. _'So what is it this time? Is one of his powers the ability to go invisible or something?'_

Suddenly, Urahara's instincts flared! Acting on that instinct, he whirled around and raised his blade. Clang! He was just in time to block the strike to his back that Naruto had sent at him.

Urahara's eyes were wide with surprise that Naruto was actually able to sneak up on him like that. Looking behind Naruto, Urahara spotted something standing a couple feet away.

It was some kind of strange construct that had darkness rolling off of it in waves. It actually looked like an entrance to something. Urahara could only assume that Naruto had used it to not only disappear, but also get that close.

"Dammit…" Urahara looked back at Naruto when he heard the voice. Looking closer, it was obvious that whatever he just did took the rest of the fight out of him. One of the biggest reasons that Urahara was able to block that strike so easily was that there was very little strength behind it and that Naruto was moving sluggishly. Urahara watched as Naruto's eyes slowly slid closed. "…I wasn't…able to get…you with that either…" And with that, Naruto collapsed. Urahara caught him before he hit the ground. Naruto's keyblade and the thing made out of darkness soon disappeared.

" _That_ was a cool move. I wish he hadn't passed out, I really wanted to ask him about it."

"You wanted to ask him about most of the things he just showed us." Urahara grinned at the black cat.

"Is that so wrong? Those spells he shot at me were really interesting. And then that thing at the end that he used to disappear…A method of travel? I wonder where that entrance goes…"

Yoruichi shook his head. "I probably shouldn't be saying this, but curiosity killed the cat. That thing was obviously made out of darkness. And while Naruto has built up some form of resistance to it, you have not. So be careful."

Urahara's grin got even wider. "Don't worry about it! I'm always careful!"

He got an eye roll from the cat in response. "Sure you are." Yoruichi focused on the unconscious form of Naruto. "Anyways, I suppose we will be putting him back in the guest room?"

Urahara nodded. "Yes, I think that would be best. We'll talk with him once he wakes up."

* * *

 **Uzumaki-Namikaze Household (Same Time)**

Minato flashed into the entry way of his home. The discussion he had with his wife weighed heavily on his mind and he took the first chance he got to leave the office and head back home.

Looking around, he didn't see anyone around. Minato walked into the living room. It was there he found his wife shifting through photo albums on the couch. She looked up at him when he walked over.

"I can't find any pictures of Naruto, Minato. There's nothing. We have pictures of Narumi and Menma, but I can't find anything of him." Tears were forming in her eyes again.

Minato sat down next to her and brought her into a one armed hug. "Hey, listen to me. It's going to be alright, you'll see. We now know what we have been doing, and we're going to fix it. We'll have him join us during the next training session. I doubt it will instantly fix everything, but it is a start."

Kushina leaned into him and nodded. "We should also go out and do something as a family. Maybe go out somewhere to eat." She said. "He can pick. We'll ask him when he gets home."

Minato smiled at her. "That sounds great. I left the office early today, so I'm free."

* * *

 **Urahara Shop (Later)**

Naruto groaned as he returned to awareness. He looked around and sighed when he saw where he was. He didn't have to think hard to remember how he got there. "Damn it. I still couldn't land a hit on him." He pushed himself up to his feet and walked out of the room.

He walked straight to the tea room and entered it. "Ah, Naruto-kun! Did you have a good nap?"

Naruto's response was led with an annoyed huff. "Passing out from exhaustion isn't my idea of a good nap." Naruto replied as he sat down across from the candy shop owner.

"Yes, that does sound like a less than ideal way to fall asleep." Yoruichi said as he walked up to Naruto. "And you're fine now?"

Naruto nodded with a small smile. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Urahara grinned. "Good." He seemed to practically bounce with excitement from his seat. "Then can we talk about those moves you used?"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Yeah, sure." He then smirked. "But I don't feel like sitting here for hours to answer all of your questions. So you can ask me about any _one_ thing."

Yoruichi soon gained a smirk as well at the sight of the annoyed frown on Urahara's face. "Only one? Come on, Naruto-kun. Don't do that to me. I'm really curious about a lot of the things you showed back there."

Naruto shook his head. "Nope. Only one." He waved a dismissive hand. "It's not like you won't ever figure them out, I just don't want to be sitting here going over each one of them all at once."

Urahara sighed and nodded. "Very well." He brought a hand to cup his chin as he thought. "I want to know about that thing you did in the end. That thing made out of darkness."

Naruto smirked slightly. "I knew you would want to know about that the most." He leaned back as he thought about how to respond. "That was a **Corridor of Darkness**. It is basically and entrance to a separate world that I can use to travel. I enter the corridor, think of where I want to go, and then exit where I wanted. But it takes a lot out of me."

Urahara fanned himself as he thought. "Hmm, that sounds pretty convenient. Well, it would be even better without that issue of getting tired whenever you use it."

Naruto nodded with a smirk. "Yeah. It's pretty cool. I've really improved with it from when I started, but I'm still not where I want to be."

"And where do you want to be?"

"I want to be able use it repeatedly. And swiftly enough to be effective in battle. I had to use the smoke as cover so I would have enough time to create one back there. I don't want to rely on that. I want to get to the point where I can form one instantly from a thought and use it to either get closer or retreat."

Yoruichi nodded. "Yes, that does sound like something that would be extremely useful if you managed to master it to that degree."

"What about other worlds?" The two of them looked over to Urahara. He had a serious look in his eyes. "Could you use the corridor to travel to another world?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, but I'm not at that level yet. I won't be for a while. I can travel from one side of the village to the other, but not too many times. Going to a whole other world is still too much for me to do."

Urahara leaned back in thought. "That is interesting. And I assume that a resistance to darkness is needed to use it?" A nod. "Of course, of course."

Naruto spoke up before Urahara could get too lost in his thoughts. "You mind if I crash here?" He gave a wide yawn. "I'm tired and I now have a place that I can practice my twilight abilities and magic that isn't the Station of Awakening. So I want to stay here."

Urahara looked at him quizzically. "Sure, I don't mind. But what about your family?"

Naruto shrugged. "Don't worry about it. It will be fine. Plus, it's not like this will be the first time I've stayed here without saying anything."

"Fair enough."

Naruto smiled. "Awesome. Thank you."

* * *

 **Konoha Streets (The Next Day)**

Naruto was now walking over to training ground 12 to meet his team. Regulation stated that any shinobi that received a mission that was A-rank or above get a day or two without having to take out another mission. While Naruto was looking forward to the short break in missions, he still had to meet his team for their normal training.

He stopped walking as he felt someone tap his shoulder to get his attention. He turned to face the person and smiled when he saw who it was.

"Hey, Misa. What's up?"

Misa smiled in return as she shook her head. "Nothing much with me. But I heard you had a pretty serious mission."

Naruto's eyes widened slightly. "You heard about that?"

Misa smirked in response. "A lot of people have. It is just a rumor right now, but apparently your team and team 11 had a run in with one of the seven swordsmen on a mission that got bumped all the way to A-rank." She leaned closer. "So? Is it true then?"

Naruto looked at her with an amused expression. "Yeah, it's true. We ran into Zabuza Momichi, a traitor, and three bloodline users on our last mission."

Misa whistled. "Wow. That sounds pretty serious." She shook her head from side to side. "And here I am, a genin like you that has been an active shinobi for a year longer and the highest mission I've taken is a single B-rank the other week. And I was only there to stay out of the way and keep track of the supplies."

Naruto shrugged. "It wasn't supposed to go like that. We were meant to get a normal C-rank mission, but it escalated."

"I bet. I found it really weird that you and the other team would get a mission like that after only graduating a little over a month ago." She tilted her head. "I don't know if I should be jealous or not."

Naruto snorted. "What would you be jealous for? I wasn't excited about finding out that we had one of the seven swordsmen as an enemy on that mission."

Misa shrugged. "True enough. But hey, you still completed the mission. They have to let you take the exams now."

Naruto frowned in confusion. "Exams? You mean the chūnin exams?"

The response Misa gave was an enthusiastic nod with a grin. "Yep."

"Is it coming up soon?"

"It is in like a month or two. We're even the ones hosting it."

Naruto looked at her quizzically. "And you really think they will let anyone from my graduating class join? Really?"

Misa rolled her eyes at him. "You should be more optimistic! You never know, it could happen! You guys actually managed to complete that mission. That proves that you can handle it."

Naruto gave her a conflicted look. "Maybe…But I still doubt they will let us enter. People die in those exams. The competition is pretty up there, too."

"How can a bunch of chūnin hopefuls be worse than Zabuza Momichi?" When she said it like that, it sounded like a stupid thing to be worried about.

"Good point. Are you and your team entering?"

"Yep! Well, at least, I hope so. We haven't entered an exam so far, so I'm hoping this will be the first one."

Naruto smirked at her. "So is this less about how you think I'm ready for the exam and more about how you are hoping to have a friendly team in there with you for an alliance?"

Misa stuck her tongue out at him with a smile. "Whatever! I don't have to answer that, you already know the answer!" She shook her head. "But really, while that is a bonus, I actually do think you and your team is ready for this."

"Well, it is nice to know that you think that. But you haven't even met the rest of my team."

Misa shook her head at that. "You're right, I haven't. But I bet they will be fine."

Naruto gave her an amused look again. "Do you normally place your bets blind?"

"Only when I have a good feeling about it." Wow. There are really people like this in the world…

"Whatever." He turned back towards the direction he was walking in. "I gotta go or I'll be late. But you're right, the chūnin exams do sound a bit interesting…" And with that, he walked off.

"You bet they do! And hey, if we meet in there and have to fight, I'll be sure to beat your ass lightly!" Naruto snorted and kept walking towards his destination.

* * *

 **Training Ground 12**

Naruto walked into the training ground and was greeted with the sight of both his teammates already there waiting for him and Yūgao. He raised a hand in greeting. "Hey there."

Yakumo looked up at him and smiled while Sai just stared blankly back. "Hello, Naruto." Yakumo greeted.

Naruto walked up to them and plopped down on the ground next to them. "You guys got any idea what we are going to be doing today?"

Yakumo shook her head. "No idea."

Sai spoke up. "The most likely conclusion is that we will be devoting the entire time we ae together today to training as opposed to only the first half like normal."

"That's exactly right!" They looked over to Yūgao when she appeared in a swirl of leaves nearby. "As I'm sure you three already know, we won't be taking a mission today." She grinned at them. "Instead, I get to have you three spend the day training!" She got two groans in response. "Oh, don't be like that. My training is extremely effective."

Naruto grimaced at that, but he couldn't dispute the claim because it was true. No matter how tiring or annoying the training was, it always helped him. Whether it increased his stamina or speed, it was effective in the long run.

If only he was able to stand after doing it for an extended period, then he wouldn't have any complaints.

Going like they were with this training, Naruto wouldn't be surprised if they would be able to complete the chūnin exam on their first attempt. Speaking of which…

"Yūgao-sensei…Are we going to enter the chūnin exams?"

This question gained a raised eyebrow from his teacher. "The chūnin exams? You think you can pass it after being active shinobi for only a month?"

Naruto shrugged. "I'm not sure. A friend asked me if we would be entering. That's what got the idea in my head. She said we would be able to handle it after completing an A-ranked mission like we did back in Wave."

Yūgao tilted her head in thought. "Well…I would be lying if I said that I think you guys would instantly fail it, but I am still hesitant to enter you due to how soon it is after you three graduated. There is always the chance though." She looked back at him. "Basically, anything could happen." Naruto nodded. "Anything else?" Nobody spoke up. "Good, then onto the training!"

* * *

 **Urahara Shop (Later that Day)**

Naruto trudged through the entrance of the Urahara shop. The training that day hadn't been the hardest they have ever done under Yūgao's instruction, but it was definitely up there as one of the harder ones.

Naruto glanced around once and spotted Yoruichi napping on the counter. Deciding to leave the talking cat alone, he continued towards the back.

He soon entered the tea room and spotted Urahara there again. He gave the bucket hat wearing man a questionable look. "Why are you always back here? Shouldn't you be manning the register or something?"

Urahara grinned from behind his fan. "Don't you worry your pretty little head, Naruto-kun! The register is in good hands."

Naruto opened his mouth to respond, but closed it with a sigh. If he wanted to leave a talking cat to take of business, that was his problem.

"Anyways, what brings you back to my shop, Naruto-kun? You don't normally come here two days in a row…"

Naruto grunted as he turned towards the door. "I want to use your training ground. Now that you know about my twilight abilities, I can practice them there. After that, I will probably sleep here again." He glanced back at Urahara. "Is that alright?"

"It's perfectly okay! I get that you're too much of a tsundere to just admit you like being arou-" Wham!

Naruto was suddenly able to find enough energy to swiftly rush over and kick Urahara in the face.

* * *

 **Unknown Location**

"The chūnin exams?"

"Yes. He showed an interest in them."

"Hmm. Interesting. We may be able to finally move in. Dismissed."

* * *

 **Training Ground 12 (The Next Day)**

Naruto was woken up early that day by the sound of an explosion coming from Urahara's lab. After beating the moron for somehow managing to bypass the sound insulation and waking him up, Naruto grabbed some breakfast and headed back to the training grounds.

Because he was earlier than normal today, Naruto was the first to arrive. Shrugging his shoulders, Naruto thought about how to pass the time.

' _Might as well play the guitar for a bit…'_

Naruto walked over to a nearby tree and sat on the ground with his back against it. He unsealed his guitar and got in a comfortable position.

He didn't really play anything in particular, just allowed his mind to wander as his hands moved on auto pilot and he closed his eyes.

' _Although nothing much has changed…It really does feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders now that I have told someone else about my twilight abilities.'_ A small smile soon came to his face as well. _'And that spar with Urahara was a lot of fun. I don't even care that I lost again, I had a blast shooting fire, lightning, and ice at him.'_

Naruto continued to play as his mind wandered. He was so lost in thought that he never even noticed when one of his teammates arrived. Or the other one.

Eventually, Naruto realized that he had been sitting there for a while and he stopped playing and opened his eyes. He was surprised to see both Sai and Yakumo sitting nearby and facing him with their sketchpads in their laps.

Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Oh, I never even noticed that the two of you had arrived." He admitted.

Yakumo smiled at him. "That would probably be because you were so lost in what you were doing." She raised her sketchpad a bit. "But that worked out well, it let us get a good picture."

His curiosity peaked, Naruto sealed his guitar back into the scroll. He got up and walked over to the two of them. He smiled at what he saw.

The two of them had made similar drawings of him playing his guitar. They both managed to catch the scene perfectly. Right down to the smile that he had on his face as he played.

Naruto whistled in appreciation. "Wow. Those are really good." He shook his head. "I could never manage to draw something like these."

Yakumo's smile got even bigger. "Thanks. But even if you can't draw that well, you really are amazing with your guitar. I could never do that…"

Sai nodded with one of his smiles. "It is not that surprising. While you may be good with a guitar, it would be unlikely that someone like you would be able to draw a halfway decent picture." That book said that good friends often insult one another…

Naruto's eyebrow began to twitch. _'This bastard…'_

They were interrupted by Yūgao appearing in a **Body Flicker**. She clapped her hands. "Okay, team! I hope you're ready for today!"

Yakumo looked at her curiously. "What are we doing today, Yūgao-sensei?"

That grin on the purple haired woman's expression was unsettling. "Well, more training, of course." That glint in her eyes gave off the same feeling as her expression.

' _Damn it all…'_

* * *

 **Uzumaki-Namikaze Household (Later that Day)**

Naruto stumbled through the door later that day. _'I'm sure of it now. Yūgao-sensei is a closet sadist. There's no other explanation. She has to be. No normal person would make someone do that with a smile on their face.'_ Naruto was grumbling to himself as he stumbled towards the stairs. The sooner he got a quick shower and changed, the sooner he could sleep.

"Aniki!" Naruto nearly groaned. He turned to see his siblings rushing up to him.

"What's up?" Why did other people always find the need to stop him from sleeping? Was it some sort of massive inside joke he want aware of?

"What did you do?" Narumi hissed at him.

Naruto gave her a confused look. "What? What do you mean? I just came from training with my team."

Menma shook his head. "That doesn't explain why kaa-chan and tou-chan have been looking for you."

Naruto blinked in surprise. "They have been looking for me?" Nods were given in response. "What for?"

Menma rolled his eyes. "How should we know? We came to you to find out!" He smirked at Naruto. "You get caught doing something you shouldn't have been?"

Naruto huffed. "No way." He smirked back. "Unlike you, I can cover my tracks."

Menma's smirk fell off his face as he opened his mouth to respond, but was stopped by Narumi. "Shut up, both of you!" When she was sure that they wouldn't continue fighting, she turned to Naruto. "But really, you don't know what's going on, Nii-chan?"

Naruto crossed his arms as his face regained a thoughtful look. After a minute, he shook his head. "I have no idea. I don't think I've done anything wrong. I have no idea why they would have been looking for-"

"Naruto!" He was cut off by the sound of someone calling his name.

The three of them turned to see Kushina standing there with surprised eyes. She soon rushed up to him and frantically began to check him over. "Where have you been, young man! We have been worried sick about you! You didn't come home yesterday or the day before and we didn't know where you were!" She looked him over for a few more moments. "I don't see any non-training injuries, thank kami." She then glared at him. "Well? What do you have to say for yourself-ttebane?"

Naruto just stood there with wide eyes. He was extremely confused by what was happening. He slowly turned towards his siblings who had eyes that were just as wide as his. He mechanically turned back to Kushina and opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

Before anything else could happen, a yellow flash appeared nearby. They looked over to see Minato standing there tiredly. He blinked when he saw the rest of his family standing nearby. He blinked again when he saw Naruto there as well.

Soon, his brain caught up with what he was seeing. "Naruto!" He too came over. He glanced at his wife. "You found him?"

She gave him an annoyed look. "I just got here. He was just standing here talking to Narumi and Menma without a care in the world!"

Minato raised an eyebrow at that. He turned to Naruto. "Naruto, would you please tell us where you have been?"

Naruto's brain finally caught up enough to respond. "I was training with my team…" Was there something wrong with that?

Kushina shook her head. "Not that. Where have you been the last two nights?"

Naruto's eyes widened. _'They actually noticed I wasn't here?'_ A small frown came to his face. _'But why are they even bothering to ask?'_ "I was staying over at a friend's house. He lets me sleep there when I'm too tired after training." He wasn't about to tell them that he got trained by this friend and that he had his own training ground under his shop. Naruto quirked an eyebrow. "I've done it before, what's the problem this time?"

Both Kushina and Minato internally winced at that. Minato shifted a bit. "We just need to know where you are. You don't come home for two days and didn't bother to tell us. What were we supposed to think?"

Naruto wasn't sure how to respond to that. He has been staying over at the Urahara shop semi-frequently for the last six years. Why would they only just now start to question him about it? Naruto could feel a small spark of annoyance growing within him, but he did his best to squash it. "I apologize for any worrying I may have caused."

Minato smiled and nodded. "It's alright. But in the future, try not to do that again, please. At least send us some sort of message."

Naruto nodded. "Fine." He looked between his parents. "Is that all? I was going to take a shower." This entire thing has been a weird experience…

They glanced at each other again. "Actually…" Kushina started. "We were planning to go out as a family for dinner. Is there a place you want to go?"

Naruto blinked at her. They were actually asking him? _'Am I having another weird dream?'_ He shook his head. "No thanks. I'm tired and want to go to sleep." And before they could say anything else, he walked up the stairs. His siblings glanced at each other and soon left as well.

Kushina just watched him go as she bit her lip. She turned to her husband. "That could have gone better. All we wound up doing is reprimanding him."

Minato brought an arm around her shoulder. "Don't worry about it. He was just tired from training. We did catch him right as he came back from it. We should try again some other time."

Kushina sighed and nodded her head. "I guess…"

* * *

 **Naruto's Room (Later that Night)**

Naruto sighed in content as he plopped down on the bed. He was so tired from all of that crap that Yūgao made them do.

Naruto frowned minutely as he thought back on the conversation he had with his parents. _'Why would they only just now notice that I don't always sleep here? I have been staying at Urahara's semi-frequently for years now. They never noticed before.'_

He rolled over. _'And then they tell me I need to tell them when I do that? Why do they only just now care? Where were they when I wanted them to?'_ The frown on his face was getting bigger. Naruto sighed in a frustrated manner and shook his head. _'Whatever…I just want to sleep. I hope Hikari and Yami don't pull me into the station tonight…'_

And with that last thought, Naruto closed his eyes and went to sleep.

* * *

 **Station of Awakening**

Naruto opened his eyes and groaned at what he saw. He pinched the bridge of his nose. "I jinxed it. I know I did."

"What did you jinx?" Naruto looked over to see Hikari standing nearby with a curious expression on her face. Yami was standing next to her with an amused smirk.

She probably knew what he meant.

Naruto shook his head from side to side. "Don't worry about it." A thought then came to him. "Come to think of it, I never got a chance to thank you two." They both blinked at him.

"What are you referring to?" Hikari asked him.

Naruto grinned sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head. "You two were right about telling Urahara. It worked out pretty well."

Yami's smirk grew wider. "I bet. Especially judging by how you asked us to provide you with a little protection from the darkness so you could get the jump on him in that fight."

Naruto shrugged with his own smirk. "Well, I really wanted to get a hit in on him." He shook his head. "But it still wasn't enough. He was able to block the strike." A thought came to him and he sent an annoyed look at them. "But anyways, you two knew that he was from another world and never told me."

Hikari shrugged with a smile. "That wasn't our secret to tell. It wouldn't be right for us to just tell you that. The most we could do was simply point you in the right direction to find out."

Naruto thought about what she said. After a moment passed, he sighed and nodded his head. "You're right." He blinked as another thought struck him. He looked at them suspiciously. "Wait. What about Yoruichi? Did you know he could talk?" The amused looks he got in response were the only responses he needed to figure out the answer to his question.

Yami snickered. "Yeah, we knew about that. Yoruichi is a…special _cat_ isn't… _he_?"

Naruto just glared at her.

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 19!**

 **Progress!**

… **I think…Can this be called that? This was partly just a filler chapter so I wouldn't have to put back to back main arcs.**

 **Next arc is the chūnin exams! I plan to introduce an idea or seven I had.**

 **I had one of those Sai moments again where I asked myself "Am I doing this right?"**

 **I often find myself mirroring the facial expressions I type for some reason. -_- When I type that someone is frowning, I frown for half a second before I stop myself. I think it's because I'm trying to get a better picture of the scene in my head, but I still feel silly for doing it. I'm just going to keep on telling myself that it is normal…**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	20. Chūnin Exams: Sand Trio

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 20!**

 **There is something wrong with the world when you look at your class schedule and are able to say to yourself, "Holy shit. I am on this god damn campus for over 13 hours for three days out of the week. Fuck that."**

 **I have a small case of writers block right now. I find this part of the story hard to write, so it takes me longer to do.**

* * *

 **prototype gear: I'm right there with you. One of my favorite parts of Naruto fanfiction to read is the chūnin exams. There is so much diversity out there between fics that it is often interesting to read.**

 **dotJKLO: I admit, 6k words isn't the longest thing I have ever done, but it definitely isn't the shortest, either. Plus, I stated from chapter one that I will set my minimum at around 3k-4k words. And 6k isn't even that bad. At least it isn't 4k that gets updated once every two weeks. I haven't said anything concrete about pairings yet, only that I may or may not add one. If I do one, I don't think it will be anytime soon. I want to get into the Kingdom Hearts story first.**

 **redlox2: In my head, a combat ready Corridor of Darkness is one that opens around Naruto's feet and transports him as he is enveloped in it. They have done that before in the games when Axel appears to confront Roxas near the beginning of Kingdom Hearts 2, when Roxas pretends to have regained his memories. Admittedly, that was just exiting, but I am pretty sure they have done it the other way around, too. Speed it up a bit, and we're good.**

 **SinOfDisaster: This story takes place in between Birth By Sleep and Kingdom Hearts 1. I'm setting it up so that Naruto will leave this world as Kingdom Hearts 1 begins.**

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 **Anyways, on with the Story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else, I'm just a broke college student...**

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Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Diety Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Diety Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **Uzumaki-Namikaze Household (One Week Later)**

The past week has been a weird one for Naruto. In the past, he was always able to come and go in the house without being noticed with relative ease. Now however, it was as if his parents were constantly on the lookout for him and were always curious as to where he was going. It was even preventing Naruto from going to the Urahara shop. As he didn't know what brought about the sudden change in his parents, Naruto decided to be cautious about it.

Naruto was currently sleeping in his bed, dead tired from the training that Yūgao had put team 12 through the day before after the mission they had taken. By the time they were done, all Naruto had been wanting to do was walk into his room, collapse in his bed, and fall asleep. And that is exactly what he did. And he planned on continuing that for as long as he could.

"Naruto, get up!"

Or at least, that _was_ the plan…

Naruto groaned as he rolled over. What did his mother want now? Wasn't it enough that she was constantly fidgeting while around him, therefore making him even more uncomfortable? Now she was waking him up early?

Naruto cracked an eye open as he heard someone open his door. Kushina seemed to falter for a moment when she saw that she actually had his attention. But after a moment, she seemed to gather her courage. She sent a smile his way. "Naruto, we are having breakfast together today, so would you please come down? You must be hungry, you didn't eat dinner last night."

Naruto internally sighed at the question. All that would do is create a strained atmosphere. What was the point of that? But nevertheless, Naruto nodded and pushed himself up. "I'll be down in a minute…"

She beamed at him before turning and leaving. Naruto shook his head to himself. Why was she only now so concerned about getting him to spend time with the rest of the family? Neither she nor Minato had ever put in any effort to get him to join them in the past seven years, so why now?

Deciding that he wouldn't get an answer by just sitting there, Naruto sighed again before getting to his feet. A few minutes later, he came downstairs and walked into the kitchen to see the rest of the Uzumaki-Namikaze family already sitting at the table and waiting for him. Naruto only glanced over the table once before walking over to the empty seat in between Narumi and Menma and plopping down. Both of his siblings sent a grin his way while his parents also sent him smiles, although their smiles seemed to be relieved for some reason.

Naruto looked at Minato when he started speaking. "Glad you could join us this time, Naruto." He said with a grin.

Naruto shrugged. He had been avoiding these types of situations over the past week by saying that he had already eaten right when he got home. And if they came to him in the morning, then he would say that he wasn't hungry because of dinner still. But this time, he had come back later than normal and had gone straight to bed. And they all knew it, so there were no excuses that he could use.

Kushina sent a grin his way as well, but Naruto could tell that there was some worry behind her expression.

Wanting to get this over with and get out of the house as soon as possible, Naruto began to gather food onto his plate. Seeing him do this, the others followed his example. And just like Naruto had expected, there was a certain tension in the air as the all ate in silence.

While Naruto did his best to get out of there fast by only paying attention to his food, his siblings were shifting in their seats as they slowly ate. Every once in a while, they would nervously glance at Naruto before looking over to Minato and Kushina. Minato and Kushina on the other hand, seemed to be extremely nervous and at a loss of what to say to break the silence.

After a few more minutes of silence, Minato gathered his courage and broke the silence. He cleared his throat to gather their attention. He smiled at them. "Well, this is probably the first time since you all became shinobi that we have been able to eat together for breakfast like this..."

 _'Also the first time in seven and a half years...'_ Naruto thought.

"...How are you three finding the shinobi life, so far? Everything you thought it would be?" He grinned at the disgruntled looks that appeared on the faces of the younger two.

"Besides the Wave mission, we haven't done anything like a real mission!" Narumi said.

Menma immediately nodded in agreement. "Yeah. And kaa-chan is a real slave driver, too! She never lets us rest unless we have collapsed. Who the heck pushes their students that far-ttebasa?!"

An ominous smile stretched across Kushina's face. "Oh? If you aren't seeing the point of me pushing you two so far, then maybe I should push you even more until you do…"

This suggestion caused both Narumi and Menma to freeze. They both broke out into a nervous sweat. "Oh, y-you don't have to do th-that, kaa-chan…" Narumi nervously stuttered out.

Menma swallowed. "She's right…We get it, don't worry about that…"

The smile on Kushina's face brightened. "Good! I would be worried if you two weren't able to get how important training is." Naruto smirked in amusement at the sight of his siblings giving sighs of relief.

"Um…" Naruto's shifted his gaze back to Kushina. She seemed to hesitate when she saw that he was giving his attention to her, but she soon strengthened her resolve. "What about you, Naruto? How have things been going for you since you graduated from the academy?" She asked him.

Naruto shrugged. "Pretty well, I guess. Like they said, the missions are boring most of the time. But besides that, I can't really complain. Yūgao-sensei is a tough but effective teacher." He looked back at his plate. "It is pretty nice to have someone with more experience to spar with." He couldn't really stop himself from getting a shot or two in.

Both Minato and Kushina flinched when he said this. Minato however, refused to back down so easily. "Well, I know what Narumi and Menma have been learning from Kushina, but what has Yūgao been having your team work on?" He asked.

Naruto looked back at him with a neutral look. "Nothing big. She has taught us some teamwork exercises and combinations. Plus a jutsu here or there. My team has a heavy focus on playing to our strengths and working together in combat to pull off combos. We don't really work on our own unless we have to." An annoyed frown came to his face. "Not that we have had much of a chance to use these combos in actual combat."

Kushina became slightly emboldened when they actually got him to speak to them. "And what is your role in the team?" She could guess that he was some kind of combat specialist, but wanted to hear the confirmation directly from him.

Naruto looked over to her. "I'm the main combatant on our team. I feel most comfortable with mid to close range combat, especially with my sword. So while Yakumo provides long range support and Sai positions himself as needed, I'm the one that gets really close to the enemy."

Minato jumped on the chance while it was here. "Yes, I've heard multiple people praise your skills with a sword." Multiple being Yūgao and Kushina, the little that the latter saw. "That must have taken a lot of time and dedication to get to where you are now. But who taught you? I know you never came to me about it, and Kushina uses a different style."

Another flash of irritation flared through Naruto. _'I had wanted her to teach me, but she said she was too busy teaching Narumi and Menma.'_ But he kept his face carefully blank as he responded with a shrug. "I met someone who knew how to use a sword and was willing to teach me once they found out that I wanted to learn. I had spent the past six years learning from them. I like to think I have managed to become decent with a sword." Not a single lie was told.

Minato nodded in thought. It could happen. There were plenty of shinobi in the village who wouldn't have minded teaching a six year old how to use a sword when they had the chance.

Kushina frowned minutely in thought. While that was possible, she was still fairly sure that she has never seen the style Naruto uses before, but she hasn't seen enough of it to be able to tell for sure. Naruto may just be tweaking it a bit to fit himself better.

Menma grinned excitedly at Naruto. "You think you're only 'decent' when you use a sword? You're totally badass, Aniki!"

"He is totally _what_ , Menma?"

Menma rubbed the back of his head sheepishly at the reprimand from Kushina. "Ah, sorry. He is totally awesome with his sword." He turned back to Naruto. "You and that Aoi guy were both moving so fast when you were fighting, but you still managed to keep up!"

Narumi was nearly bouncing in her seat as she recalled the fight. "He's right, Nii-chan. You managed to fight to a draw in the first fight, and then you actually won in the second. Against a jōnin-ttebane!"

Naruto grinned a bit at them. "He may have been a jōnin, but he was still kind of weak for one. I think he was only able to get that far because of the blade he used." He gained an annoyed look. "I may have been able to outperform him in pure kenjutsu, but he still had me beat when it came to physical condition…"

Minato sent a smile his way, but it faltered a bit when Naruto didn't respond with one of his own. "Well, just by the fact that you managed to go against him for so long when it was just kenjutsu, you are definitely the best kenjutsu user out of all the genin. And you can probably beat most chūnin, too."

That praise reminded Naruto of the conversation he had with Misa the week before. "If that is true, then what do you think my chances would be if I took the chūnin exams as I am?" Minato's eyes widened at the question before a thoughtful look crossed his face.

"Absolutely not!" Before he could respond however, Kushina spoke up. He sent a surprised look at her, but she didn't notice because she had her eyes focused on Naruto. "There is no way that any of you are entering in that thing this early-ttebane!"

Naruto frowned at her. "Is it not the decision of the jōnin sensei to decide? You may be able to stop Narumi and Menma from entering, but it is up to Yūgao-sensei whether or not I am able to enter." He said.

Kushina's frown was slowly turning into a scowl. "I am your mother! I get to say what you can or cannot do-ttebane! There is no way you are already prepared for something like the chūnin exams!"

Naruto no longer held back the scowl that was wanting to form on his face. "You have no idea of what my limits are. You have not even seen me fight except for a few glimpses during the Wave mission. My team and I are ready for this. We may be rookies, but I know we can handle it."

Kushina opened her mouth to speak again, but stopped when Minato placed a hand on her shoulder. She turned to him, ready to ask him why he was stopping her, but paused when she saw the serious look on his face. He was not even looking at her, he was looking at Naruto.

"The chūnin exams are no joke, Naruto. They are a serious event where people die. If you were to enter, you would be facing against other teams that have been doing this a lot longer than you have. And not all of them will be from Konoha. You would have to fight against teams from other villages that would have less reservation when it comes to killing someone from Konoha." He said seriously.

Naruto looked over to him. "While that is true, the three of us, as well as my team, have gone against opponents tougher than some genin. Aoi Rokushō was a jōnin from Ame, the Konjiki brothers were at least low-jōnin, and Haku was at least chūnin. All five of us have the combat skills, and I know that we have the teamwork down."

Minato shook his head. "There is more to it than just combat and teamwork. You need to have the right mindset and set of values to be an effective chūnin. They test for these things in the exams. You need to take this seriously."

"I know that. Don't you think that we have already seen firsthand about how serious things are on that Wave mission? That was an A-rank mission that we managed to complete. All we need now is some more experience running missions that have us go to other places and work in certain scenarios. Just a little in order to better round out our experience."

Minato was silent as he mulled over Naruto's words. He looked at his other two children. Both of them were sending determined gazes his way. After a minute, Minato sighed. "I cannot say I think it is okay to deny you entry just because you are rookies…" He began. Kushina sent him a wide eyed look while grins started to form on Narumi and Menma's faces. Naruto however, kept a steady gaze on Minato. "…But as you said, the final decision is up to your jōnin sensei. If you get their approval, then it means that they think you are ready for it." He looked at Kushina. "There is still some time before the nominations for the exam are submitted. Until that time, the best thing to do would be to test your team yourself and see if they are ready. Try to keep it unbiased."

Kushina seemed like she wanted to argue, but then stopped as she sighed and nodded. "You're right. I shouldn't stop them just because I don't want them to enter, I should judge them based on their teamwork and skills."

Naruto sighed silently to himself. That was a battle in and of itself. He got to his feet and brought his plate to the sink. "I should get going. I was supposed to meet someone before I head to team training today." And with that, he quickly left.

Minato suppressed the sigh that wanted to escape. _'That hadn't gone like I wanted it to…'_

* * *

 **Urahara Shop**

Naruto walked into the candy store, the breakfast still on his mind. He didn't really need to be anywhere, but he wanted to get out of the house. _'Really, why are they paying so much attention to things I do now? What changed? At this point, all it is doing is making it harder for me to go where I want, when I want.'_ He glanced around. Like usual, there was nobody there.

He headed to the back and walked into the tea room. As he expected, Urahara was there. But he was fiddling with some strange device. Yoruichi was lounging in a nearby cushion. Knowing better than to let his curiosity get the better of him, Naruto didn't even bother to ask about what Urahara was working on. "Morning." He said as he sat on a cushion across from the bucket hat wearing man.

Yoruichi cracked an eye at him. "Morning, Naruto-kun." The cat said.

Urahara looked up at him with a grin. "Ah, Naruto-kun, you have returned! I must say, it has been a while. You don't normally go a week without dropping by…"

Naruto shrugged with a small frown. "Sorry about that…My parents told me I can't just sleep elsewhere without telling them, and training has left me too tired to come here after it. So I came here before it this time."

Urahara and Yoruichi stared at him. The silence was eventually broken by Urahara. "Your…parents told you that you can't just sleep someplace else without telling them…" He repeated.

Naruto raised a morbidly amused eyebrow. "Yeah. I was told that they were worried after I disappeared for two days without coming back like I did a week ago when I slept here."

Yoruichi looked him in the eye. "They noticed you were gone…and got worried?"

Urahara frowned minutely as he fanned himself. "They have never noticed when you weren't there before, right?" He didn't really like the way that sounded, but it was true…

Naruto nodded with a frown of his own. "Yeah, this was the first time they had ever noticed." He shook his head. "And that's not all. Both of them have been acting strange this past week."

Yoruichi tilted his head. "Strange how?" The cat asked.

Naruto scratched the back of his head as he thought about how best to phrase this. "It is like…they are constantly walking on eggshells around me. They shift nervously a bit and shoot me glances when they think I won't notice." He thought back to the end of their trip to Wave. "At first, it was just one of them, but the other soon started to do it, too…"

Naruto didn't notice, but Urahara's eyes narrowed minutely. "Is that so…" He mused.

Naruto nodded. "And they keep trying to get me to spend time with the rest of them." And uneasy look crossed his face. "That isn't really a problem…but it gets so awkward. It seems that just me being there makes them at a loss of what to say."

"Is it safe to assume that something like that happened this morning, causing you to be here this early?" Yoruichi asked him.

Naruto nodded with a small sigh. "Yeah. I came home later than I normally do yesterday because of training, and that caused me to go straight to bed without grabbing any dinner. They knew this, and had me join the rest of them for breakfast." A conflicted look crossed his face. "And like I said, it was awkward. We just sat there in silence for a bit before the topic of what we thought of being shinobi was brought up. That turned into my skill level, which turned into me hedging around the topic of who taught me how to use a sword, which turned into the upcoming chūnin exams, which then turned into an argument on whether or not we were ready for it."

Urahara grinned. "Oh, you're ready for it. I don't know about your two teammates or your siblings, but you are definitely ready for it."

Naruto smiled back. "Thanks. That's what I thought. But I couldn't exactly have them come to you to verify that, could I?"

Urahara just grinned some more. "You _could…_ but that may lead to some issues…"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Yes, and those _issues_ are what I was trying to avoid." He shook his head. "But anyways, one thing led to another, and it was decided that if our jōnin senseis thought we were ready, then we would enter. But by then, the atmosphere was strained, and I just wanted to get out of there."

"So you came here." Yoruichi inferred.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, I came here." He sighed in a frustrated manner. "I don't know how I should react to this. On the one hand, they are finally trying paying attention to me…but on the other hand, I am kind of past the point of actively wanting it…And I don't really know if I am ready to open up to them right now."

Yoruichi sent him a sympathetic look. "I understand. It may be difficult, but I am sure you will get past this. But this is something you will need to decide. Do you push them away? Or do you accept them and try to form bonds with them? But you must think through this carefully."

Urahara nodded in agreement. "And remember, whatever happens, you can always come here if you need to take a break from other people or need to relieve some stress." His smile turned into that annoying thing again. "If you ever need some stress relief, I'm always here to kick your butt in a spar…Soifon too, when she is around."

Naruto huffed. "Thank you _so much_ for such reassuring words, Urahara."

"No problem, Naruto-kun! I know how emo you can be someti-" Wham! Yoruichi rolled his eyes with a fond smile on his face.

Urahara never knows when to stop talking.

* * *

 **Training Ground 12 (Month and a Half Later)**

"Come on, you three! That can't be the limit your limit! I have friends who can last nearly four times as long!"

' _Because they're freaking ANBU-ttebayo!'_ Naruto groaned as he and his teammates attempted to push themselves to their feet. As usual, Yūgao had been a real sadist in their training. She never seemed to be satisfied unless they had collapsed and were on the verge of puking. _'I'm sure of it! She is trying to get us to do the ANBU training regime!'_

A month and a half has passed since that tense breakfast with the rest of his family. And since then, Naruto has done his best to avoid any and all contact with his parents. He knew that he was being a coward, but he just didn't want to be around them and face them after going seven years of not doing so.

Naruto turned his attention back to Yūgao when she began to speak again. "Come on, don't you three want a mission? It is about time we went and got one." Naruto sighed and put in the final strength needed to stand up. The missions were another thing. They no longer did nonstop D-rank missions, although they were still there. They now ran the occasional C-rank as well. Thankfully, none of them ever got bumped in rank.

"What are…we going to be…doing today, Yūgao-sensei?" Yakumo asked in between pants.

Yūgao looked thoughtful as she considered the question. "Hmm…Maybe a short courier mission to one of the outposts? Or maybe a supply run?" She shrugged as a grin came to her face. "Who knows? Only one way to find out!" She said as she turned and pointed towards the direction the Hokage tower was in. Naruto and Yakumo sighed and even Sai seemed a little disgruntled.

They made to follow Yūgao when she started to walk away, but came to a stop when Yūgao suddenly stopped walking while gazing at the sky. Naruto followed her line of sight and raised an eyebrow when he spotted a bird circling nearby. _'She is being summoned…'_ Naruto thought to himself.

Yūgao turned back to the three of them with an apologetic smile on her face. "Sorry, but it looks like we won't be getting a mission today, after all. The three of you have the rest of the day off, so spend it how you like!" And with that, she disappeared in a leaf **Body Flicker**.

They just stared at the spot she disappeared in for a minute. The silence was eventually broken by Yakumo. "What do you think that was about?" She asked her two teammates.

Naruto shrugged. "No idea…"

Sai tilted his head. "She was summoned by the Hokage. So she may have been requested for a specific mission. Or there may be some general mission that requires her attendance." He said.

Naruto's eyes widened slightly. _'I wonder if it is the chūnin exams…'_ Deciding there was no point in just standing around, Naruto turned towards the exit of the training ground. "If we have free time, then I want to use it to meet up with someone." He had been wanting to try and get another spar in with Soifon, but she hardly ever seemed to be around. Because of this, he had taken to dropping by the Urahara shop in the past couple days to see if she was there. Urahara had recently given him the tip that she would probably be stopping by sometime today or tomorrow. Naruto waved at them. "See ya later." And with that, he left.

* * *

 **Streets of Konoha**

Naruto walked through the streets of Konoha on his way to the Urahara shop. His mind was on the sudden departure of Yūgao. _'While it could be a mission, they would probably have preferred to use some unassigned jōnin before having one that was with a genin team…The more probable solution was that it is some meeting she needs to go to. And that would mean…the chūnin exams.'_

"Hey! Let him go!" Naruto's thoughts were interrupted by a shout coming from around the corner up ahead. Deciding to see what the problem was, Naruto hopped onto a nearby rooftop and walked over to the edge so he could see without being immediately spotted. What he saw made him narrow his eyes.

There were nine people within Naruto's line of sight, but he could faintly detect some other people hiding nearby. It seemed that there was a fight on the verge of breaking out. Narumi, Menma, Saito, and Sakura were on one side with a couple of kids behind them.

The first kid was a girl that had orange hair tied up into two large ponytails. She wore a red tank-top over a pink t-shirt that was layered at the bottom. Her pants were grey and she wore traditional shinobi sandals.

The boy next to her had short brown hair and dark eyes that were behind circular glasses. Naruto grimaced at the drip of snot hanging from his nose, but tried to ignore it. He wore a simple blue shirt that was zipped up, a pair of brown pants, and sandals.

Naruto shifted his gaze to the third kid. He had short spiky brown hair and black eyes. There was also a small chip in one of his teeth. He wore a yellow shirt with the Konoha leaf in red, grey shorts, and a long blue scarf.

Naruto was fairly sure that he recognized the last kid as the grandson of the late Third Hokage. But that wasn't what made Naruto narrow his eyes, it was the situation the boy was in. He was being held up by the front of his shirt by a shinobi that Naruto didn't recognize. If not for the situation, Naruto would have been extremely amused by the appearance of the boy.

He wore a black, baggy, full body suit with a red and yellow circle on the front. He also wore a black hood that completely covered his head, and had cat-like ears along with his forehead protector. He had a triangular face paint design in purple. There was something large on his back that was wrapped in bandages. Judging by his looks, Naruto guessed that the boy was a little older than himself.

Behind him, with an annoyed look on her face, was another shinobi that Naruto didn't recognize.

She had teal eyes and sandy blond hair that she had in four ponytails. She wore a single light purple-colored, off-the-shoulders garment that extended to halfway down her thighs, with a scarlet sash tied around her waist. She had fishnet worn over her shoulders and legs, along with a forehead protector around her neck. On her back was a large fan. She looked a little older than Naruto as well.

Naruto looked at their forehead protectors and frowned in thought. _'Suna shinobi…Probably genin here for the chūnin exams. Don't they know how to act in another village?'_ Naruto tuned back in when the unknown boy spoke up.

"Hey, you brat. That hurt. Why aren't you watching where you are going?" He growled.

Menma took a step forward. "It was an accident, so why don't you let him go, asshole?!"

Saito nodded in agreement with his friend. "He's right. If you put him down now, we can still just walk away without this escalating."

The cat-boy smirked at them. "He ran into me, so I should be the one to decide how this turns out."

The girl behind him sighed in annoyance. "You should stop. We could get in trouble for this…"

The boy shot her an amused look. "You worry too much! They're just a bunch of genin, rookies by the looks of it."

The girl huffed and crossed her arms. "Whatever, remember that I won't be the one to bail you out later."

The boy laughed. "Don't worry, I'll remember. Ouch!" He glared at the boy in his hands who had just kicked him in the side. "You will regret that!" He brought his other hand forward in a fist to strike him. Naruto decided now was the best time to act.

In a blur of movement, Naruto appeared next to the unknown boy with one hand around his wrist and the other holding his blade to his neck. The unknown may not have been going as fast as he could, but he was still really slow… "Not as much as you will if you move another inch." Naruto said. That did the trick of causing the boy to freeze. The girl behind him stared on with wide eyes.

"Nii-chan!"

"Aniki!"

"Naruto!"

"So cool!" The last one caused Naruto to sweat drop a bit. Really now, this wasn't the time for some academy students to be amazed by that. Especially because one of the ones who said it was the one who was about to be hit.

Naruto glared at the boy who he had his sword pressed against. "Drop him. Now." The boy complied. The kid immediately scampered back off to his friends. Seeing that he had released the boy, Naruto released the unknown and stepped back. He sheathed his blade as he did so. Naruto looked between the two foreign shinobi. "Judging by your forehead protectors, you two are from Suna. You are here for the chūnin exams, right?"

The girl had a small blush on her face as she nodded. "Yeah, that's right. We are participating."

Naruto nodded. "That's fine and all, but you should know that isn't how you act in another village. Even if we are allies, that was too much." He shifted his gaze to the tree nearby. "Plus, I don't think that your teammate appreciated it all that much…" The both of them froze when he said this, a look of fear crossing their features. Before anymore could be said, a swirl of sand appeared nearby, with someone standing in it.

It was another boy that appeared. Just by looking at him, Naruto could tell that he was a bit on the shorter side. He had fair skin and short, spiky red hair, and pale blue-green eyes. There also seemed to be some black ring going around his eyes. On his forehead, in a color that made it look a lot like blood, was the kanji for "love." He had on a black full body suit with t-shirt-like sleeves, ¾ length legs, and an open neck. He also wore a white cloth over his right shoulder and left side of his hips, and a wide leather band system the left shoulder and right hip. On his back was a large gourd with a black Suna forehead protector on it.

"G-Gaara…" The girl stuttered out.

"Kankurō, Temari…" They each flinched as he said their names. "You're embarrassments to our village."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. _'That's a little harsh…'_ He looked at the other two. _'And why do they seem to be afraid of him?'_ That was when he felt it.

Darkness.

' _What the hell?! What is up with this guy?! How could he have so much darkness? He is obviously covered in it! That amount must be warping his mind!'_ Naruto thought with wide eyes. But he schooled his expression when Gaara turned back to him.

"I apologize for them. I will make sure that they stay out of the way from now on…" Naruto nodded.

Kankurō tried to speak. "Listen, G-Gaara…"

Gaara turned to him. "Shut up or I'll kill you." Kankurō froze and started to break out into a nervous sweat.

Naruto narrowed his eyes a bit. _'What the hell is up with this guy?'_ He shook his head. "Don't worry about it. It didn't turn into a fight, so everything is fine." He looked back over to the tree. "That means you can come down now, Uchiha."

The others looked back at the tree and were surprised to see Sasuke sitting in a branch. He was frowning at Naruto, but jumped down next to the crimson blond after a moment.

Gaara never even turned to look at the tree. His focus was solely on Naruto. "What is your name?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow at him. "Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze. And you three are Temari, Kankurō, and Gaara, correct?"

Gaara nodded before looking at Sasuke. "And you? What is your name?"

"Sasuke Uchiha."

Gaara looked back to Naruto. "Will you be participating in the chūnin exams?"

Naruto shrugged. "The Konoha genin have yet to be notified on whether or not they have been put forward as participants. We should be learning within the next few days."

Gaara nodded again. But a smile that set Naruto on edge soon formed on his face. "I hope you participate, Mother wants your blood."

' _Well that isn't creepy at all…'_ Naruto thought to himself.

Gaara turned back to his siblings. "We're leaving." The other two nodded nervously and followed after him as he walked off.

They remained silent for a minute before Naruto sighed and turned back to the others. "How the heck did you get in a situation like that?" He asked.

Menma rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Sorry about that, Aniki. We were running around without looking where we were going and Konohamaru bumped into him." He gestured towards the direction the three Suna shinobi walked in. "You saw the result of that."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I did." He looked at the three academy students. "You all right?" He asked.

They nodded with stars in their eyes. They ran up to him and surrounded him. "You were so cool back there!" The girl said. The boys nodding in agreement.

Naruto sweat dropped a bit again. "Thanks, I guess…" He sent a grin at them. "I'm Naruto. Who are you three?"

They got their own grins as they jumped back together. "Who are we?" Konohamaru asked. "I guess we will have to tell you!" They struck a pose.

The girl was the first to speak up. "I'm the hottest girl in the academy. Moegi!" She struck another pose. This caused Naruto to sweat drop.

The boy with the constant snot spoke next. "I love math. Udon!" He also moved into another pose.

' _What kind of into is that?'_

Konohamaru was the last to speak. "And I'm the best shinobi in the village. Konohamaru!" Another pose was made.

' _I seriously doubt that…'_

"And together, we're the Konohamaru shinobi squad!" What was with these poses…?

Naruto just stared at them for a minute. Eventually, he realized they were waiting for him to respond. He gave them an uneasy grin. "W-wow…you really blew me away with how amazing that was…" _'How amazingly stupid…'_

The three academy students grinned up at him before turning to one another. "I knew it was cool!" Konohamaru said.

The other two nodded in agreement. "We should have never doubted you, Konohamaru!" Moegi said.

Not wanting to stay there any longer with the weird kids, Naruto turned towards the rooftop he had come from. Plus, he needed to figure out what was going on with all that darkness… "Well, it's been fun, but I gotta go!" And with that, he jumped away.

"Ah wait! Oyabun!"

' _Like hell I'm gonna stick around any longer._ Especially _if you three are going to call me that…'_ He glanced back at the tree. _'Those others never showed themselves, but it looks as if they were merely observing…'_

* * *

"So? What do you think?"

"Can't say for certain. Too early to tell. But the biggest threats seem to be the redhead from Suna and the kid that had blond and crimson hair from Konoha. We may also need to watch out for the Uchiha, I nearly didn't notice him."

"Tch. I don't see why _he_ is so interested…I mean, the brat doesn't seem li-"

"That isn't our call to make. We do as we are told. Nothing more. Or do you want to go and ask _him_ what his motives are?"

"…"

"That's what I thought."

* * *

 **Urahara Shop**

Naruto walked into the Urahara shop at a brisk pace. His mind was still on the encounter with Gaara he just had.

"Ah, Naruto-kun." He looked up and blinked when he saw Soifon sitting behind the register with a magazine in her hand. After a moment, she frowned at him. "Something on your mind?" She asked him.

Naruto hesitated. Should he tell her? He wasn't fully comfortable about telling her about his abilities just yet. He hasn't interacted with her much, but he would trust Urahara's judgement on whether or not she could be trusted. But first, Naruto needed to both head in the back and talk to Urahara, and go to the Station of Awakening to talk to Hikari and Yami. He shrugged at her. "I just need to do something really quick before I get back to you on that." He said.

She raised an eyebrow before nodding and gesturing towards the door that led deeper into the building. "Ok, don't let me stop you."

Naruto nodded and continued on his way. He quickly entered the tea room and found Urahara sitting there again. Urahara raised an eyebrow at Naruto's rushed manner. "What's with the rush, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto shook his head as he sat down on a cushion. "Give me a minute. I need to talk to Hikari and Yami before I tell you." Urahara frowned behind his fan but nodded. Naruto closed his eyes.

* * *

 **Station of Awakening**

When Naruto opened his eyes again, he was standing in the middle of the Station of Awakening. Hikari and Yami were already in front of him, serious looks on their faces. Naruto nodded at them. "Judging by your expressions, you felt it, too?" He asked them.

Yami snorted. "Of course we did. There was a lot of darkness around that kid. And it was totally uncontrolled, too." She shook her head. "That kid is dangerous. And not just to other people, but to himself."

Naruto frowned. "But what caused it? You said it yourself, it was completely out of control. I don't even think he was aware of it."

Hikari frowned in thought. "If we had to guess…it was probably a bijū." She said.

Naruto's eyes widened. "A bijū? You mean that…"

Yami nodded. "That kid is probably a jinchuriki. And an unstable one, too. The seal he has must be pretty weak, allowing the darkness from the bijū to influence him."

Naruto scowled. "Are you kidding?" He sighed in frustration. "What am I supposed to do about that? If we have an unstable jinchuriki, then he could go off at any moment and hurt everyone around him, right?" He thought back to the fear that Kankurō and Temari showed him. "In fact, I think it has already happened in the past…"

Hikari shook her head. "There is nothing you can do right now. The best course of action is to wait until you have the chance to completely lock the seal."

Naruto's eyes widened. "Wait, what?"

Yami rolled her eyes. "Well, what did you think would need to happen? It is obvious that with that amount of darkness, not just anyone would be able to get close to him and seal it." She shook her head. "Nope. The best option would be for you to use your keyblade to lock away the bijū and darkness. Like what you have."

Naruto frowned, but slowly nodded. "I guess you're right…" He sighed again. "Dammit…why can't crap ever be easy?"

"Because then it wouldn't be your life."

Naruto just glared at Yami for that remark.

* * *

 **Urahara Shop**

Naruto opened his again to the sight of both Urahara and Soifon sitting in the room and waiting for him to return to consciousness. Naruto sighed as he rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry about that…"

Urahara waved him off. "Don't worry about it. It must have been pretty serious if you were acting like that…" Naruto nodded. "Are you willing to share what happened?" Naruto opened his mouth to speak, but paused as he looked over to Soifon. Urahara blinked at him before following his line of sight. An amused smile appeared on his face, which was quickly covered by his fan. "Don't worry about Soifon. I trust her with my life. In fact, there isn't anybody in any world that I trust more."

Naruto looked back at him with a raised eyebrow, but soon nodded his head. "Right, here's what happened…"

* * *

 **One Retelling Later**

After giving Soifon a brief summary of light, darkness, his abilities, and the different worlds, Naruto told them what happened when he met the sand trio.

Urahara had a thoughtful look on his face as he fanned himself. "So this Gaara…you're saying that he is a jinchuriki? And that the bijū is corrupting him with darkness?" He asked in clarification.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah. The seal on Gaara is very poorly done, making it possible for the bijū to influence him like that." Naruto shook his head. "I wouldn't be surprised if within the next couple months, the darkness completely consumes Gaara. I have no idea how he has managed to last this long."

Soifon frowned. "But you can fix it, right? You are able to completely lock away the bijū and darkness."

Naruto nodded tiredly. For some reason, Soifon had been quick on the uptake and hadn't even needed to ask any questions or clarify on anything. "You're right, I can do that. The only problem is getting close enough to do it. Based on what I saw, Gaara actually thinks that the bijū is his mother…"

Urahara frowned as well. "Yes, that does sound troublesome. You are going to need to get close to Gaara, but he won't be that willing, meaning you will have to defeat him first…"

Naruto scowled. "And that isn't the end of the annoyances…I need to lock the darkness and bijū away with my keyblade…meaning that I need to bring it out. If I don't want it to be exposed to other people, then I will need to be alone with Gaara when I do it. _And_ I will probably need to knock him out so he doesn't know about it, either…"

They sat in silence for a few minutes. After a while, the silence was broken by Urahara as a wide grin stretch across his face. "Well, no point worrying about all that right now!"

Naruto shot him a look. "Well, when _should_ I worry about it, then?"

Urahara shrugged. "I don't know. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Naruto really wanted to punch that grin off his face…

Soifon nodded. "Sounds good to me." What was with these people? Were these really the responsible adults that Naruto had around him? Soifon stood up and sent Naruto a grin. "So, I hear you have been wanting another spar?"

Naruto blinked at her. A grin of his own soon formed on his face. "Yeah, I have been meaning to get a rematch with you…"

Soifon smirked. "Sounds fun. Plus, this time I want to see your abilities when you actually control them, not when you let them go out of control like some kind of amateur."

Her smirk grew when she heard him groan.

* * *

 **Hokage Office (Same Time)**

Minato looked around at the assortment of shinobi in front of him. He had called the meeting together a while ago, but they were still waiting for everyone to arrive.

But it wasn't a surprise, really.

"I can't believe you actually tried to be late when you had left your team right away-ttebane!"

"I'm sorry!"

"I'm sorry won't cut it!" That was all the warning they had before Kakashi Hatake was flung through the open door and onto the floor. The other shinobi in the room had already moved out of the way when they heard the yelling. An angry habanero soon followed him into the room. She looked at her husband. "Sorry I'm late. I went to get him to make sure he showed up on time."

Minato just waved her off with an amused smile on his face. "Don't worry about it. But now that you're here, we can start this meeting."

Kakashi pushed himself onto his feet and walked over to the wall that the other jōnin senseis were at, Kushina a step behind him.

Minato looked around one more time. "I'm sure many of you have already guessed, but this meeting is about the chūnin exams." Murmurs swept throughout the room at that confirmation, but soon stopped as Minato continued speaking. "As I'm sure you all know, we are hosting the next chūnin exams. And they are slated to begin in about a week." He looked around at the shinobi in front of him. "I don't think I need to tell you how important it is that this goes well, especially with all of the foreign dignitaries coming to see it." He was silent for the next few moments. "I will now ask those in charge of the genin if they feel that their teams are ready."

He motioned towards the empty space in front of him. "Let's start with new genin teams. Please step forward and state whether or not your team will be participating." Kakashi, Kurenai, Asuma, Kushina, and Yūgao stepped forward. "Starting from the lowest numbered team, team 7."

Kakashi nodded and stepped forward. "I, Kakashi Hatake, jōnin sensei of team 7, nominate my team for the chūnin exams." Kakashi stepped back as whispers broke out again.

Minato nodded and noted it on a paper he had in front of him. "Team 8." There was silence as they waited for the next team.

Kurenai stepped forward. "I, Kurenai Yūhi, jōnin sensei of team 8, nominate my team for the chūnin exams." More whispers as Kurenai stepped back.

Minato raised an eyebrow. _'I can already see a trend forming…'_ He motioned towards Asuma. "Team 10."

Asuma stepped forward. "I, Asuma Sarutobi, jōnin sensei of team 10, nominate my team for the chūnin exams." And with that, he stepped back. Off to the side, Iruka's hand was balled into a fist.

Minato looked at his wife. "Team 11." This was it. Kushina did as he requested and started to test Narumi and Menma over the past month and a half, but he didn't know whether or not she would allow them to enter. He knew she was still against it, but he had faith she would be fair about it.

Kushina stepped forward with a conflicted look on her face. "I, Kushina Uzumaki-Namikaze, jōnin sensei of team 11…" She paused and seemed to be fighting with herself. After a moment, she sighed as her shoulders slumped. "…nominate my team for the chūnin exams."

Minato smiled at her. He knew how much she must have hated to say that, but she still did it. He looked over to Yūgao. "Team 12."

Yūgao stepped forward as Kushina stepped back. "I, Yūgao Uzuki, jōnin sensei of team 12, nominate my team for the chūnin exams." Kushina seemed to slump her shoulder even more at that as Yūgao stepped back.

"Wait a moment!" Everyone looked over to Iruka. "You can't be serious! Five rookie teams entering the chūnin exams? That's too much. There is no way they are ready!" He said.

Minato sent his wife a look. She sighed and nodded before turning to Iruka. "Iruka-kun…" She began, getting his attention. "They are ready."

Iruka shook his head. "They only became genin a little ago, they can't already be ready for this."

Kushina sighed again. "I would normally agree with you…but not this time. I tested my team viciously over the past month and a half, and they have showed me that they are ready for this. I am sure the others have done the same."

Yūgao nodded. "I haven't told my team this, but I have been having them do high-chūnin to low-jōnin training exercises." Shock spread throughout the room at this. "They hate me for it, but they always manage to complete the exercises."

Kakashi joined in. "Well…I haven't had my team do anything _quite_ that tough…but I'm sure they are also ready for this." He said. Asuma and Kurenai nodded in agreement.

Iruka looked helplessly between the five of them. After a minute, his shoulder slumped and he nodded. "I'm sorry, you're right. I should trust your judgement more."

Minato nodded. "Well then, teams 7, 8, 10, 11, and 12 will be entering. I will now ask the older genin team leaders…"

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 20!**

 **For some inexplicable reason, I cannot spell exercise. I keep on putting "excersize" or "excersise." In my head, there is a c after the x. I have done this in every chapter where I have the word, but still cannot remember the correct spelling.**

 **I have noticed I do this, but I haven't cared. I switch between "kenjutsu," "sword skills," "sword battle," and so on…I don't really stick with one way to say it and use whatever I feel like using at the time. Should I pick one and stick with it from now on? Or does nobody really care?**

 **The reason that Naruto was able to detect the darkness around Gaara and not the one around his parents was because of how obvious and potent it was. There was nothing hiding it and it was absolutely covering Gaara.**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	21. Chūnin Exams: Start

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 21!**

 **I wish that there was a good Kingdom Hearts time travel fic…Sure there is Sora's Life is a Game, but I want something closer to Kingdom Hearts: Rewind. The only problem is that Kingdom Hearts: Rewind never gets updated…**

 **Freaking long ass chapters…Just so you know, I am trying to keep the average chapter length above 7k words. This means that I will split a chapter in two if it reaches 14k in terms of story content. That hasn't happened yet, but this one came close.**

 **I lowered the rating of the fic down to T. I don't really know why I had it at M, it is never going to get that graphic.**

* * *

 **Guest: You got it.**

 **prototype gear: Yeah, I've read it. Great story. Wish it got updated. I would like to have this story reach that level, but that is a tough goal. I will do my best of course, but 26-Lord-Pain is a great writer. I definitely think he is one of the best on the site.**

 **Raidentensho: I'm not sure. If I give him armor, then I will probably just have him upgrade it once in a while instead of having it evolve.**

 **OmegaDelta: I have two companions in mind to travel with him from the get-go.**

 **animecollecter: I am currently leaning towards doing a pairing, but am still fairly undecided on the girl (Although I have someone I am leaning towards). It is super unlikely that I will add a harem. The worlds are currently undecided, although I have a couple in mind. RWBY is one of them.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the Story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else, I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Diety Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Diety Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **Training Ground 12 (Six Days Later)**

Naruto walked into the training ground and was greeted with the sight of both of his teammates sitting in the grass with some sort of sketchbooks in their laps. Letting his curiosity get the better of him, Naruto walked over to them and looked between the two sketches that they currently had open.

A low whistle of appreciation escaped from Naruto's mouth. He grinned at them when they look up at him. "Both of you are awesome artists. I'm guessing you two made those?"

The two sketches that they had open were both sketches of Konoha. Both of them were done in such great detail that Naruto was sure that he would never be able to make anything anywhere near the skill levels that they had.

Yakumo nodded with a smile as she and Sai traded sketchbooks. "Yeah, we were just comparing them."

Naruto nodded. "I get it." He looked around. "How long do you think until Yūgao-sensei shows up? I swear, I think that she just waits nearby for one of us to wonder that out loud before shows up…"

"Is that really what you think, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto jumped a bit in place. _'Yeah, actually. I'm pretty sure that's what you do…'_ He wouldn't say that out loud, of course. "Nah, it is probably just some weird set of coincidences that make that happen every time…"

Yūgao nodded with a smile. "Of course, that must be it. I'm glad you understand that." Naruto had to consciously restrain himself from rolling his eyes. Yūgao looked in between the three of them. "I have something to give you three." She said, gaining their attention. She grinned as she reached into her pouch. "Here you go!" She pulled out three cards.

The three of them gathered around her and took a card. Naruto's eyes quickly widened. "This is…"

Yūgao nodded. "Yep. This is your application for the chūnin exams. I have nominated the three of you for it."

Naruto grinned. "Awesome. Thanks, Yūgao-sensei." Yakumo and Sai soon echoed his sentiments.

Yūgao just waved the three of them off. "Don't worry about it. I know the three of you are ready for this." She gained an amused look. "After all, you actually managed to complete my training exercises every time." The disgruntled muttering was music to her ears. She shook her head. "Anyways, all you three need to do is decide whether or not you are going to enter. The chūnin exams begin tomorrow at nine. You have until then to decide. If you choose to enter, then go to the academy and head to room 301. That is where the first phase will be held." She waved at them. "Good luck, and have fun!" She disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

Naruto sweat dropped. _''Have fun,' she says. In what is sure to be a gathering of freaks and psychopaths?'_ Naruto shook his head before looking at his teammates. "What do you two think? Should we enter? No matter what happens, we should decide as a team."

Yakumo frowned in thought. "I do not mind either way…If you guys want to enter, I'll do it too." Naruto nodded before looking at Sai.

Sai merely tilted his head. "Would it not be best as shinobi to enter the exam in order to further our rank in the village?" He asked.

Naruto grinned a bit. "Then I guess we've decided." His grin grew. "We're entering-ttebayo!"

* * *

 **Urahara Shop**

Naruto entered the Urahara shop and looked around. Like usual, there was nobody in the front. Naruto headed towards the back and walked into the tea room. Just like he had expected, he found Urahara sitting in there, fiddling with some device. Yoruichi was lounging on a nearby cushion.

Urahara glanced up when he heard someone else enter. "Ah, Naruto-kun. Welcome! What can I do for you?" He gained an amused look. "If you wanted to get your ass kicked by Soifon, I'm sorry to say you missed her. She has gone out again…"

Naruto huffed. "I didn't get my ass kicked _that_ much…"

Urahara smiled behind his fan. "Oh? Then was it my imagination when we had to carry you back up into the guest room? Again?"

Naruto's eye began to twitch.

"But I'm sure you aren't here to deny any and all ass-kicking that may or may not have been dealt upon you…" Deep breaths, Naruto… "What can I do for you?" Yoruichi watched the interaction with an amused look.

Naruto shook his head. "Nothing, really. I just came to tell you that my team will be entering the chūnin exams after all."

Urahara nodded. "Yes, that is something…" He looked Naruto in the eye. "And have you decided what to do about the unstable jinchuriki?" He asked.

Naruto sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "No, I haven't. I don't have a clue as to how I will pull this off. Or even _when_." Urahara hummed in thought.

The silence was eventually broken by Yoruichi. "Do you think that you will get the chance to do something during the exams?" The cat asked.

Naruto frowned in thought. "I don't know…Possibly, but I can't say for certain. I'm sure that this exam will last for more than a day, but I don't know if I will get the chance during it…"

Urahara fanned himself. "The best thing to do would be to just wait it out. If an opening appears, take it. If you don't get an opening…" He grinned. "…Make one for yourself."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at him. "And you don't think that will cause problems?"

Urahara waved him off. "Oh, I'm sure it will cause lots of problems!" That just made Naruto scowl.

Yoruichi interjected before anything more could be said. "What Kisuke is trying to say is that you may have to work a bit to get this done."

Naruto sighed and nodded. "Yeah, I got it." He turned towards the door. "Anyways, I just came by to tell you that. I don't know how long this thing will last, so I may be away for a bit."

Yoruichi nodded. "I understand. Good luck."

"Bye Naruto-kun! Please do your best to not suck! It would be a shame if my pupil got his ass beat by even more people…"

Why couldn't that bastard ever just shut up?

* * *

 **Uzumaki-Namikaze Household (Later)**

Naruto walked into the house and looked around. While he had meant to only spend a little time at the Urahara shop, he had let himself be lured into an argument with Urahara. That had escalated into Naruto getting infuriated to the point of challenging Urahara to another spar. Which of course, Urahara accepted.

The bucket hat wearing jackass had a lot of fun gloating at the fact that Naruto had just proved his point that the crimson blond got his ass kicked frequently.

Naruto scowled to himself. _'Like it is actually a surprise at this point that he can beat me in a fight…'_ Naruto looked around again. Was he the only one home?

"Aniki!"

"Nii-chan!" Well that answers that…

Naruto turned to see both of his siblings rushing up to him with huge grins on their faces. Naruto smirked at them. "I'm guessing you guys got the applications, too?"

Menma nodded excitedly. "Yeah, this is totally gonna be awesome-ttebasa! Now I can show everyone how badass I am!"

Narumi rolled her eyes at him, although she was bouncing in place with her own wide grin. "If you just rush into things, all you will manage to do is embarrass yourself."

Menma glared at her. "I will not!" He puffed out his chest. "I can see it now. I'm going to totally rock the entire thing and blow everyone away with how amazing I am. They might even skip over chūnin and promote me straight to jōnin-ttebasa."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "There is no way that would actually happen, moron." Naruto smirked. Why not have a little fun? "Definitely not for you. But for _me_ …" He shrugged. "Hey, anything could happen."

Narumi smiled amusedly at him. "Be careful, Nii-chan. Any bigger and your head would rival Menma's in size." They both ignored the indignant shout that came from the youngest. Narumi's eyes widened slightly when she noticed the bruises forming on Naruto. "Nii-chan, are you okay?"

Naruto smiled at her. "I'm fine. I just got through sparring with someone. That's why I only just now got back even though my team was dismissed a while ago."

Menma looked at him with a confused expression. "You were sparring with someone to the point of injury the day before the chūnin exams? Shouldn't today be spent resting or something?" Menma asked him.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I didn't mean to get into a spar. It was more of an argument, really."

Narumi smirked at him. "Wow, Nii-chan. You must have really gotten into the argument for it to escalate into a fight. You normally have more restraint than that..."

Naruto worked hard to hold back the scowl forming on his face. _'You can only say that because you have never met Urahara.'_

Their conversation was interrupted by the door opening. The three of them looked over to see Kushina walking into the house. She paused when she saw her three children standing there. As usual, her gaze seemed to linger on Naruto for a moment. She smiled at them. "Oh, good all three of you are here." She continued on her way into the house. "Your father and I need to talk to you. So when he gets home, we will meet in the living room."

The three of them glanced at each other before nodding.

* * *

 **Uzumaki-Namikaze Household (Later)**

Naruto, Narumi, and Menma were seated on the couch with their parents standing in front of them. Although they had yet to be told what this meeting was about, Naruto was fairly certain he knew why they wanted to talk.

Minato was the one to start them off when he cleared his throat. "The reason that we have asked to talk to you three is because of what you will be participating in starting tomorrow."

' _Called it.'_

"Your names have been put forward as applicants in the chūnin exams. As you were told a while back, this is a very serious thing. I'm not going to tell you that you shouldn't enter, but please think this through carefully."

Kushina sighed. "Although I would prefer that this didn't happen so soon, the fact that your names were put forward mean that it is believed that you are ready for this." She smiled at them. "I worry for you, but I am incredibly proud at the same time."

Minato put an arm around her. "We both are. And whether or not you decide to enter, that is a fact that will never change."

* * *

 **Academy (The Next Day)**

Naruto was leaning against the gate surrounding the academy as he waited for Sai and Yakumo to show up. He had gotten up early today and had made himself some breakfast before heading over. Although he was fairly certain that this would eventually turn into something similar to a mess he would want no part of, he was excited.

"Naruto!" He looked over and grinned when he saw Misa heading wards him with an identical grin on her face.

He gave her a small wave. "Hey."

"So you're participating?" A nod made her grin grow even more. "Awesome! So is my team. This is gonna be great!"

Naruto sent an amused look at her. "You think that competing against other teams who are willing to physically and emotionally harm you is great?" That didn't exactly sound like a good time to him...

Misa shrugged, but her grin faltered a bit. "Well, maybe not great, but definitely fun." She paused as a thoughtful look crossed her face. "You know...when I met you and said it would be nice to have a friendly team in the chūnin exams...I didn't really think much of it." She shrugged again. "But here we are."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "I'm not totally sure that you didn't plan this..."

Misa stuck a tongue out at him. "Meh, you should just consider yourself lucky that you have an ally as awesome as I am!"

A smirk preceded the answer Naruto gave. "Oh yeah? Then what makes you so awesome to have as an ally?"

Misa crossed her arms with a challenging smirk. "As your senpai..." Another roll of Naruto's eyes. "...I naturally know more people than you do and have more knowledge of how this thing will go."

"Knowledge such as?"

She looked at him seriously. "You should be careful of who you offend in this place. I've heard stories of psychopaths participating and going off on a crazed frenzy just because they didn't like some of the other people."

Gaara came to mind. "I don't find that hard to believe..." Naruto muttered. He glanced around. "Where are Wataru and Ikusa?" He asked.

Misa shrugged. "I'm supposed to be meeting them in the cafeteria soon before we head up to the room together. And what about you? Where is your team? I still haven't met them yet."

It was Naruto's turn to shrug. "We are meeting here soon before we head up to the room."

Misa nodded. "Well, make sure you get there on time." She said as she started to walk towards the entrance. "And here is another piece of advice, I hear that they often begin the exam early to weed out those who have no chance. So make sure you are aware of your surroundings and head straight for the room when you can."

"Will do, thanks."

* * *

 **A Few Minutes Later**

Naruto grinned at Yakumo as she walked up to him and Sai, who had gotten there just a minute ago. Naruto looked between his teammates. "So, are you two ready to become chūnin?" He asked them.

Sai looked at him. "It is inadvisable to become arrogant before the exam even begins." A pause. "Although people may underestimate you if you talk like that, as it makes you sound stupid." Did he do it right that time?

Naruto grit his teeth. But before he could say anything, Yakumo spoke up. "Come on, you two. We should just head to the room." Naruto sighed and nodded. The three of them walked into the building.

When they made it up to the second floor, they paused when they saw the large crowd of people standing outside a nearby room. Naruto raised an eyebrow in curiosity. _'What's with the crowd? Is there something going on?'_

"Why don't you just get out of the way?! You can't just stop us from taking the exam!"

Naruto frowned at this. _'What is he talking about? That isn't even the right room...'_ He looked at the room number and had to stop himself from calling the moron names out loud. _'How stupid can you be? That is such an obvious genjutsu...But why is it there?'_ Misa's warning came to mind. _'This must be what Misa meant when she said they were out those who would never make the cut.'_

"I am surprised. I never thought that there were people in the world who can prove themselves to be this stupid."

Naruto snorted at the comment from Sai. Shaking his head, Naruto turned towards the stairs. "Just ignore them. If they don't realize that is a genjutsu, that's their problem. And it takes out some of the competition too."

"Would you get rid of the genjutsu and let me pass? I'm heading to the third floor."

Naruto groaned quietly when he heard that. _'Freaking idiot.'_ Glaring at the person who said it, Naruto noticed that it was Sasuke. _'Why can't you just keep that ego in check and not go and tip everyone off, idiot?'_

Sasuke kept on talking. "Even an academy student should have been able to see through something like that."

One of the boys standing in front of the door smirked. "Well then, good job seeing through it." Suddenly, he rushed at Sasuke. "But don't let that go to your head!"

Sasuke rushed forward to meet him with a strike of his own. But before they could meet, a green blur appeared in between them.

Naruto narrowed his eyes. _'That was pretty fast...'_ His expression morphed into one of shock when he got a good look at the boy.

It was a boy with thick eyebrows and circular eyes that had prominent lower eyelashes. His hair was in a bowl cut hairstyle. The most eye catching thing about him though was the green jumpsuit he was wearing. Along with the jumpsuit, he also wore orange leg warmers and a red Konoha forehead protector around his waist like a belt. Wrapped around his arms and hands were bandages.

' _I don't care what your reasoning is. There is no way that it is okay to go out looking like that.'_ There was no doubting who influenced him to look like that...

The green boy had caught both the kick from the boy blocking the fake exam room and the leg that was sent by Sasuke. Both of them had wide eyes as they stared at the person who appeared in between them.

Another boy walked up to the one in green, although it took Naruto half a second to confirm that it _was_ a boy.

The new boy had fair skin and dark brown hair that went past his shoulders. His hair was in a loose ponytail that was tied a few inches above the end. He wore a khaki shirt, a dull blue shirt under that, and mesh armor under that. He also had on dark brown shorts, blue shinobi sandals, and wrapped bandages around his right arm, chest, and right leg. To complete his outfit, he had on a black Konoha forehead protector. Just by looking at his eyes, Naruto was able to tell that he was a Hyūga.

Naruto tuned back in when the Hyūga began speaking to the boy in green. "Hey, what happened? You're the one who said we shouldn't draw attention."

The green boy blushed a bit as he let go of the two legs. "Well..." He glanced at Sakura.

"Oh boy..." Naruto looked over to the person who said that.

It was a girl with dark brown eyes and hair. Her hair was done up into two Chinese style buns with short bangs on either side of her face. She had on a pink, sleeveless qipao style blouse with red sleeve trimmings and yellow fastening buttons along with dark green pants. She also had on a pouch on her thigh and blue shinobi sandals. Around her forehead was a Konoha forehead protector.

She had an expression that was a mixture of amusement and embarrassment on her face as she looked at the green boy.

' _Probably a teammate.'_ Naruto looked back over to the green boy.

Completely ignoring the people staring, he got on a knee in front of Sakura and took one of her hands. "My fair flower, may I please have the blessing of hearing your name?"

Sakura looked around helplessly at this, completely caught off guard at the progression of events. "Um...I'm Sakura..."

The boy in green jumped to his feet with his arms stretched into the air. "What a beautiful name! But of course, such a name would be needed for such a beautiful girl!" He sent a dazzling grin at her. "My name is Rock Lee! Will you please do me the honor of going on a date with me?" Did his smile just sparkle? "I swear that I will protect you until I die!"

Naruto grinned in amusement at the situation. Shaking his head, he turned back to his teammates. Yakumo was giggling into her hand and Sai was...taking notes?

"I see. So there are these kinds of interactions too..."

Naruto shook his head with a smile. "We should just keep moving. While this is amusing, I would like to get to the exam room before it blows up in our faces." He got two nods in return. They made towards the stairs again, but were stopped.

"Wait a moment." They turned back to see that it was the Hyūga who had stopped them. He was staring at Naruto. "What's your name?" The Hyūga's two teammates stopped what they were doing and turned towards him as he started talking. Sakura looked relieved to get the attention away from her.

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze." He tilted his head. "And you?"

The Hyūga nodded. "Neji Hyūga."

The girl with the buns walked up to the spot next to Neji with a grin. "I'm Tenten. Nice to meet you!"

Lee was the next to join them. "Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze?" Naruto nodded. "You're the rookie of the year for your class, are you not?" Another nod made Lee grin. "Yosh! Then I challenge you to a spar, Naruto-kun! Right here and now!"

Naruto shook his head with a smile. "Sorry, not gonna happen. I want to get to the exam room now."

Lee slumped in a dejected manner. "Very well, I will have to find another way to fan the flames of my youth..." What did that even mean? He turned to Sasuke. "You're Sasuke Uchiha, right? I hear you're pretty strong as well." The energy quickly returned to Lee. "Are you willing to spar with me?"

Sasuke smirked. "I can spare a minute to knock you around a bit."

Lee grinned. "Yosh! Then let us be off!"

Naruto grinned a bit. After he got over how weird he looked, Lee was kind of amusing. Naruto turned back to his teammates. "Let's get going." The three of them turned and walked away.

Team 12 walked down the hall towards the testing room and were slightly surprised at the sight that greeted them. "Good, all three of you decided to participate." Yūgao was standing outside the room with a smile on her face as she looked at them.

"You make it sound like it would have been a problem if one or more of us decided not to take the exam." Yakumo pointed out.

Yūgao nodded. "That's because it would have been a problem. Want to guess why?"

Naruto frowned in thought before blinking at Sai's response. "Because the chūnin exams requires full teams to enter."

A smile made it onto the purple haired jōnin's face. "Exactly. If one of you had decided not to enter, then I would have had to stop the other two from entering as well. Remember, while it is true that any one of you could become a chūnin while the others do not, you are still a team. And that means that you either enter together or don't. You got that?"

Three nods were returned. "Good." She jerked a thumb at the door. "Now get in there and show everyone else how team 12 kicks butt!" This order made Naruto and Yakumo grin.

Naruto saluted her. "You got it!"

* * *

 **Room 301**

They felt it the moment they walked into the room.

Killing intent.

Team 12 paused for a moment before brushing it off and resuming their walk. Naruto rolled his eyes. After meeting the likes of Zabuza Momichi on the opposite side of the battlefield and going through the hell that Yūgao called training, such a small amount of killing intent wasn't enough to do anything to them. The second thing he felt though, that made Naruto tense.

His eyes immediately went to the source and locked with blue-green eyes. The darkness was easily felt even from the other side of the room. Although his face was blank, Naruto could detect some bloodlust coming from Gaara. The two of them stared at each other for a minute.

"Naruto?" Naruto's broke away from the stare and turned to his teammate who was frowning faintly. "What's wrong?" Yakumo asked him quietly.

Naruto shook his head minutely. "It's nothing. Don't worry about it." She frowned more but nodded.

Naruto looked away and swept his eyes across the room once more. A smile came to his face when he found what he was looking for. "Follow me." Curious as to where he was going, Yakumo and Sai followed after the crimson blond when he walked off.

"Misa, Wataru, Ikusa." The three of them stopped the quiet conversation they were having and turned. Smiles broke out on the faces of the males while Misa grinned widely.

"Naruto, good to see you. It's been a while."

"Yeah. The only one that I see occasionally out of the three of you is Misa." Naruto lowered his voice to a stage whisper. "I kinda think she's stalking me."

"Like hell I'm stalking you. I just have such bad luck that I keep running into you."

Naruto smirked. "If that was true then why do you always call out to me when you see me? If you didn't want to talk, you could just leave before I even knew you were there."

"That's obviously becau-"

While the two of them were bickering, Wataru and Ikusa stood off to the side with amused expressions on their faces. Both aimed at the two genin who were arguing and at the perplexed look on Yakumo's face. Ikusa cleared his throat to get their attention.

"If you two are finished flirting, then maybe we could move onto introductions." That statement got him two glares in return.

After glaring at her teammate for another moment, Misa grinned again and turned towards the other members of team 12. "Hey there. I'm Misa! I'm sure Naruto has told you all about me."

"Why would I want to admit to people that I actually know you?"

When she finally regained her wits, Yakumo giggled at the interaction and faced Misa. "Nice to meet you, Misa. I'm Yakumo. Sorry to say, but Naruto hasn't mentioned you before."

"How rude of him."

"I fail to see how you came to that conclusion."

Sai plastered a smile to his face that had Misa quirking an eyebrow. "My name is Sai. It is a pleasure to meet Naruto's girlfriend."

A beat passed.

"My what-ttebayo?!"

"His what?! Both of you shut up!" Ikusa and Wataru chose to ignore her and continue snickering.

Sai tilted his head. "Am I incorrect? I assumed that because you two were flirting so much that you were together. You're teammate's earlier words also made me believe that."

Misa whirled around on her snickering teammates. "You see what your shitty sense of humor did? He actually believes I would date someone like Naruto!"

Ignoring Misa and her words completely, Naruto placed a hand on Sai's shoulder. "The jackass was just joking, Sai. Misa and I aren't together."

The black haired genin nodded with a thoughtful expression. "I see. It seems I have yet to fully grasp the concepts of joking..."

Naruto sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Anyways..." He started. "The other two are Ikusa and Wataru." They nodded when Naruto named them.

"Hey there."

"Nice to meet you."

"These three were two years above us in the academy. I met them on the first day." Naruto explained.

Yakumo's eyes widened a bit in realization. "That's why you three looked a little familiar to me. I just couldn't remember where I've seen you though..."

They spent the next few minutes just talking as the room slowly filled more and more.

"Sasuke-kun!" That loud shout caused the group to turn towards the source. The sight that greeted them made Naruto and Yakumo sigh. Ino was draped over the back of Sasuke while said Uchiha had an annoyed look on his face.

Looking closer, Naruto saw some bruises forming on Sasuke's chin. _'I guess that came from Lee-san...'_

"Ino! Get off of Sasuke-kun!" And there goes Sakura...Hopefully Narumi would get there soon to make them shut up.

"They're too loud..." Naruto glanced at Wataru. "They are going to draw too much attention to themselves." Wataru looked at Naruto. "They are all from your class, right? It would be a better idea for rookies to try to stay out of the spotlight."

Naruto sighed as he watched Kiba join in and make even more noise. "I know. But if I was to go over there and try to get them to be quieter, then I would probably just end up making it worse." And there go Sakura and Ino with the fight over Sasuke again...

"Are you two arguing again?" Ah. There's Narumi.

Ino and Sakura froze in place and slowly turned towards the glaring redhead. "If you can't behave on your own then I will have to make you behave."

"No need for that..." Ino squeaked.

"Y-Yeah. We'll behave." Sakura stuttered.

And just like that, Narumi was smiling cheerfully. "Good." She turned to Menma. "You see him?"

Menma was slowly moving his gaze around the room. "Gimme a second." He said.

' _They must be looking for me...'_ Naruto slowly tried to back away so that he was behind the taller forms of Ikusa and Wataru. Knowing the rest of the rookies, Naruto would just be dragged into something loud and attention grabbing. Seeing Naruto do this made Ikusa and Wataru grin. Nodding once to each other, they quickly shoved Naruto back in front of them.

While Naruto was glaring at them, Menma finally spotted the group. A wide grin broke out onto his face. "Aniki!" He called. And just like that, the attention of both the rookies and a good portion of the room shifted over to him.

Naruto slumped and threw a weak grin back. "Hey..."

Menma and Narumi bound over to him. Once she got close, Narumi threw a pout at him. "Why didn't you wait for us? We could have come together."

"We aren't even on the same team."

Menma huffed. "So? That doesn't mean we can't walk together."

"Troublesome. Naruto also needed to meet with his team."

Naruto nodded at Shikamaru as he and Chōji walked up to them. "What he said." No need to mention that his team actually met just outside the academy...

"You're still as lazy sounding as ever."

"And you're still as troublesome as ever." Naruto smirked at the interaction between Shikamaru and Misa.

"Oh wow. I never thought I would see the day that Shikamaru actually went out of his way to talk to someone else."

Shikamaru just sighed again when he heard Ino say this. "Troublesome. I came over here because you looked like you were about to fight over Sasuke again. But now it looks like the entire group is just coming over here..." And just as he said, the rest of the rookies were migrating over to them.

Naruto wanted to groan. Things were sure to get loud now. An elbow to his side made him jump a bit before he sent a glare at Misa. "What?"

"Introduce us. They should have the pleasure of meeting me." Naruto did groan this time.

He turned towards the others. "This is Misa, Ikusa, and Wataru. They were in the year above us in the academy. There are too many of you to do individual introductions, so I'm just going to say your names." Shikamaru snorted. That sounded like something he would do. "From left to right, we have Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyūga, Saito Hiraga, Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, Ino Yamanaka, Narumi Uzumaki-Namikaze, and Menma Uzumaki-Namikaze. You already know Shikamaru and Chōji."

"Nice to meet you guys!" The other rookies responded to Misa's greeting with their own.

Narumi's eyes widened a bit as a memory came to her. "Misa?" She turned to Naruto. "This is the same Misa you've mentioned a couple times?"

Before Naruto could respond, Misa bound forward with a huge grin on her face. "So he _has_ mentioned me before! I knew he couldn't help but brag about how he knows me."

The crimson blond snorted before frowning a bit. _'Is she just totally ignoring what Wataru said before?'_ After a discreet glance around them, Naruto's frown deepened a bit. _'She is just as loud as the rest of them. We are still attracting too much attention to ourselves.'_

"You guys should be a little quieter." Naruto wanted to groan at this admonishment. Now they had done it. People were actually approaching them to get them to be quiet. The group turned to the speaker.

It was a boy that was older than them. He had onyx eyes behind his black rimmed circular glasses and ash-grey hair that was kept in a pony which extended to his upper back with bangs on either side of his forehead. He wore a dark purple shirt with a high collar, a white undershirt, and dark purple fingerless gloves that had armor plates on the back. Around his waist was a white cloth waistband that was at an angle. His pants were a dark purple color and he also wore blue sandals. Completing his outfit was a Konoha forehead protector worn in the typical fashion.

The unknown boy gave them an unimpressed look. "You guys look like a bunch of rookies. This isn't a game. You shouldn't be yelling like that."

Letting his brash nature come out, Kiba glared at him. "Who the hell do you think you are, huh?!"

"Kabuto Yakushi." A smirk appeared on his face. "But don't worry about me. You should be more worried about yourselves."

Naruto looked around again. _'He's right…'_

It was Menma's turn to speak up. "The hell are you talking about?"

"Do none of you even realize all the attention you have gained since walking into this room?" He gestured around them. "Just take a look around us."

They did so. Seeing all of the glares being sent at them caused a few of them to shift uncomfortably. "Do you get it now? A lot of these people would like nothing better than to just gut you now." Kabuto shook his head with a shrug. "The best thing for you to do at this point is just keep to stay out of the way."

Although slightly embarrassed about basically being told to shut up, Kiba did not back down. "Yeah? What the hell do you know?"

' _Great comeback there, Kiba.'_ Naruto thought to himself.

"Do you really think that all of these people are taking this thing for the first time like all of you? Nope, it isn't that simple. A lot of them have taken the exams repeatedly for years now. But they fail every time. And you know what that means?" Kabuto grinned at them. "That means that they are getting more and more desperate to pass. It isn't farfetched to think that they would specifically target those who look too stupid to be a difficult target." He spent a pointed look at Kiba. "Such as a bunch of loud rookies that can't stay quiet."

' _Now that you mention it...'_ Looking around again, Naruto could spot multiple people here who looked a little old to be genin.

"But I can't really blame you. You're new here after all. You actually kind of remind me of how I used to act…"

Narumi tilted her head in curiosity. "You make it sound like you're some kind of veteran at this. How many times have _you_ taken the exam?"

Rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, Kabuto responded. "This is actually my seventh attempt…"

Snickers broke out between Menma and Kiba while Saito turned away to hide his smile. "You actually failed this thing six times?" Kiba asked in between snickers.

This question got a nod out of the redheaded male. "Wow. You must really suck-ttebasa!" This made Naruto and Narumi sigh. How could he just say that to the guy's face?

"Don't be like that. I may have failed a few times in the past, but I still got something out of it each time." He stuck a hand in his pouch. "Plus, I have these now."

Ino frowned at the items in his hand. "A deck of cards?"

"Not just a deck of cards." Kabuto knelt down and placed the deck on the floor. Following that, he took off the card on top of the deck and placed it face up on the floor.

The lack of content on the card made Naruto frown. _'Blank cards?'_

"These are nin-info cards. They look blank at first, but if I do this…" Kabuto placed a finger on the blank card and sent a pulse of chakra into it, causing the card to be engulfed in a puff of smoke. When they smoke cleared, there was a map of the elemental nations on the card with various information written around it. "Then the information on the card becomes visible."

Sakura leaned in closer to get a better look. "What is this map showing?"

Kabuto held it up so the others could see it. "This map shows the number of people taking this exam and a breakdown of where they come from." The older boy looked around again. "This is actually a fairly crowded exam. We even have some people from Kumo who showed up."

Hearing this caused Hinata to flinch. When he saw her do that, Naruto frowned in confusion, but looked back to the group when Sasuke stepped forward.

"Do you have information on individual people?" The Uchiha asked.

An amused look crossed Kabuto's face. "Oh? Is there someone that you are worried about? I do have info on people in the exam, but it may not be perfect."

' _Why is he being so helpful?'_ Naruto shared a glance with Shikamaru. The Nara had a small frown of his own on his face. Looking at his other side, Naruto saw that Misa also had a small frown on her face.

"Show me what you have on Rock Lee of Konoha and Gaara of Suna." Sasuke demanded. Hearing the second name made Naruto grimace.

"You actually know their names?" Kabuto sighed as he pulled out a card. "That makes it too easy." Placing the card on the floor, he pumped chakra into it. After the smoke cleared, a picture of Lee appeared on the card with various information. "First up is Rock Lee."

"What can you tell me?"

"Rock Lee of Konoha. He's a year older than most of you. Mission history is pretty below average for the amount of time his team has been active. Although that is probably due to his sensei preferring to train them to exhaustion instead of getting missions. 20 D-ranks and 12 C-ranks is all they have done. His sensei Is Maito Gai. As opposed to his taijutsu skills, he is actually kind of lacking in multiple skills. He was the dead last of his class. His two teammates are Neji and Tenten." Hinata flinched again. "This is the first time his team has taken the exam." Kabuto looked at Sasuke. "Got enough, or should I continue?"

Shaking his head, Sasuke responded. "That's good enough. What do you have on the other one?"

A second card was soon placed on the floor. After the initial pump of chakra, content soon filled it. "Gaara of Suna. He is the same age as most of you." Kabuto's eyes widened behind his glasses. "Whoa. What the heck is up with this? He has never done any D-ranks, but he has completed 8 C-ranks and a B-rank. And he never even got a scratch!" A shake of his head. "This guy sounds a little like some kind of super genin…I don't have much besides that." An apologetic grin was sent Sasuke's way. "Sorry."

"Hn…"

Kabuto began to gather up his cards. "If that's all you nee-"

"I have another name for you to look up." This made Kabuto blink at Sasuke for a moment.

"Oh? And who is it?"

Sasuke sent a sideways look at Naruto. "Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze of Konoha." Naruto's eyes went slightly wider, but he quickly regained his composure and smirked at Sasuke.

"What's this, Uchiha? If you really wanted to know some more about me, then all you had to do was ask. I know you're too shy to ask me directly, but come on."

Sasuke glared back. "As if. I just want to know how you managed to beat me out for rookie of the year in the academy." A smirk soon slipped onto his face. "But if you're too shy to share, then that's fine."

Naruto mulled over his options. _'I should probably end this now before he says something I would rather he not, but I'm getting a weird feeling from this guy. I would like to know what information he has on me in case we have to fight…'_ A shrug. "I'm fine with it." Shikamaru and Misa sent him sharp looks when they heard this.

Nodding his head, Kabuto took out another card and pumped chakra into it. He waited for the smoke to clear before speaking. "Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze of Konoha. 12 years old." Kabuto blinked when he saw the mission history. "What's up with the amount of missions you have taken?"

Team 12 sighed. "Our sensei likes to make us take out as many missions as possible along with making us collapse from training." Yakumo explained dejectedly.

"…Right…There are over 40 completed D-ranks, 7 C-ranks, and…" Kabuto's eyes widened. "An A-rank? As genin? As rookie genin?" Multiple wide eyes were sent at team 12.

Naruto grimaced a bit. "That was a C-rank that got bumped. Team 11 was with us."

Kabuto swallowed. "Ah, I think I heard something about a pair of genin teams completing an A-rank a while ago, but I dismissed it as a rumor." After shaking his head, he turned back to the card. "Anyways…Sensei is Yūgao Uzuki…Skills are good in every area, but his kenjutsu is nearly off the charts!" A frown came to Kabuto's face and he studied Naruto for a bit.

Growing both curious and unnerved, Naruto decided to question him. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"There was something else…Apparently, you went and killed a bunch of people on an A-rank. I had dismissed it at first, but hearing that you actually had an A-rank makes me question it. And to top it off, you did it with some sort of energy blast technique that didn't need hand seals…" Having already tensed when the word 'killed' was used, Naruto tensed even more as some of the group looked horrified.

Swallowing and forcing himself to relax, Naruto spoke up. "I did kill some people, but they were all about to go and do some horrible things to both my group and the villagers. I just reacted. Also, it was just a large fire release. And it did have hand seals, your information must be faulty." Naruto stared back at Kabuto as he ignored the looks that his teammates and siblings were sending him.

"Right…" Kabuto didn't look very convinced, but he turned back to his cards to start gathering them up. "Anyways, there are a lot of people here. Konoha, Suna, Kumo, Ame, Kusa, Taki, Oto…Well, I don't have much on Oto because they are a new and minor village."

Naruto tensed as he spotted movement out of the corner of his eye. He was ready to react, but paused when he saw who they were targeting. Kabuto noticed the same thing and smirked when he managed to move out of the way of the kunai and then react quickly enough to jump away from the attack that was aimed at him. The smirk was quickly wiped off his face as his glasses cracked and he fell to his knees to vomit.

' _He dodged it. I know he did.'_ Naruto narrowed his eyes as he observed the attacker.

It was a boy with bandages covering most of his face, which left only his left eye uncovered. His attire consisted of a large poncho with long sleeves, pants that had the same pattern as the scarf he had around his neck, a straw raincoat protruding from the back of the scarf, and some kind of device on his right arm. Because of his hunched state, he looked a lot shorter than he actually was. He had on a forehead protector with a music note on it.

"Wow, for all that talk, you sure aren't much." Naruto looked at the boy who had said that.

He had spiky black hair and dark eyes. His shirt was beige color and had two black stripes and three prints of the kanji for "death" on the front. His forehead protector also had a music note on it and had a happuri attached under the cloth. He also wore a patterned scarf which matched the pants he had on.

"Don't be too hard on him. After all, who would expect shinobi from a _minor_ village to be able to do that?" The girl with them had been the one to speak up.

She had long black hair that was tied by a violet ribbon ad black eyes. She wore a vest resembling flak jacket, and pants that matched the scarf she and her teammates were wearing. To complete her outfit, she also had a forehead protector with a music note on it.

"Kabuto-san! Are you alright?" Kabuto smiled weakly in response to Sakura's question as the others tensed in preparation for a fight.

The boy with the spiky black hair smirked. "You should make a note in your cards that Oto is here to dominate this thing."

"Everyone shut the hell up!" The confrontation was interrupted by a blast of smoke in the front of the room, making them all turn to it. When the smoke cleared, they saw that a group of people were now standing there. "You lot in the back! Do you really want to be kicked out of here before we even start?"

The speaker was a large man with black eyes who had on a black trench coat over a grey-blue outfit. Covering his head was a bandana-style Konoha forehead protector. Both of his hands were covered in black gloves. There were multiple scars going across his face, complimenting his imposing look. Naruto was willing to bet that he had more scars on other parts of his body.

Knowing that they had been caught red-handed, the bandaged Oto shinobi shook his head. "We apologize. We were a little antsy and got a little carried away with our method of relaxing…"

The man in the trench coat smirked. "Very well, but please show more restraint in the future." He looked around. "The chūnin exams are about to begin. I am Ibiki Morino, the proctor for the first exam." That vicious grin he was sending them was a little unsettling…

Hearing a small whimper from nearby, Naruto glanced to the source and raised an eyebrow at the wide eye Ino. Seeing his look, she whispered to him. "Ibiki Morino is the head of the Torture and Interrogation department." She was actually shaking a bit. "If he is the one giving us the first exam, then it is sure to be some kind of sadistic monstrosity."

' _Well, isn't that reassuring?'_ Naruto turned back towards the front when Ibiki started talking again.

"Listen up, I'm only going to warn you about this once. There will be no fighting between any of you unless it is with the permission of the proctor." A blast of killing intent shot through the room. "Disobey me and my orders and I will show you why I'm so good at my job." Now _that_ smile was a scary one. "I always accommodate those who wish to volunteer themselves with a private session with me in the TI department. Any problems with that rule?" Silence throughout the room. "Good."

He raised a hand that was holding a stack of papers. "We will now start the first test of the chūnin exams. You will come up to the front to receive a number which will designate your seat before we hand out the written exam."

"Written exam?!" Naruto allowed a smirk to play across his face at the sound of Kiba's despair.

Kabuto stumbled to his feet and sent a weak smile at them. "It was nice meeting you. I'm going to meet up with my team now before we separate for the test." He turned and left with a wave. "Good luck."

Naruto narrowed his eyes as he watched the older boy leave. "Something is up with that guy." Misa said from the spot next to him.

"Troublesome…" Shikamaru muttered quietly from his other side.

"Yeah, I don't know what it is, but something is off about that guy. Plus, where did he get all of that info? And why was he so willing to share?" Naruto turned to Misa and Shikamaru. "We should be careful of him in the future."

"You're right. It would be stupid of us to just trust him completely when we just met him." Misa agreed.

Shikamaru slumped his shoulders even more and sighed. "This entire thing is turning into a huge drag before it even really began. But I agree."

"Enough dawdling! Get up here and take a number!"

Misa grinned at the two younger boys. "Well, I guess this is it. Let's rock this thing."

* * *

 **A Few Minutes Later**

"Good. It looks like everyone has found a seat." Naruto looked around to spot the positions of the people he knew. While he couldn't spot everyone, he did see that Yakumo was a few seat ahead of him and Sai was on the opposite side of the room.

 **Play Naruto Shippuden OST 1 – Ninmu (Mission)**

"I will now go over the rules. First rule. You can't ask any questions."

This caused Naruto to sweat drop. _'So you either get it or you don't.'_

"You will start off with ten points." Ibiki wrote the rules on the chalkboard as he spoke. "There are ten questions on this test with each one being worth one point. But if you get a question wrong, then you lose a point. Meaning that the most you can finish with is ten points. Answer all the questions wrong and you get zero points."

' _What's the point of subtracting instead of adding?'_

"Second rule. This is a team test. Passing or failing is judged by the combined performance of the team. This means that each team starts out with thirty points."

' _Simple enough…But where's the catch?'_

"Third rule. You get caught cheating, you get two points taken off. This applies for each time you are caught. If someone loses all of their points during the test because they were caught cheating repeatedly, then they will be told to leave." Ibiki gestured around the room at the various people sitting in chairs that were facing them. "That's why they are here."

One of them smirked. "We'll be watching you guys…"

"Final rule…" Ibiki continued. "Those who fail have their teammates fail with them." Feeling the shock course through the room, Ibiki smirked. "So if one of you were to get caught enough times to lose all your points, then your teammates will have to leave along with you."

' _There's the catch…'_

"One last thing. You have only been given nine questions. The tenth will be given to those who remain when a quarter hour remains." Ibiki looked at the clock on the wall. "You have one hour to complete the test. Begin!"

 **End Music**

Naruto flipped the test over at the same time that everyone else did and read the first problem. After reading it over, only one thought came to Naruto's head. _'What the hell is this-ttebayo?'_ Did they really expect everyone in the room to take this and pass? There was no way that even half of the people in here could answer this. Looking at the other questions provided the same opinion. _'Ok then. I can't answer these on my own, guess I have to think of something.'_ While he knew the purpose of the test was to test their information gathering skills, it would have been preferable to not need to go through the trouble.

He discreetly glanced around him. Now he just had to figure out how he was going to do this…

* * *

 **45 Minutes Later**

"Ok, we will now start the tenth question."

' _Finally…I got bored of waiting. It still was weird how fast Sai managed to get the answers…'_ Around ten minutes after the test had begun, a multitude of ants made out of ink had crawled onto his paper and formed the answers. Naruto was grateful for this because it saved him the trouble of cheating on his own. He had a technique that Yami had taught him he could use, but he wasn't confident enough with it yet to be able to use it without getting caught.

Thank kami they gave out pens in addition to the pencils.

"I will be adding a few rules for this question." Naruto frowned a bit when Ibiki said this. "But before that, I must ask you if you are sure that you want to take the question."

' _What?'_ Why would he ask them? Wasn't it obvious they would want to take it?

Temari had similar thoughts and voiced them. "Choose? Why would we choose not to?"

Ibiki's expression turned grave. "If you chose not to take the question, then all of your points will be deducted and you will immediately fail along with your teammates."

"The hell is that?! Then why wouldn't we take the question?!"

The smirk on Ibiki's face turned scary again. "I'll tell you why. The final rule is that if you take the question and answer incorrectly…then you will fail and be prohibited from ever taking the chūnin exams again!"

This declaration immediately caused Naruto's eyes to narrow. _'Bullshit. There is no way that he has that kind of authority._ Especially _when it comes to genin from other villages.'_

"You guys were unlucky to get me as a proctor." Ibiki shrugged. "But I'm giving you an out. If you don't feel confident enough, then you can choose not to take the question and try again next time. This is your only chance to give up. If you wish to do so, then speak up."

Naruto frowned. _'Not happening. I'm not gonna back out that easy-ttebayo. And I know Sai and Yakumo are right there with me.'_ Multiple people in the room however, did not share Naruto's resolve.

"I…I can't do this!"

"Sorry guys, but I'm out."

"No way am I risking being stuck as a genin."

"I'd rather try again some other time…"

One after the other, people would stand up and leave the room as their determination wavered in the face of being stuck as genin.

Ibiki looked around after a minute. "Is that everyone? Remember, if you answer this question incorrectly, then that's it. You can't enter the chūnin exams after this."

"Just shut up-ttebasa!"

' _That freaking idiot.'_

The even gaze of Ibiki cut to Menma. "Oh? You got something to say, brat?"

Heedless of the glares being sent his way by his siblings, Menma stood up and sent his own glare at Ibiki. "I'm not gonna wimp out just like that! You think you can actually scare me with that? Don't underestimate me-ttebasa! I'm going to take your damn question and kick its ass so hard that both it and you will be the biggest jokes of the entire chūnin exam!"

' _Please don't challenge the head of the Torture and Interrogation department-ttebayo…'_ Naruto groaned quietly. "Why couldn't he just stay silent?"

It was now Naruto's turn to be the center of Ibiki's attention. "You say something? Speak up."

Naruto nearly groaned again. _'Why couldn't_ I _just stay silent?"_ Deciding to just get this over with, Naruto looked Ibiki in the eyes. "Nothing of importance. But I would appreciate it if you would hurry up and give us the question. I'd like to move on to the second exam soon, and your scare tactics are taking too long." This response made Ibiki smirk.

After looking around once more, Ibiki nodded. "Very well. I only have one thing to say to those of you who are still here." The room went silent as they waited for him to continue. "You pass!"

Dead silence.

"Huh?"

"Each of you have passed the first test of the chūnin exams, congratulations."

"Don't give me that! What happened to the tenth question?!"

Ibiki turned to the genin who had spoken. "There is no tenth question. Well, nothing besides me asking you if you wanted to stick around or not."

"Then what was the point of the rest of the exam?!"

"The _point_ was to test your information gathering skills. The test was specifically designed so you would have to cheat. Those questions were too difficult for the average genin to answer, so cheating was the only option. We even planted a couple people in a few spots who had the answers." Ibiki raised his hands to his bandana. "But remember, those that cheat poorly will fail."

Naruto couldn't stop his eyes from widening and his body going stiff at the sight of Ibiki's head. _'Those are some serious scars.'_ He was able to spot things ranging from burn marks to puncture wounds.

"There will be times that information is more important than life. And on the battlefield, there are people who risk _their_ lives to get to that information. But if the people who are seeking the information are noticed by the enemy, then there is no longer any guarantee that the information is accurate. That is why it is important to be able to gather intel discreetly."

He put his bandana back on as he continued. "Remember this. Some information is powerful enough to be a great advantage for your village. That is why it is important to be able to gain the information without being noticed. This test helped us kick out those who could not do that."

"And the last question?"

Hearing this, Ibiki nodded. "Question ten was just as important, if not more so, than the rest of the test. There may come a time in your shinobi careers that you are assigned a mission that you cannot decline or back out of, but you know is dangerous. The tenth question tested your resolve as shinobi to commit your all to your goal. Those who were not willing to do that had no right to become chūnin."

Naruto smirked. Those people that left were so close to passing, only to fail. This guy had a twisted sense of humor.

Ibiki smiled at them. "You have now completed the first test of the chūnin selection exam. I wish you luck." Suddenly, his attention was diverted towards the window. Crash!

A bundle crashed through the window, scaring most of the people in the room. The bundle made it partway into the room before it suddenly opened up and attached to the walls with the kunai that were just thrown. Naruto read the banner once and sweat dropped. _'The incredible and sexy Anko-sama is here?'_ Naruto looked at the woman who must be Anko.

She had light brown eyes and violet hair that was in a short, spiky, fanned ponytail. She had on a tan overcoat with a purple in-seam. Naruto blushed a bit when he saw that she only had a mesh body suit on under that. She also wore a dark orange mini-skirt, a Konoha forehead protector, a small fang pendant, and grey shin guards.

"Anko-sama is here! Hope you're ready for the second test, because it's about to begin!" She pumped a fist into the air.

This proclamation was met with dead silence. Ibiki soon stepped out from behind the banner. "You have bad timing." He told her.

Anko rubbed the back of her head with a sheepish grin. "Whatever…" She looked around and frowned before turning to Ibiki. "What's with all the teams? You actually passed this many?"

"There are a lot of outstanding ones this time."

"Meh. You're just going soft." Anko gave them a look that did just as good a job of scaring them as the one Ibiki gave them. "But don't worry, I will be sure to cut them down to at least half by the time I'm done with them." She cackled a bit.

Naruto sighed. _'Great. Another psycho.'_

Anko grinned maniacally at them. "Time to get going! Keep up, because I won't wait for you if you get lost!" She then jumped out the window.

Naruto placed his head in his hands.

* * *

 **Forest of Death**

Once everyone was close enough to hear and see her, Anko grinned again. "Welcome to the next stage of the chūnin exams, training ground 44!" Her grin turned sadistic. "Also known as the Forest of Death."

' _I can already see where it got that name…'_ Looking at the forest, all Naruto saw were giant trees and barbed fence. If he listened closely enough, he was faintly sure that he could hear some animal calls. He sighed when he heard something that sounded a lot like a lion.

Suddenly, a kunai flew by his cheek and made a shallow cut. Another body was pressed up to his back just as quickly. "Oh? Am I boring you?" A sweet voice whispered in his ear. Naruto repressed a shiver at the feeling of her tongue licking his cut.

"Hey! Get away from my Nii-chan!" Narumi was completely ignored.

Naruto shook his head frantically. "No, of course not. I'm all ears."

"Good. I get self-conscious, you know? I'm worried that I'm not doing a good enough job to keep you entertained." She pressed her chest harder against his back. "But…I can help you keep entertained in a… _different_ way if you want…" This sight made Narumi fume even more while Menma snickered.

Before Naruto could pull himself together to respond, Anko whirled around with another kunai in her hand. "I think you dropped this." A voice said. Naruto used this chance to jump away from them. Turning to see what was happening, Naruto stared.

' _That is the creepiest tongue I have ever seen.'_

The tongue belonged to an older boy with long black hair and black eyes. He was wearing plain light grey garbs with dark grey pants and a straw hat. Around his waist was a thick purple rope belt. He also had on a black long sleeve polo shirt as an undershirt. The boy had a Kusa forehead protector on.

Anko smiled at the boy as she stashed away the kunai. "Thanks for the help. But you know, it is pretty dangerous to sneak up on me like that…"

The boy smiled back. "I apologize. I will be sure to be more careful in the future."

"Good!" Anko swirled around to face the rest of the genin. "I have something for you before we start!" She rummaged through her coat before pulling out a stack of papers. "Consent forms that need to be signed in case you die!"

' _Don't say something like that with a pleasant smile on your face…'_

"I'm going to explain this test to you before we move on."

 **Play Naruto Shippuden OST 1 – Ninmu (Mission)**

"Basically, this is a survival exercise. You will have to enter this training ground using the numbered gates surrounding it. One team per gate. Once you enter, you will have five days to survive on your own and complete the objective."

' _So we are surviving in the wilderness as well as completing a task…'_

"The objective…" She pulled a scroll out of her pocket that had the kanji for "earth" written on it. "…Are these scrolls. There are two kinds. Heaven and Earth. Each team will start with one of them and have to get the other to complete the set before moving on to the tower in the center of the forest."

Naruto's eyes narrowed as he looked around him. Everyone here had just become an enemy.

"But of course, that means you need to take the other scroll from another team." Anko shrugged. "The problem is, who knows which team was what scroll." She grinned sharply. "You will have to figure it out on your own. A team passes after taking both scrolls to the tower. But be careful, the other teams won't be the only dangerous thing in the forest. The wildlife can handle themselves pretty well in a fight."

Looking around, Naruto saw some looks of fear growing on some of the faces around him.

"Now, there are some ways to get disqualified before the test is over." She held up a finger. "First off, don't make it to the tower within the time limit with both scrolls, you fail. Simple." Another finger went up. "Second, you lose a teammate, you fail. Whether it be lost in the forest or death at some point, that's it. You're done." She crossed her arms. "There is no quitting. Once you enter the forest, you're in there for five days." She blinked. "Oh, I almost forgot. No opening the scrolls." That manic grin was back…"It isn't very pretty if you do. Besides that, go nuts!"

Sakura raised a hesitant hand. "That's it? No other rules besides those?"

Anko shook her head. "Nope. That's it. All you have to do is survive, get the other scroll, and make it to the tower before the time limit is up. Anything else is up to you." She looked around. "It is now time for you to sign the form and get a scroll. After that, head to your assigned gate." Her grin grew. "Try not to die."

 **End Music**

After waiting in line to enter the tent and get a scroll, team 12 finally got called in. They were quickly handed an earth scroll and told a gate number after signing the forms. Naruto turned to his teammates. "Okay, I think that we should decide now who is going to carry the scroll. I have a good place to put it that nobody else will be able to access, but I would like to enter the forest before I put it away."

Sai tilted his head. "Would it not be better to do it now while we have the privacy of the tent to cover us?"

Naruto shook his head. "We didn't get here soon enough for that to be a good idea. I wouldn't be surprised if this place is already rigged by a few teams. I know for sure that Shino at the very least has a few insects crawling around in here somewhere."

"That makes sense…" Yakumo said with a nod that Sai copied.

Seeing them agree, Naruto silently placed the scroll in his pouch before walking out of the tent.

* * *

 **Gate 12 (30 Minutes Later)**

"Alright you punks! Ready or not, the second phase of the chūnin exams starts now!" With that shout, Anko pushed the button to open the gates. At once, all of the teams rushed into the forest.

Team 12 was silent for a little while before they stopped on a tree branch and turned to face one another. Nodding his head, Naruto spoke up. "Alright. I'm going to use a special storage technique I developed. It is still in the experimental stage, but it should work well enough for this."

Yakumo tilted her head with an interested expression on her face. "You made a technique? Really?"

With a nod, Naruto responded. "Yeah. Just give me a second." He closed his eyes and concentrated. Soon enough, he heard a gasp from Yakumo and opened them back up to the sight of a small **Corridor of Darkness** in front of him. He felt slightly bad for lying to them about this, but he wasn't about to tell them that he could made a portal capable of bypassing pretty much any security that could be set up. It was simpler if they thought it was just for storage. Naruto rummaged through his pouch and pulled out the earth scroll before dropping it into the corridor before willing it to disappear. "There we go. It will be safe there."

"Can you tell us what that was?" Sai asked him.

Naruto shrugged. "I don't have a name for it yet." He lied. "I just stumbled upon it by accident a while back when I was trying to see if I could get my chakra replicate the small pulse that a storage scroll gives out when it is used." He waved at where the corridor was. "That was the result."

Yakumo looked at him with wide eyes. "Amazing. That is really impressive." This made Naruto grin sheepishly before turning serious.

"We should get moving. It is probably a good idea for us to head a little further in."

"Yes, I agree. I think that we should head closer to the tower for now before looking for a team to fight. If we were to finish with a fight and be fatigued, I would rather not have a long journey."

"Sounds good. Let's get going."

* * *

 **Later**

Sai suddenly looked up as they were travelling to observe a bird in the sky. Knowing that the bird was one of his ink creations, Naruto and Yakumo stopped in a small clearing to wait for him to finish. "What's up?" Naruto asked him.

Sai pointed up. "It is signaling that there is a team approaching us quickly from the North West direction." This declaration made the other two tense.

"And they know we are here?" Yakumo asked.

"Yes."

"Wonderful…" Naruto muttered quietly. "Then there is no point in even trying to take them by surprise, they are obviously coming for us. Best thing to do is prepare for the worst." With this in mind, the three of them jumped higher into the trees to stay out of the immediate line of sight.

After a few minutes, the other team entered the clearing. When they saw who it was, they blinked in surprise.

"Hey there!"

Naruto sighed in irritation before turning to Sai. "You could have mentioned that it was these three."

"I apologize. I did not realize that they were non-hostile." They jumped down into the clearing.

"Sorry, I guess I should have mentioned that Misa and I have already agreed to be allies during the exam. Or at least, to not be hostile to each other." Naruto turned to the other team. "But how did you find us?"

In return to this question, Misa winked at him. "A girls gotta have her secrets."

"Whatever…" He would ask again, but it wasn't worth the headache. "We tell you what scroll we have and you do the same?"

"Sure. We have heaven."

Naruto smirked. "We have earth. We can work together to take out two teams without fighting over who gets the scroll this way. Did you guys have a plan?"

Ikusa shrugged. "Head for the tower and get the jump on any team that we find?" Such a simple response…

"Works for m-" Boom!

The six of them whirled around to face the direction that the explosion came from. "What the hell?" Naruto muttered. There was a portion of the forest that was on fire. And it was relatively close. "That's gotta be a fight."

Misa grinned. "Then that's where we're going!" Naruto gave her an incredulous look.

"Why the hell should we head _towards_ the giant inferno? We can't be the only people who saw that."

Misa waved him off. "Don't worry about it. Other people will probably follow that logic and steer clear. Unless they were _really_ confident."

"But not us?"

"No way! That is sure to be two teams fighting each other. Meaning two scrolls! At least one of us is going to have the complete set!"

Ikusa and Wataru shared amused looks. "Well, she has a point…" Ikusa said. Naruto wanted to face palm when Yakumo nodded.

"I don't see why not. We can just be careful not to get noticed, scout the area, and decide from there."

Naruto slumped his shoulders. "Fine…It is clear I'm outvoted here. Let's head towards the fight."

* * *

 **A Few Minutes Later**

It was fairly simple to locate the source of the fight. All of the explosions certainly helped to find it. What they saw when they got there made them freeze in shock.

"Gaahh!"

"Come to me in the future. Seek me out if you want to gain more power."

Naruto stared at the sight of a hunched over Sasuke Uchiha clutching his neck after getting bitten by that Kusa genin. "What the hell is this?" He muttered.

"What did you do to him?!" Sakura was kneeling by Sasuke, unsure of what to do.

"I just gave him a going away present…It took a little longer to give to him because of the Kyūbi brats interfering. But they were removed easily enough." This made Naruto freeze.

' _What did he just say?'_

That was when he noticed the two motionless redheads nearby. Without thinking any further, Naruto leapt towards them from the hiding place. "Narumi, Menma!" All attention instantly went to him.

"Naruto, wait!"

Ignoring the call, Naruto ran up to his siblings and knelt beside them. "Please be alright." He whispered. After shaking them both for a moment, Narumi started to sir. He lifter her upper body up a bit. "Narumi, can you hear me?" The others soon joined him with Yakumo going over to check on Sakura and Sasuke.

Narumi groaned softly and opened an eye a bit, only to close it again as a new wave of pain hit her. Once it subsided a bit, she squinted up at him. "Nii-chan…?"

"Yeah, it's me. Are you okay?"

"I really wish I could say I was…Everything hurts right now."

Naruto nodded before turning his head towards Menma when he started to groan. After a moment, Menma opened his eyes and looked around. His eyes widened when he saw Naruto. "Aniki…"

"Hey, how you doing?"

"I feel like shit, but Narumi got it worse. He really kicked our asses…"

Naruto nodded before turning to look at the Kusa genin. That was when Naruto noticed that half of the genin's face was burned off, showing another face under it. But Naruto quickly dismissed this as he glared.

 **Play Naruto Shippuden OST 1 – Ikari (Anger)**

"You did this?" Naruto asked as he gently placed Narumi back down and got up to face him.

The Kusa genin gained an amused look. "Indeed I did."

Naruto's glare turned to glacial levels. "Then I will make you pay." He hissed and started to walk forward. One hand went towards the sword on his back. If he had paid closer attention, he would have noticed the wind that was starting to pick up around him a bit.

If anything, the Kusa genin looked even more amused. "You can do your best to harm me, but you won't get far…" He shook his head. "I am actually glad you are here, Naruto-kun. I have been wishing to…talk to you."

"I have nothing to say to a freak like you."

The grin was growing on the taller genin's face. "Oh, but that means we have a problem." Suddenly, his form blurred away, only to reappear a foot in front of Naruto. "I have been looking forward to meeting you _very_ much." He leaned closer. "I find you very interesting, Naruto-kun."

Naruto jumped back a bit. "I. Don't. Care." Naruto lunged forward to cut at him..

The other genin grinned even more as he moved out of the way. "There are many things about you that I find curious. Your performance in the Land of Waves was very…eye catching…In fact, that description reminded me of something..."

"Shut up!" Another swipe was dodged.

The genin tilted his head. "Very well then. If you do not wish to talk, then I will have to make you show me." The grin turned sharper. "I hope my expectations for you prove to be correct, Naruto-kun."

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 21!**

 **The chūnin exams have started!**

 **Ok, this is the first time I have used Gai's full name, so I didn't realize something until now. I use "Gai" as opposed to "Guy." That's fine, but the problem is that I would also prefer to use "Might" instead of "Maito." So basically, I want to call him Might Gai. If I used a mixture of the English and Japanese spellings, would people get too annoyed with that? I used all Japanese spelling this time, but I would like to know if people care if I have a mix.**

 **Next chapter is the fight with Orochimaru. I need to type it up to see how much more I will add after that.**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	22. Chūnin Exams: Snake

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 22!**

 **Wow. Over 300 follows and 200 reviews. That is pretty awesome. Thanks guys.**

 **I actually started to write this thing on my phone when I have time in between class. This usually happens on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It sucked at first, but I got over it soon enough. An actual computer is still best, of course.**

 **I don't like this chapter very much. Just a bunch of things about it bother me. From the fights to the dialogue.**

* * *

 **LordGhostStriker: I like the way you think.**

 **prototype gear: The worlds are for the most part undecided right now. I only have like 3 or 4 in mind at the moment with only 1 that** _ **will**_ **be used. I do know though, that I will** _ **not**_ **be sticking with only Disney worlds. I may put 1 or 2 in, but they won't all be Disney. Once we get closer to the Kingdom Hearts story, I will probably start asking for some suggestions.**

 **buterflypuss: Did I? I promise that it was unintentional if I did.**

 **Drakon45: :P**

 **Guest: I'm not saying! :P**

 **StormDriver: Yeah, it is intentional. I think that darkness is something that is harder to control than light, so I have it this way. He is meant to have some trouble controlling it.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the Story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else, I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Diety Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Diety Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

"I hope my expectations for you prove to be correct, Naruto-kun."

 **Play One-Winged Angel – Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX Extended**

"I thought I told you to shut up!" Naruto lunged at the genin to get a cut in, but was easily dodged. Using Naruto's momentum against him, the Kusa genin grabbed his arm and hurled him towards a nearby tree. Naruto managed to regain his balance in midair and spin around so that his feet landed on the trunk of the tree.

"Naruto, wait!" Naruto ignored the calls of his friends and went back in to continue the fight.

The Kusa genin had a smile on his face as he danced around Naruto's strikes. "Come now, Naruto-kun. You're going to need to try harder than that if you want to be able to do anything to me…" He sent a kick at Naruto's midsection, sending him flying.

"Tch!" This guy was seriously tough! It was obvious that Naruto was just being toyed with. Naruto closed the distance again and went for a slice from the slide, only for it to prove to be a feint. But this was easily blocked as well.

This pattern continued for the next few minutes with Naruto not getting any closer to landing a hit. The grin on the Kusa genin's face was present throughout the entire ordeal, and it was pissing Naruto off more and more! "I must say, Naruto-kun. You really are skilled with a sword. I'm almost tempted to bring out my own blade to fight you with." Another blow sent the crimson blond flying again.

The next time that they were in close contact, the Kusa genin spent it deflecting and blocking all of Naruto's strikes as he analyzed Naruto's combat style. "I can't say I recognize your techniques. There is a nice balance of speed and power that fits your style and size. It is too refined to not have been taught to you, but I do not think it is Konoha in origin…" The genin shook his head, grin still in place. "But regardless, I do wish you would stop using your sword to fight me. I am much more interested in your jutsu and other techniques…" He caught Naruto's arm and threw him away again.

Naruto growled as he landed. He crouched low to get in close again, but was stopped when something stood in his way. He glared at who it was. "Out of the way!"

Misa glared back and hit him over the head. "No way in hell! Do you even realize that all you are doing is charging in recklessly against an unknown opponent?! Calm the heck down, you moron!"

Naruto stared at her with wide eyes. After a moment, he took a deep breath and nodded. "You're right, sorry." He stood up and they both turned to face the Kusa genin. _'I need to be more careful. I can feel the darkness receding from my thoughts, it must have influenced me a bit again…That was a really stupid thing for me to do.'_ He looked at Misa from the corner of his eye. "Thanks for getting me to calm down."

She smirked at him. "No problem."

Sai, Yakumo, Wataru, and Ikusa landed around them. "Have you calmed down yet, idiot?" Sai asked.

Naruto normally would have retaliated with his own remark, but knew he didn't have the right to because he _was_ acting stupid just a moment ago. "Yeah. Sorry about that."

Ikusa grinned. "Well, now that we are all on the same page, we can kick this guy's ass!"

"Don't forget about us-ttebasa!" They turned to see Narumi and Menma landing next to them. Naruto frowned at them. His frown deepened when he saw how fatigued they were already.

"No way. You two stay out of this. You are both hurt. Just leave this to us."

Narumi glared at her older brother. "Not happening, baka-nii. We are going to stay here and help you fight this freak." Her glare morphed into a grin. "With all of us here, there is no way he will stand a chance-ttebane!"

"I'm sorry, but I have no interest in the rest of you." Before they could even react, everybody but Naruto was sent away when an identical copy of the Kusa genin appeared in the center of their group.

Naruto whirled around to face the direction they were sent in. "You guys!" Bam! A punch to his cheek floored him.

"You still have me to play with, Naruto-kun. Let my clone take care of your friends…But I would hurry. Knowing myself, I cannot guarantee their continued health for that much longer."

Naruto crouched low in preparation for another strike. "What do you want from me?" He demanded.

The Kusa genin tilted his head. "I have already told you what I wanted. I wish for you to show me that special jutsu you used in the Land of Waves."

' _The twilight blast? Like hell I would use that…I shouldn't even have used it back in the Land of Waves…'_

"I wonder what it will take to get you to show me…" Naruto felt chills go down his spine at the tone in the genin's voice. "…Perhaps to save the lives of your friends?"

Naruto glared. "Don't use them as blackmail!" He engaged the enemy in combat again. Naruto dodged the punch to his chest sent his way by flipping over the Kusa genin. He then whirled around and sent a slash at the exposed back.

"That's enough of that." Naruto stared wide eyed at the sight before him. The Kusa genin actually caught the blade in between his index and middle fingers! The Kusa genin's other hand quickly shot out to grab at the handle of the blade and yanked it out of Naruto's hands. Before the crimson blond could even react, another powerful kick to the chest sent him into another tree. "I grow tired of this, Naruto-kun." Crack! Naruto could only watch as his sword was shattered and dropped to the ground before his eyes. "Now let's see you fight without your blade!" This time, the Kusa genin was the one that rushed in to continue the fight.

' _Shit!'_ Naruto rolled out of the way of the strike that came at him. Naruto sprung back up to his feet and sent a kick to the enemy. Naruto's leg was blocked and another punch came at him. Naruto raised his own arms to block the strike. Feeling the weight behind the blow, Naruto grit his teeth. _'He is really strong!'_ Refusing to let the pain get to him, Naruto raised a hand. " **Fire**!" A fireball shot out and hit the surprised genin in the chest, causing him to go stumbling back.

He raised a hand to his chest where the fireball hit, another grin slowly appearing on his face. "You're just full of surprises, aren't you, Naruto-kun? I must admit, you caught me off guard with that." He crouched low. "But do not expect it to happen again!" He thrust his hands forward. " **Hidden Shadow Snake Hands**!"

' _Freaking snakes?!'_ Naruto jumped to the side to avoid the snakes that suddenly shot out of the Kusa genin's sleeves. " **Fire**!" More fireballs were created, only to be dodged. Deciding to change it up a bit to try and catch him off guard, Naruto thrust out his hand again. " **Thunder**!" A bolt of lightning shot down from the sky and struck the genin, only for him to fade away into mud. _'Wha-'_ Bam! The ground made its acquaintance with Naruto again due to the punch that came from his side.

"Another jutsu without hand seals? And one of another element? I see that my interest in you was well deserved, Naruto-kun." A shake of the head. "But still, that is not what I wish to see." The grin grew. "It is obvious to me that you are reluctant to show me what I want, so I will have to use other means to…persuade you." His eyes shifted to the side. "Maybe your siblings are the key to getting you to comply?"

Naruto's entire body froze. _'Narumi. Menma.'_ Naruto glared at him. "Leave them out of this. I'm the one you're so interested in." The wind was starting to pick up again.

The sadistic amusement was growing in those yellow, snake-like eyes. "You're right, you are the one I am interested in the most." He shook his head. "But you are being too uncooperative. I must resort to other methods. I have always been interested in the longevity of the Uzumaki clan. It is even more interesting as they are both hold half of a bijū." A pause. "They would make wonderful test subjects."

The wind was picking up around Naruto as his eyes began to glow. "Never…I will never let that happen…" He said quietly.

The Kusa genin chuckled in response. "Oh? And do you really think you would be able to stop me? If this was all you are capable of, then I'm afraid that you should just flee now while you can. Don't worry, I will ensure that your siblings survive at least six months before their bodies give out."

Naruto growled. "Shut. Up!" He lunged at the Kusa genin with newfound speed! The taller genin seemed surprised at the new speed, for he was unable to react quickly enough to get out of the way. Wham! A punch to his face sent him hurtling away into the air. Not letting him have a chance to recover, Naruto's form blurred away in a burst of speed. The crimson blond was able to get in above the Kusa genin and delivered a kick that sent him plummeting into the ground. A plume of smoke exploded out at the point of impact.

Naruto jumped onto a branch above the impact area. "You wanted to see it so bad? Well here it is!" As he thrust both of his hands forward, a beam of energy shot out. It was identical to the one that Naruto used on the bridge in the Land of Waves. Boom! The sound of an explosion rang out.

 **End Music**

Naruto panted a bit as he leaned forward with his hands on his knees. "I really hope I got him with that…" He muttered.

"I'm afraid your hopes will go unanswered, Naruto-kun…" Naruto whirled around to face the source of the voice. The sight before him made him grit his teeth. The bastard was just standing there! The grin on his face grew to new levels as a strange glint appeared in his eyes. "That was wonderful, Naruto-kun. It was just as I thought, you are able to use both light _and_ darkness…"

Naruto froze.

" _What_?" He did not just say that, did he? How could he know about those?!

 **Play Orochimaru's Full Theme**

"Kukuku…Did you truly believe that you would be the only person to know about those?" He chuckled again. "No, it is not that simple." The Kusa genin tilted his head as he observed Naruto. "I always thought that you would have some sort of affinity to darkness…But to learn that you can use light as well…You have me _very_ interested, Naruto-kun."

Naruto was frozen in place as his mind raced. _'What does he mean by that? How could he expect me to have an affinity for darkness? And how does he even_ know _about light and darkness? What else does he know?'_

"Be careful, Naruto-kun. Your mind is as open as a book right now…" He tilted his head the other way. "You are obviously wondering how I know about light and darkness." The grin grew as Naruto flinched. "Well, I guess I could tell you…" The genin began walking in a circle with Naruto at the center.

"You see, I consider myself a curious person. My goal is to learn everything that there is to learn. This of course means that I need to experiment." An annoyed frown flashed across his face. "Although many experiments result in failure…" The grin quickly came back. "But I learn from those mistakes and expand my knowledge on them."

Naruto finally shook himself out of his stupor and glared. "I don't care about any of that. Your life story holds no value to me."

"Kukuku. Patience, Naruto-kun. I am getting to the part that will interest you. One of the topics of my research was of the heart." He shook his head. "I actually came upon this area of research by mistake. I had been intending to look into the synchronization between body and soul to see how well a soul could change bodies." His eyes never left Naruto. "This led me to the discovery of the heart and how it is made up of light and darkness, and of course, its uses."

Naruto's eyes went wide. _'This better not go to where I think it's going…'_

"I'm not sure how much you know about the power you have been using, Naruto-kun. But allow me to touch upon the basics that my research revealed to me. Each heart is made up of light and darkness. Using some test subjects, I was able to determine that this is true for everyone. However, it also led me to another conclusion. Do you know what that is?" He paused for a moment. "I came to the conclusion that it is nearly impossible to be able to hold light and darkness in even amounts." He leaned forward. "Until I heard about you."

' _Oh shit.'_

"While it is true that the energy beam you shot at me had a bit more darkness than light in it, I believe that was due to your anger. But what would happen if you were in a controlled environment? I am willing to believe that you would have a much greater amount of control over the two halves." He shook his head with a sigh, but the smile never left his face. "I myself have yet been able to accomplish such a feat. I haven't even been able to _use_ light yet."

Naruto's blood ran cold. The way he said it made it sound as if…

An amused light entered the yellow eyes again as he stopped walking. "Ah, I see you understand…" A wind was starting to pick up around the Kusa genin. "While I am unable to use light, I find darkness rather simple to call forward…" A purplish-black aura was starting to form around him.

Naruto could only stare in horror as he watched this happen. _'He…He really can control darkness…'_

The aura faded. "As you saw, I am able to control the darkness to a degree, but not yet to the level I am satisfied with. As I am able to only use darkness for now, that is where I centered the next stage of my research…And what I made _wonderful_ discoveries with it." The grin turned feral. "Allow me to show you one of them." The aura returned and he raised his arms.

Naruto stared as pools of darkness formed in multiple spots in between them. Naruto's eyes grew to new proportions when he saw what was coming out of them. "Heartless…" Naruto whispered.

From each of the pools of darkness emerged a heartless. Naruto was able to spot some of the shadow ant ones he fought as well as another kind that was standing on two legs with some kind of helmet on its head.

The Kusa genin tilted his head again. "Heartless?" A chuckle escaped his mouth. "What an interesting name, but very fitting. I think I will use that name from now on."

' _What the hell does this creep think he's doing?! All he is doing is attracting the heartless to this world!'_ Naruto crouched again as he took in his surroundings. There were now heartless on each side of him. "Do you really think you can control them? The darkness will consume you."

"Kukuku. Thank you for worrying so much about me, Naruto-kun. But I must insist that I am being very careful." He snapped his fingers. The heartless instantly began to circle Naruto as if they were waiting for that signal. "While the darkness is a very dangerous thing, I am confident that I will be able to prevent it from consuming me."

"And if you're wrong? If it starts consuming you without you even noticing?"

"I'm willing to take the risk." He spread his arms out towards the heartless. "Just look at them. My discoveries concerning the heart has unlocked so many things for me to research! There is so much potential here!" He paused as a thoughtful look crossed his face. "Although I am curious to how well the heartless perform in battle. I have yet to test it." The sadistic grin came back. "Won't you help me find out, Naruto-kun? And be sure to show me more of your abilities..." He snapped his fingers.

 **End Music. Switch to Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD ReMix – Deep End**

' _Incoming!'_ Naruto was forced to jump onto a branch above him in order to avoid all of the heartless that suddenly lunged at him. He quickly pulled out some kunai and launched them at the closest heartless. He struck one, causing it to dissolve into darkness as a heart was released, but the other melted into the ground.

Naruto rolled to the side as another soldier tried to flank him. " **Fire!** " The fireball managed to strike the soldier, dispelling it. "Gah!" He swore internally when he felt claws dig into his back.

Naruto whirled around and delivered a kick to the offending heartless. Three other shadow ants jumped at him from each side, forcing Naruto to quickly do a handstand and swirl around with his legs outstretched, kicking them away.

While he was still in this position, a soldier came at him from his front with its claw outstretched and Naruto pushed off from the ground with his hands to get out of the way. Back flipping onto a tree trunk that he stuck to with chakra, Naruto thrust both his hands out. " **Thunder!** " He had no time to celebrate the demise of more heartless as another grew from the tree to swipe at him.

A little ways away, the Kusa genin watched the scene with his arms crossed. "Kukuku. It would seem that Naruto-kun may have some experience fighting them in the past. He has yet to be completely caught off guard by any of them." His gaze shifted to where the other group of genin were fighting his clone. "I wonder how people who have never seen them before would fare..." With the grin still present, he snapped his fingers and more heartless formed around him. He pointed at the other group. "Go on."

* * *

 **With The Others**

Sai grunted as he was kicked in the side again. Rolling to his feet, he raised his tantō to meet his attacker, only to meet nothing but air.

"Come now. This can't be all of you can do." A blow to the back of his head sent Sai stumbling forward into the ground.

Sai struggled for a moment to push himself to his feet. _'We are severely outclassed. We should retreat as soon as possible.'_ Glancing around, Sai saw the others also having some difficulty standing.

"Oh? It would seem that the original has decided to give you someone else to play with. Do try to perform better than you did with me." The clone then dissolved into a pile of mud.

"Sai, look out!" Heeding the warning, Sai dove to the side. He was just fast enough to dodge the claw that slashed at where his head was a moment ago. Sai jumped back to where the others were standing back to back in a circle as more of the creatures appeared.

"Any idea what these things are?" Misa asked.

Yakumo shook her head. "I have no idea. I have never seen them before." The others voiced similar thoughts.

"We can figure that out later! Here they come!"

* * *

 **Back With Naruto**

" **Thunder!** " Naruto was panting as he destroyed another heartless. _'I'm not sure how much longer I will last...'_ He tensed as he saw more heartless come closer. But when they didn't attack, he grew confused.

"You have been providing me with a wonderful performance, Naruto-kun." Naruto spun around to glare at the Kusa genin who had appeared behind him. "But I am afraid that I must be on my way now. I am sure that by his point, other parties have noticed my presence."

Naruto glared harder. "What was the point of you coming here? Why would you do whatever it is you did to Uchiha and then push me until you were satisfied?"

"Kukuku. I have already told you the reason why I pushed you as I did. And I met with Sasuke-kun to share something with him that he might find interesting." He shook his head. "It is truly a pity. I would have loved to extend the same courtesy to you as I did to him, but that would probably ruin the whole point of being able to use both light and darkness." The Kusa genin began to melt into the ground.

"Wait!" Naruto tried to rush forward to stop him, but was stopped by a few heartless jumping in his way. "Out of the way!"

The genin chuckled. "Should you really be so concerned about me when your friends are in trouble, Naruto-kun? Not everyone is as prepared to fight heartless as you are..."

"What?!" Naruto's head snapped around. He froze when he saw that the others were trying to hold off the swarm of heartless around them. But it was obvious that they were fighting a losing battle.

"But of course, you will first need to get past your own enemies." The Kusa genin chuckled. "Goodbye, Naruto-kun. I do look forward to meeting you again in the future." And with those final words, he was gone.

"Damn it!" Naruto cut down another heartless with a kunai. "I don't have time for any of you!" His anger with the entire situation was growing. From the initial stupidity he showed, to the enemy getting away, it all piled up. "I said..." An aura picked up around Naruto as his eyes glowed two different colors. "Get. Lost!" Boom! The rest of the heartless attacking him were wiped out with that attack.

Naruto took a moment to try and catch his breath. "Gyah!" He froze when he heard that shout of pain.

"You guys!" Naruto sped off towards the others. They would be overrun at any moment! He pushed himself to his fastest speeds in order to get to them in time. "Shit!" He cursed when he saw that they were backed against a tree and too fatigued to defend any longer. His heart froze when he saw that the heartless all crouched to attack together.

' _I need to do something, now!'_ They were going to be torn apart with that number of heartless attacking! _'I don't have a choice anymore!'_

* * *

 **With The Others**

"Any of you have any ideas?" Misa asked the others tiredly, only to slump when she only got negatives in return. She narrowed her eyes when she saw the creatures crouch again. "Well, then I guess we need to call out a miracle..." She tensed as the creatures jumped at them. Knowing that they wouldn't be able to stop this attack, she closed her eyes.

" **Shadowbreaker!** "

Her eyes snapped back open as she heard that shout. But she was unable to see anything when her vision was drowned in a sea of purplish-black aura, destroying most of the enemies, before a second silvery-white slash followed it and destroyed the rest. Her mouth dropped a bit when she saw who was in the center of the two slashes.

 **End Music**

"Naruto?" She asked weakly.

Naruto stood in front of them with his gripping some strange weapon. It kind of looked like a key...

It had a checkered handle that went from black to white and had a black guard. The blade was a silvery-white color that came into a pointed tip before it suddenly changed direction back down. They key part of it was made up of black and white spikes. The keychain was silver and ended in an x shaped emblem. On the guard was a silver heart that had a crown on top of it.

After glaring around for a minute to see if any other heartless would appear, Naruto released a deep breath and slumped. After a moment, he turned to the rest of them. "You guys alright?" He asked.

Misa nodded numbly as she stared at the blade. She was at a complete loss at what to say. Menma was the first to recover. "That was awesome, Aniki!" He bounced over to Naruto. "You totally just destroyed all of those things like it was nothing-ttebasa!"

Narumi was quick to join her siblings. "He's right, nii-chan! I can't believe how easy you made it look to get rid of those things!"

An uncomfortable look crossed Naruto's face as he scratched the back of his head. "Thanks, I guess...but I'm pretty sure I just got lucky against those things."

"But what were they?" They looked over to Yakumo as she walked up to join them. "They didn't even look like any animals I've ever seen. And whenever we did manage to kill one, it would just dissolve into that dark stuff."

' _Better think fast, Naruto. There is no way you are gonna explain the concepts of heartless to them. And forget about light and darkness.'_ Naruto thought to himself. "I have no clue. I'm just glad they are gone." By now, the others had joined them.

Misa looked at him. "Thanks to you. We were about to be toast." She grinned at him. "You were just in time with that attack." A curious look appeared on her face. "...But...What exactly was it? You shot some stuff out of your weapon and it completely destroyed them." She frowned in thought. "And on that subject, what the heck is that you're holding?"

Naruto groaned internally. He really did not want to talk about this. He held up his keyblade. "This is just something that came into my possession a while ago. It is some kind of blade, but designed to be a key. It is extremely effective despite its shape. When that freak destroyed my sword, I had to use this." No lies were told.

Misa raised an eyebrow. "Ok, and that stuff you shot out of it as you attacked?"

He had to think carefully before he responded. "I'm...not sure what to tell you. I just acted on instinct." Which was partially true...

Wataru was the next person to speak. "Where did it even come from? I know you had your black sword on you at all times, but what about this thing?"

' _No getting around this one...'_ With a sigh, Naruto dismissed his keyblade, causing the others to gasp in surprise when it suddenly vanished in a flash of silvery-white and purplish-black. "I found out that I can summon it and dismiss it if I try. I'm not sure how that works. I would really appreciate it if you guys would keep this to yourselves. I don't want people to know I have it." He was relieved to see them nod.

Narumi was bouncing up and down out of excitement. "That is so cool-ttebane! I want one of those!"

This reaction made Naruto sweat drop. _'That's not the reaction I was expecting...'_ Before they could question him any further, Naruto turned to Yakumo. "What happened to team 7?" He asked her.

The others quickly adopted serious faces when this was brought up. "Sakura-san is with Sasuke-san in a clearing near here. I have no idea where Saito-san is." She said.

Naruto frowned. "Ok. I think we should go meet up with Haruno and Uchiha. Narumi, Menma, can you send out **Shadow Clones** to the nearby area to try and find Saito?"

"Sure thing."

"You got it."

"Cool." Naruto cast a sad look at the shattered remains of his sword. With a sigh, he picked it up before sealing it and the sheath away before turning back to the others. "Let's get going." And with that, they left the area.

* * *

 **Clearing**

When they got to the clearing, they were treated with the sight of Sakura whirling around to see who had appeared. The pink haired girl let out of sigh of relief when she saw it was them. "Thank kami you're here! You have to help Sasuke-kun! I have no idea what that freak did to him!"

Naruto sighed and walked over to the downed Uchiha. Sakura had laid him down under the cover of a hollowed out tree. Although Naruto could not see any obvious wounds, the Uchiha looked to be in a great amount of pain. There was even a layer of sweat on his forehead. "He was fine until that guy bit him, right?"

Sakura nodded tearfully. "Yes. At first it seemed like Sasuke-kun was winning the fight, but then that other genin just stood back up like it was nothing before biting him."

Naruto scowled and crouched down next to Sasuke. Looking closer, Naruto was able to spot some kind of strange mark on the side of Sasuke's neck. A growl nearly escaped his throat when he detected faint traces of darkness coming from it.

' _I don't think I can do anything about this. I can already tell this is pretty up there in complexity, and I'm not sure that simply injecting light will counter it. That isn't something I would like to test on him.'_ Naruto looked to Sakura. "The best thing we can do for now is protect him and hope it blows over."

She seemed to tear up a bit more before nodding. "Right...Did you find Saito?"

Naruto shifted his gaze to his siblings. Menma shook his head. "None of my clones have popped, so no luck with me."

Narumi nodded. "Same her-" She paused for a moment before looking off to the side. "One of my clones found him. He's unconscious, but fine. Another clone is bringing him here now." Hearing that small piece of good news sent a rush of relief through Sakura.

The Haruno hung her head. "I feel so useless. I wasn't able to do anything the entire time. I couldn't help Saito when he was blown away, and I couldn't even move out of fear when that genin appeared..."

Narumi slung an arm around her shoulder. "Don't think about it too much, you guys were caught off guard. And that genin was on a whole other level. None of us were even able to touch him."

"That doesn't matter! I should have been able to do more than just standing there like some kind of dead weight!" Sakura shook her head. "It won't happen again! I will stand and fight next time!"

This declaration made the red headed female grin. "That sounds like an awesome plan. If you need a training partner, just tell me! I'd be happy to help!"

The group turned when an identical copy of Narumi landed in the clearing carrying a knocked out Saito. The original nodded to the clone. "Put him down next to Sasuke." While that was happening, Narumi turned to the others. "So what's the plan from here?" She asked.

This set some of the others on guard. They were in the middle of the chūnin exams and they were meant to be enemies right now.

"Is anyone opposed to the idea of all of us working together?" Wataru asked.

Yakumo quirked an eyebrow. "All of us working together? That would mean that we would need to gather a total of four scrolls."

"Three." All eyes went to Narumi as she grinned. She reached into her pouch and pulled out two scrolls. "We already have both of them."

Some jaws dropped at this. "How did you already get both of them? It's only the first day!" Misa questioned.

"We just spammed clones until we found another team. After that, we ambushed them and took their scroll." Menma's grin mirrored his sister's. "Lucky for us, they had an earth scroll while we had a heaven scroll."

Sai tilted his head. "Then why would you be willing to help us? And why give out such sensitive information when we can betray you?"

"Because we're friends!" Sai blinked at the response that Menma gave him.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Anyways, I think it would be a good idea for all of us to work together. We should set up base here and wait for Uchiha and Saito to wake up before heading for the tower to cut off any other teams." He looked around. "Everyone fine with that plan?" No objections were made. "Cool. Then let's decide the order of the night shift."

* * *

 **Hokage's Office**

"What the hell do you mean Orochimaru is in the village?" Minato was glaring at the chūnin in front of him. But his anger was not directed at the chūnin, but instead at the fact that the snake traitor managed to sneak into the village.

"Sir, Anko Mitarashi has confirmed it upon seeing the remains of three Kusa genin. She instructed us to immediately inform you while she went in pursuit." Minato swore under his breath.

"Does that mean that bastard is in that forest with the genin?!" A furious Tsunade asked. The chūnin swallowed before shakily nodding his head. Tsunade whirled around to face Minato. "Anko won't be able to handle that! Let me go after him!"

Minato's mind races as he thought over his choices. He could only count himself as lucky that Kushina wasn't there because she was at the tower with the other jōnin who had a squad. "Go. But your main mission is to make sure that this doesn't get any worse. Do not go out of your way to pursue him." Tsunade nodded before speeding out of the room.

* * *

 **Forest of Death (The Next Day)**

It was now early in the morning and the only person who was awake was Naruto. He was sitting on a log in the clearing while everybody else was sleeping in the hollowed out tree. His mind was going over the battle with the Kusa genin. He couldn't get over the fact that the guy had been able to use darkness and summon heartless. But even worse than that...

' _I was completely toyed with right from the start!'_ The Kusa genin had been whole leagues ahead of Naruto in strength. And to top it off, Naruto had let his emotions cloud his judgement for a while. He had rushed in like an idiot and acted recklessly until the others snapped him out of it. With a sigh, Naruto moved his mind to the next subject that was bothering him.

That guy was able to use darkness.

' _This is a serious problem. If he can use darkness_ and _summon the heartless, then things are going to pick up quickly. I have no idea how long he has been able to summon heartless, but he will start to attract more and more to this world…'_ Naruto scowled. _'The world is in danger now. The heartless are aware of it.'_ He wished he was able to talk to Hikari and Yami, but he didn't want to risk entering the Station of Awakening in such a dangerous environment. There was a chance they could be attacked at any moment. Suddenly, Naruto shifted his gaze to the side as he detected some presences. _'I jinxed that.'_

"You obviously noticed us. You are pretty aware of your surroundings, that's good." Naruto watched as those three Oto genin from before the first chūnin exams walked into the clearing. "But I should get to the point of why we are here." The one with bandages was the one who was speaking. "You mind waking up the Uchiha? We would like to fight him."

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "I'm sorry to say this, but you have wasted your time. Uchiha is currently resting." He looked at each of them. "You're pretty brave to attack us with such few numbers, aren't you?" He looked up into the trees. "Or are you guys working with them?"

Standing in the trees above them were six boys. It was obvious that they were two separate teams as there were two sets of matching outfits being used between them. One team was wearing black and grey jumpsuits, had an oxygen tank on their legs, and kasa hats. The other team was also wearing jumpsuits, but yellow, and each of them had rebreathers over their mouths along with bandages wrapped around their eyes. All six of them had Ame forehead protectors.

One of the ones without the rebreather smirked. "They proposed an interesting suggestion. One that we were willing to agree to." He studied Naruto. "You are Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, correct?" Naruto nodded. "Good. You see, we heard about what you did to Aoi Rokushō." The smirk turned into a glare. "We wanted to see how tough the genin who managed to beat him is."

"I think he just underestimated me, really." Naruto said with a shrug.

"That may be so, but we are still curious."

"Enough of this!" The Oto genin with the kanji on his shirt yelled. "Let's just kill them already!"

The bandaged Oto genin glared at him. "Enough, Zaku. Do not simply go rushing in without a plan. They still outnumber us a bit."

The boy named Zaku glared back. "Like hell that matters. The pink haired girl is totally weak and a lot of them are injured! It's easy pickings, Dosu!"

Naruto smirked. "Are you so sure about that?"

"What?" Zaku growled.

"Look down." The boy did so and was startled to see black snakes circling around him.

"What the hell?!" He was about to jump away, but before he could, the snakes lunged at him and constricted around him. His teammates managed to move out of the way in time.

"You should always be aware of your surroundings, as your teammate said." A voice said. They turned to see Sai standing there.

Naruto nodded at him. "Nice one."

One of the Ame genin titled his head. "Were you not sleeping with the others?"

"Oh he was." The Ame genin teams whirled around to see where the voice came from. They were surprised to see Misa and her team standing there along with Narumi and Menma. "We were all asleep. Naruto woke us up."

Zaku growled more as he tried to free himself from the ink snakes. "When did he do that?! He was standing here the entire time!"

The crimson blond shrugged. "Clones are pretty useful."

"It's your own fault for getting caught so easily." The female Oto genin said.

"Shut up, Kin!" He struggled some more. "Why won't the freaking things come off?!"

"I suggest you stop struggling. They will only tighten their hold on you if you do not." Sai advised. Zaku ignored him and continued to struggle, only to scream in pain a moment later when the hold tightened. "You really are stupid."

Acting quickly, Dosu used a kunai to cut the snakes off of Zaku, forcing them to revert to puddles of ink. "Enough, stick to the plan." Seething with rage, Zaku nodded.

Menma snorted. "Why don't you guys just give up now? It will save us all some time."

"Nah, this is a lot more fun." Wham! Menma was caught off guard by the sudden punch to the side of his face that came from one of the Ame genin wearing a jumpsuit. Menma back flipped away and looked back to see his attacker.

"What? But you were…" He looked back at the group of Ame genin, only to see that the three jumpsuit wearing ones dissolve into water. "Great. Clones…"

"Indeed." Numerous clones formed all around them. "Now you are the ones who are outnumbered."

Narumi smirked. "Oh yeah? I wouldn't be so sure…" She formed a hand seal. " **Shadow Clone Jutsu**!" Clones of her popped into existence. Menma quickly followed her lead. "This evens things up a bit, doesn't it?" And without any further words, she and Menma attacked the enemy.

"I guess that means you three are left for us!" Ikusa said as he and his team attacked the other Ame team.

"Tch! Just get out of the way! We only want the other guy!" One of the Ame genin said.

Misa smirked. "Now, now. It isn't very fair of you to gang up on him, is it? Plus if you really want to get to him so badly, then just get through us!"

Kin smirked at Naruto and Sai. "And what about you two? Are you planning to fight the three of us by yourselves? Just get out of the way. We only want to fight the Uchiha."

Naruto frowned at them. "Why do you want to fight the Uchiha so much? Is there a reason you are specifically targeting him?"

Zaku smirked. "Wouldn't you like to know? If you wanna figure out the reason so much, just beat it out of us!" He thrust his hands forward, causing a blast of wind to be sent at them.

"Move!" Naruto and Sai both dove to the sides to get out of the way. _'Wind release?! And no hand seals?!'_ After the blast of air passed him, Naruto thrust his own hand forward. " **Fire**!" _'I don't have my sword anymore and I don't want to reveal my keyblade to anyone else. Magic and normal combat it is!'_

"Shit!" Zaku although caught off guard, was able to jump out of the way of the fireball.

"Careful! He still has techniques he can use without his sword!" Dosu shouted as he rushed forward to meet Naruto. He brought his arm forward in a punch.

Naruto's first instinct was to block the punch and counter it, but he instead chose to dodge to the side before kicking him away.

The bandage wearing Oto genin spun around and got into a battle stance. "Oh? You know the proper way to avoid my attack?"

Naruto smirked. "I remember what you did back before the first test. I'm not sure how you did it, but I know that I need to keep at least some distance between myself and your arm."

"Hmm. Good deduction. But that won't be enough!" This statement was punctuated by Kin tossing senbon at them from the side. While Naruto dodged them, Sai deflected the ones aimed at him with his tantō.

Dosu used this opportunity to get in close to Naruto again to get a hit in. Naruto was only able to move out of the way at the last second because of the onslaught of senbon.

A wave of nausea coursed through Naruto was he dodged that time. _'I let him get too close…I feel like crap.'_ Ignoring the feeling that he was about to throw up, Naruto sent a counter at Dosu's chest.

"Gah!" Dosu stumbled back from the blow, but Naruto wasn't going to give him time to recover. He rushed in to follow and sent more strikes at the Oto genin. Dosu was eventually able to break away and gain some distance, only to be assaulted by an ink lion.

" **Decapitating Air Waves**!" Naruto jumped out of the way as another blast of air struck where he was just standing.

' _That guy is obviously a long range fighter. Let's see how he does when I get in close!'_ Naruto rushed at Zaku. The Oto genin's eyes widened at the sight of his opponent rushing him. He quickly threw his arms up to shoot more blasts of air at Naruto, but each one of them was dodged. " **Thunder**!" Not expecting something other than a fireball, Zaku didn't was too surprised to dodge the bolt of lightning that stuck him.

Naruto used this chance to land some more chakra powered attacks. His final punch sent Zaku into the tree behind him. Naruto panted a bit as Zaku slowly pushed himself up to his feet. _'He is weak, but stubborn. He doesn't want to stay down.'_ Jingle! He then ducked as another volley of senbon came at his head. _'What's the point of attaching the bells?'_

Naruto deflected the next wave of senbon with a kunai. As he did so, he noticed that these didn't have bells. After he deflected them all, he threw the kunai at Kin, making her dodge. When she looked back at him, she was shocked to see that he was already upon her. Wham!

She flipped back after receiving the punch to her face. "Just give it up. Neither you nor the other one are able to keep up with me. The only one who could is currently being mauled by lions."

"Heh. We don't need to keep up with you." Naruto raised an eyebrow at that admission. "You already have fallen for my trap!" Jingle!

Suddenly, Naruto's entire world distorted around him. Objects were blending into one another as he found it harder to stand. His confusion only grew as he watched as his opponent seemed to multiply. "What the?"

Kin smirked at him. "Did you really think that we would attack you directly without as much as a plan?" She shook her head. "You really were stupid to not even question the bells." She turned to Zaku. "Finish him."

Zaku smirked maliciously. "With pleasure." He raised a palm. " **Decapitating Air Waves**!"

"Kya!" Naruto smirked when Kin was the one that was shot instead. She was sent flying into a tree before falling back to the ground. She didn't get back up.

Zaku blinked in shock. "What?! How did you switch places with her while under the genjutsu?!"

"Sai was right. You aren't the smartest person in the world…" Zaku's head snapped around to see Yakumo standing behind him.

"What the hell did you do, bitch?!" Zaku snarled.

Yakumo smirked at him. "It was stupid of you guys to try to use a genjutsu against us. There isn't a genin out there who can do genjutsu better than I can." She shook her head. "Naruto never switched places with her, you were pointing at her from the beginning. I placed a genjutsu that would distort your perception until she and Naruto switched places in your eyes." Zaku could only stare in shock at this.

"Thanks for the save…" Naruto said.

Yakumo rolled her eyes. "As if you didn't have another plan. There is no way you were finished just like that." Naruto's response was to smirk. Poof!

"Well, I may have had an idea or two…" Zaku tensed when he felt the cold steel against his throat. Looking back, he saw that Naruto was standing behind him with a kunai. "I may not be able to create as many as Narumi and Menma, but I still can use **Shadow Clones** well enough to trick some idiots."

"Gah!" They looked over to see the last of the Ame genins get slammed into the ground by Narumi.

"And that's the end-ttebane!" Narumi said with a grin.

Naruto smirked and looked over to Sai's fight with Dosu. His smirk grew when he saw a ragged Dosu panting as he looked between the last ink lion and Sai. "Hey, Oto genin!" Dosu shifted his eye over to him and it widened when he saw the condition of his teammates. "About time you guys give it up, don't you think?" Dosu looked between Naruto and the other Konoha genin. But before he could say anything, Naruto's attention was drawn by something else.

Whoosh!

A pulse of killing intent rushed through the clearing, making everyone freeze. Naruto scowled when he detected the darkness interlaced with it. They all turned to the hollowed tree to see the source. Standing there with an ominous grin was Sasuke. Sakura, who had been guarding her teammates, was standing nearby with a conflicted and confused look on her face.

Naruto narrowed his eyes when he saw the strange markings that seemed to be originating from his neck. _'That thing on his neck is going to be a bigger problem than I thought…'_ Naruto shoved away Zaku and turned to Sasuke. "Uchiha, you alright?"

The grin on Sasuke's face only grew. "I feel great." He lifted his hands and looked at them. "I can feel the power coursing through me!"

Naruto's eyes narrowed further. _'He's unstable.'_

Sasuke looked around. "These guys are enemies?" He asked.

Menma grinned at him. "Yeah, but don't worry! We kicked their asses!"

Sasuke smirked. "But it looks like one or two of them is still able to fight…" He turned to Dosu. "I will use you to test out my new power." Dosu jumped a bit at that declaration.

The Oto genin quickly looked around again. "My team will leave peacefully. We will leave our scroll with you if you agree to let us go." He declared.

"What?!" Zaku yelled. "What are you so afraid of?! There is no way I'm just going to turn and run away like a coward!"

"Don't be an idiot! Look around! We are outnumbered and outclassed! We should retreat while we can!" Zaku looked around. After a moment, he scowled and reluctantly nodded.

Sasuke took a step forward, but Naruto cut him off before he could say anything. "Leave the scroll and go. The same goes for you Ame teams." Dosu hastily nodded before reaching into his ouch and pulling out a heaven scroll.

Sasuke growled. "No. We aren't just letting them leave."

Naruto turned and glared at him. "Yes, we are. There is no point to taking this any further if we can get what we want." He saw out of the corner of his eye that Dosu abandoned their scroll and had just left the clearing carrying Kin while Zaku followed. The Ame teams soon followed their lead.

"I will test my new power on them!"

"Like hell you will! That power isn't even yours! It is a fake power given to you by a creep and it is messing with your head!"

Sasuke scowled. "It doesn't matter. I have it now." A purplish-black aura was starting to grow around him, making those that saw it before tense.

Naruto's eyes widened a bit. _'This is really bad.'_

"If you aren't going to let me fight them…" Sasuke sped towards Naruto! "Then I will just have to test my power on you instead!"

Naruto quickly got into a battle stance. When Sasuke was close enough, the Uchiha threw a punch that Naruto blocked with his forearm. "I don't want to fight you, Uchiha." Naruto said.

"That's too bad, because I want to fight you!" Sasuke sent a kick at Naruto's head. The crimson blond ducked under the kick before trying to knock Sasuke off of his feet with a kick to his legs.

The Uchiha jumped high into the air and went through hand seals. " **Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!** " He breathed out a fireball that was launched towards Naruto.

Seeing this coming, Naruto jumped out of the way before thrusting a hand forward. " **Thunder**!" Because he was in the air, Sasuke was unable to maneuver out of the way. He was struck by the lightning, but was quick enough to recover and land on his feet. The moment his feet touched the ground, he rocketed forward at Naruto again.

Naruto rushed to meet him before matching Sasuke's punch with his own. Sasuke was scowling by this point. "Why are you able to match me still?! I should be able to overpower you!"

Naruto grabbed his arm and flipped Sasuke onto the ground. The Uchiha hit it with a thud before quickly rolling to the side to avoid the follow up kick. "Like I said, idiot. You won't be able to get anywhere with power like that!"

This response made Sasuke scowl even harder. "Shut up! I will become the strongest! And I will use this power as a stepping stone to do it!"

"Sasuke snap out of it!"

"What the hell do you think you are doing, idiot?!"

Sasuke ignored the others as he rushed back at Naruto. They traded blows for a bit before another form suddenly joined in the fight. "Stop being an idiot!" Misa yelled as she tried to get a hold of Sasuke.

"You won't get in my way, either!" Sasuke dodge her and sent a kick at her back, causing her to stumble to the ground before rolling back to her feet. Sasuke looked around. The others had snapped out of their surprise and were surrounding him. "All of you are against me?"

Narumi glared at him. "We aren't against you. You just aren't thinking straight!"

"Shut up! I am thinking perfectly fine!" The aura around him was growing. "You are the ones who should just move!"

"So you could do what? Attack a fellow Konoha genin?" Wataru asked.

"So I can test my power!"

"Shut the hell up-ttebayo! Listen to yourself, Uchiha! You are willing to fight against allies just to test your power? You sound like a traitor! How far are you willing to go? Will you try to kill us to test yourself?!" Naruto yelled at him.

This made Sasuke freeze. _'Kill them just to test myself…? No. No. No! That's…That's what_ he _did…'_ But the power was so intoxicating… _'No! I won't do it!'_ But the power…

Sasuke clutched his head in pain as the markings on his body flashed red. Naruto realized what was going on instantly. "Fight it, Uchiha! Don't let it tempt you! Don't give into the hatred!" Sasuke must have been fighting against the influence of the darkness and the mark!

"Gah!" Sasuke fell to his knees has the pain increased. It hurt so much! And the voices wouldn't go away! Suddenly, he felt a pair of arms wrap around him.

"Fight it, Sasuke-kun. You are better than this. Don't let it control you!" Sakura whispered to him.

Bit by bit, the marks on his body receded until they all returned to his neck. Sasuke was left panting and dripping sweat. He shakily looked up at the others. "I'm…That…"

Naruto shook his head. "Don't worry about it. You alright?" He asked as he walked up to them.

Sasuke nodded before shakily getting to his feet with Sakura's help. "I'm fine…"

Ikusa walked up to them and smirked. "That's good. I wasn't sure how that was going to turn out." Sasuke remained silent. How was he supposed to respond to that?

Seeing the uncomfortable look on Sasuke's face, Misa spoke up. "Anyways, we should get to the tower." She held up her hands, showing that she had multiple scrolls in them. "Lucky enough for us, this let us each get the scroll we needed." She passed them out to each team and smirked. "What a coincidence, huh?"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Yeah, whatever. I just want to get out of here." He blinked when he heard a yawn come from nearby. They all turned to see a tired looking Saito stepping over to them.

"Man that was a good nap…" He said. He stopped when he saw the looks that everybody was giving him. "What?"

* * *

 **The Tower (Later)**

After traveling for a while, the four teams managed to reach the tower. Menma looked at each of the other teams. "Well, it was fun while it lasted."

Naruto snorted. "I don't call getting attacked by an overpowered enemy, monsters, multiple other teams, and each other a fun time."

"You know what I meant."

"No, I really don't." Naruto led the way as they walked through the large doors. They entered a large room where the only thing was a giant scroll on the wall with some writing on it.

Sakura walked up to the writing and read it. "…When heaven and earth are opened together…" She tilted her head. "I think this means we need to open our scrolls together…"

Saito walked up to her. "You sure about that? The rules were pretty clear that we shouldn't…"

"But we got them both and made it to the tower. I think we can open them now…" Wataru said as he joined them. A small debate soon started on whether or not they should open the scrolls.

Taking the chance, Naruto stepped towards the back, where he wasn't in the direct line of sight of the other teams. He raised a finger to his lips when Yakumo and Sai looked at him. After they both nodded, he concentrated on forming a small **Corridor of Darkness**. It soon opened and their scroll fell out of it. _'That would have been bad if I wasn't able to open the other end directly under the scroll…'_ After he obtained the scroll, he spoke up so the other teams could hear him. "I think we should open them."

"You see? Nii-chan agrees!"

"Fine, but I'm holding it to you if we fail…" Eight of them lined up. Two from each team.

Naruto looked around. "On three?" He asked. He got nods in return. "Ok. One. Two. Three!" They opened the scrolls, only for smoke to start coming out of them. Because he was the one that dealt with scrolls the most out of them, Naruto realized what was happening first. "Throw them away!" He tossed his scroll with the others immediately following. Poof!

Four expulsions of smoke were created from the scrolls. When the smoke cleared, they were able to see who had appeared.

"Yūgao-sensei!"

"Kaa-chan!"

"Kakashi-sensei!"

"Iruka-sensei!"

Three chūnin and a jōnin blinked in surprise at seeing the teams together. Kakashi cast a quick glance around before giving an eye smile. "Mah, I didn't really expect to actually get summoned."

Yūgao nodded. "Yeah, I know what you mean. But it wasn't that big of surprise, really…"

Yakumo frowned a bit. "Why did three of our teams have their jōnin leaders summoned but the other didn't?"

This question got Iruka to smile at her. "Good question. It's because we never really accounted for more than one team showing up at once. If that did happen, then the team that opened the scroll first would have the chūnin on duty summoned, while the other would have their sensei appear. The scroll read the chakra of the one opening it, making it possible." He grinned widely. "But enough about that! You all have managed to pass the second stage of the chūnin exams! And in a timely manner! Congratulations!"

Menma puffed up his chest. "It hasn't even been a full day since this thing started, we must be one of the earlier teams, if not the earliest."

Kushina grinned at him. "There is only one team that managed to get here before you guys." This seemed to make Menma deflate a bit.

"We weren't first?"

"Nope. The team from Suna was."

' _That isn't really a surprise…'_ Naruto thought to himself. He looked back to Iruka when the chūnin cleared his throat.

"Now listen up! I'm now going to explain to you the importance of the message on the wall! You see, heaven re-"

"No thanks."

"I'd rather skip this bit."

"I want to sleep." The vein in Iruka's head became increasingly pronounced as these comments went on. He opened his mouth to yell at them, but was cut off.

"Sasuke, why are you holding your neck like that?" They turned to Kakashi to see him looking intently at Sasuke, who froze in place.

The genin looked uneasily between Sasuke and Kakashi. When it was clear that no one was going to speak, Misa did. "We were attacked in the forest by someone who was way too strong to be a genin. He did something to Uchiha."

This sent alarms blaring through each of the adults in the room. Kakashi instantly strode up to Sasuke before tugging his hand away from his neck. When he saw what was there, he swore silently. Kakashi looked back up to the others. "We need to take them to see sensei. Now."

Yūgao frowned. "What happened?" She asked.

Although you couldn't see his face, you could still detect the scowl Kakashi had. "The snake traitor has given Sasuke the mark." This response made Naruto blink while the people above genin gasped.

' _Snake traitor? Why does that sound fami…Oh_ shit. _'_ Naruto paled a bit. "That was Orochimaru we were fighting?" He asked quietly. This made some of the other genin pale.

Kushina's head snapped around to him. "What?! You fought against that monster-ttebane?!" She was about to rush up to him to check him over, but was stopped by Yūgao placing a hand on her shoulder.

"They are obviously fine. We need to take them to Hokage-sama." The purple haired woman said. Kushina frowned, but nodded reluctantly after a moment. Seeing this, Yūgao turned to the genin. "Follow us. Hokage-sama is in the tower now. We will lead you there."

* * *

 **Tower Office**

Minato scowled as he listened to the report that the four genin teams in front of him were giving. After Tsunade had went off to catch up to Anko, she had managed to get there just in time to save Anko from getting killed, but Orochimaru managed to get away. Based on what Orochimaru said before he left, it was safe to assume that Sasuke had received the curse mark, but he had held hope that it didn't happen.

The Hokage nodded when he heard that Orochimaru had bit into Sasuke's neck and gave him the mark. "We will get that sealed away after this, Sasuke. What happened after that?"

Wataru stepped forward. "It was at that point that both my team and team 7 arrived. We witnessed Sasuke collapse, before engaging the enemy in battle." He wouldn't rat Naruto out about just jumping in there unless asked.

This made Minato frown a bit. "I do not know if that was the wisest decision. But given the circumstances, you might not have known who you were up against. Did he fight you all at once?"

Wataru shook his head. "No, sir. He seemed interested in Naruto for some reason and focused on him while he had a clone keep the rest of us busy." Both Minato and Kushina jolted while Yūgao frowned.

Kushina was instantly in front of Naruto and tilting his head around to get a look at his neck. "What did that monster do to you?! Did he bite you?! Do you also have a mark?! I'll gut that stupid snake-ttebane!" Minato was extremely tempted to go over and join her in her examination.

All of the physical handling was annoying Naruto, so he pulled her hands off of himself and stepped back with a frown. "No, he didn't give me a mark." Kushina and Minato let out breaths of relief.

"But why was he so interested in you?" Yūgao asked him.

Naruto shrugged. "No idea. He said something about being curious of what I was able to do."

Hearing that response made the adults frown. "Right…I want you to be careful, Naruto. Orochimaru isn't someone you want to have interested in you."

"I figured that…" Naruto muttered.

Nodding, Minato gestured for them to continue. "Sorry, we are getting off track. You all fought Orochimaru. What happened next?"

Naruto nodded. "He was beating us easily. But after a while, it seemed like his curiosity was taken care of. So he decided to test out…one of his experiments…"

This made the adults tense. "What was it?" Minato asked.

"They were these…strange creatures. He just summoned them and they formed out of the ground in pools of some weird dark stuff…" Narumi said. "They followed all of his orders."

"Were they summons?" Kushina asked with a frown. "No wait. Orochimaru is a summoner for the snake contract."

Ikusa frowned. "I'm pretty sure they weren't summon animals. Or if they were, I've never heard of anything like them."

"Every time they were killed, they would dissolve back into the dark stuff." Menma added. "And they were able to melt into the ground to travel quickly."

Naruto spoke back up. "There were a lot of them. While he let them fight us, Orochimaru fled."

Misa scowled. "The stupid coward."

Minato was silent as he thought. "Then I assume you defeated all of them?" Nods all around. "Very well. I thank you for telling me all of this. I must commend you on pulling through this despite the situation. Orochimaru is an opponent that many people are too scared to face. You all have until the next phase of the chūnin exams begins to rest. So about a little less than four days. Until then, you can spend your time in the tower however you like. Each team has a room to rest in, there is a cafeteria, and there is even a gym and theatre area." He looked to Sasuke. "Sasuke, please stay behind so we can get that mark taken care of. The rest of you are dismissed."

The genins, Yūgao, and Kushina filed out of the room. Once in the hall, Yūgao turned to her team with a grin. "Well, I have to say. You guys have had a heck of a time in there."

Naruto slumped. "Tell me about it. I just want to go and sleep." He _still_ needed to talk to Hikari and Yami.

His sensei grinned. "Well, don't let me keep you. Go take your nap."

Naruto nodded and turned away, but his arm was grabbed before he could. He turned to see Narumi holding it with a massive grin on her face. "Oh no you don't! I'm cashing in on that debt you owe me-ttebane!"

This made Naruto's face contort in confusion. "What debt?"

Narumi's grin grew. "You owe me a song! I'm cashing it in now. So we are going to the theatre, you can play there!"

"Can't we do this some other time?" He really needed to talk to Hikari and Yami…And get to his nap. "I don't even have an instrument on me. I didn't see the point of bringing one to the exam."

"Nope! And I'm sure there is one you can use there." Narumi turned and dragged her older brother away. The others shared amused looks before following.

* * *

 **Theatre**

"There, you see. They do have some here! Just use one of those!" Narumi chirped and shoved him towards the stage.

Naruto stumbled for a bit before regaining his balance. With a heavy sigh and a slump, he dragged his feet towards the stage. "Break a leg, Naruto!" Misa was enjoying this too much…

Looking at the assortment of instruments, Naruto thought about what to play. After a moment, he had his song picked. _'Good thing I like to play more than just the guitar…'_ Naruto made a hand seal. " **Shadow Clone Jutsu**!" With a few puffs of smoke, copies of Naruto appeared with him on the stage. They soon got into position as each of them took an instrument. The original took the mic and faced the small audience. "I'm only playing one song." He said.

"That's fine!" His sister responded. Naruto sighed again before his clones started to play.

 **Ignite (Dima Lancaster Cover)**

There is no time for a doubt  
All I have left is to scream out loud and  
Clear the sky of all these stormy clouds

I thought I knew what a true kindness really is  
I remembered it so clearly in the warmth of tears  
So why does hate always find its way through our hands  
Growing stronger, hurting us and breaking all that we mend

But with powers that I keep inside  
I am ready to start a fight  
And I will change it all for you and me  
We'll finally see the light

There is no time for a doubt  
All I have left is to scream out loud and  
Clear the sky of all these stormy clouds

I'll be the one to embrace  
This all-consuming and lifeless sorrow  
I'm not scared of the things I'll have to face  
It'll never be the same again, my impulses will ease the pain  
Let it stay this way

Inside my head there are millions of noises  
They are feeding on my last remaining memories  
And so I pray, but I can't hear any voices  
Maybe this time around it will make no difference

I just need to save my dying flame  
Through it all I need to find the way  
To not get lost in the night  
I'll spread the wings and let myself ignite

Now I just need to go on  
To break free from the past and tear it  
Faster, faster, until all fear is gone

Until tomorrow is close  
Until I finally see it shining  
I will, I will break this rusted door  
With feelings that I can't control  
I'll get up every time I fall  
I will cut through it all

As all these stars begin to flicker  
The world around revives and glitters  
There is a hope on the horizon and I know...

There is no time for a doubt  
All I have left is to scream out loud and  
Clear the sky of all these stormy clouds

I'll be the one to embrace  
This all-consuming and lifeless sorrow  
I'm not scared of the things I'll have to face  
It'll never be the same again, my impulses will ease the pain  
Let it stay this way

 **End Song**

Naruto sighed quietly as the song ended and his clones popped out of existence. He jumped off the stage as the others clapped and walked up to him. Narumi was bouncing out of excitement again. "That was great, Nii-chan! Did you write that one too?"

"Yeah, I did."

"Wow, who would have thought that someone like you was so talented?" Misa said with a teasing grin. Naruto's response was to roll his eyes.

"Oh kami, I had no idea you could perform that well, Naruto-kun!" Sakura gushed. The people who had never heard him perform before nodded in agreement.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish grin. "Thanks. Music is one of my favorite pastimes. Both listening and playing." He yawned. "But really, I'm going to take that nap now." Kushina looked like she wanted to say something, but stopped herself. The others said their goodbyes as Naruto walked off.

* * *

 **Station of Awakening**

Naruto opened his eyes to see Hikari and Yami standing in front of him. He decided to get right to it. "Orochimaru is able to use darkness and control the heartless."

Yami scowled. "Yeah, he is. That is really bad."

A snort escaped from Naruto. "That's an understatement. If the masses of heartless aren't aware of this world yet, they will be soon. How long do you think until they start showing up around the world without being called?"

Hikari shook her head. "We can't say. We were lucky to not have them be very active on this world until now. They could start appearing any time now. But they will definitely come sooner the more that man uses them."

"Crap." Naruto said to himself quietly. "Any ideas to stop the world from getting consumed?"

"You already know the solution."

With a sigh, Naruto nodded his head. "I need to find the keyhole of the world and lock it." A frown formed. "But that could be anywhere! And it's not like they will just let me leave to go look for it! Plus, there is no way I would know what to tell them!"

Hikari sighed as well. "Yes, that does pose a problem. I think you should talk to Urahara when you can to see if you can try to get him to help. Maybe have him keep an ear out for places with high heartless activity."

"Yeah, I guess that's the only thing I can really do for now…" Naruto paused for a moment. "And that bastard broke my sword! I've had that since you gave it to me when I was six-ttebayo! I had to use my keyblade back there!" Naruto blinked and looked at Yami. "What are the chances of me getting another one?" He asked.

"Not gonna happen. You were lucky I provided you with that one. If you wanna use a sword so bad, go get your own." Hikari nodded in agreement.

"Damn it…"

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 22!**

 **If you are going to bitch and moan about Orochimaru having control over darkness and the heartless, then get the fuck out. You can** _ **not**_ **tell me that motherfucking** _ **Clayton**_ **from Tarzan can do that but Orochimaru can't. If you even tried to reason that then I would mark you off as someone to completely disregard for the rest of eternity.**

 **Giving Naruto the curse mark isn't** _ **that**_ **cliché...right?**

 **...**

 **...**

 **...right?**

 **I admit. It** _ **may**_ **have crossed my mind. And it** _ **may**_ **have been planned. I was completely caught off guard by the negative responses to that possibility. I didn't think it was a bad idea...Ok, so it was a bit cliché, but it wasn't horrible! But anyways, no big loss. I just changed the plan a bit to fit this. You see! I take what you guys say into consideration!**

 **As you saw, I plan on including some attacks from the Deck Commands. I know some people have been asking me about sword techniques. I don't really have any idea what that would entail, but this is my interpretation. Shadowbreaker is from Dream Drop Distance.**

 **The two Ame teams were teams Oboro and Shigure.**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	23. Chūnin Exams: Prelims

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 23!**

 **Still might not do one, but if I was to do a pairing who would you guys want it to be with? I'm kind of curious as to who would be the popular pick. The worlds aren't confirmed yet, so try to keep this within the Naruto/Kingdom Hearts universes. Meaning only people who have appeared either in Naruto or one of the Kingdom Hearts games.**

 **This chapter was so freaking long. I actually had to split it. I was going to upload it tomorrow or the next day, but then I realized it was just too long.**

 **I have been dreading this chapter and the next for a while now. There are just too many fights…**

 **The hardest part for me when it comes to writing this thing is starting the writing session. Once I start, I don't get back up for hours. I usually continue working until the chapter is done unless I have something else I need to do. But it just takes me forever to get off my ass and actually** _ **start**_ **working. I usually upload a chapter, then spend the next couple of days being lazy, before finally starting again on my phone on Tuesday or something.**

* * *

 **Exalted Demi-Soul: It's like you're challenging to put it in some place that is totally random…But think about where they were in the actual game. All of those places were pretty obvious.**

 **animecollecter: I just didn't see a point to keeping it at M. I really don't think it will ever get that graphic. And I** _ **know**_ **I will never even try to write a lemon. T is what this story should really be rated, so I changed it. If something happens, I will just change it back.**

 **buterflypuss: I think I know what you meant now. To you, I had ended chapter 21 with Naruto being stupid. But I had always had the darkness in mind, meaning I was easily able to write that off as being normal.**

 **prototype gear: I already have the Riku thing planned out a bit. Don't worry about it. And I get what you mean with the forest of death bit. Unfortunately, I needed to use the Konoha exam because of the Orochimaru stuff.**

 **Guest: I could tell you, but that would be spoiling.**

 **Golden feathers Edward: Thanks. I didn't like the chapter much because I had seen the initial draft. That thing was trash in my opinion. I tried to get away from it, but I wasn't able to get away from it as much as I would have liked, so it made my opinion of the chapter lower a bit. I don't really have an update schedule. I post in my profile the chapter word progress along with any notes on expected upload dates (if there are any). The thing is that I'm a full time college student who also has a job, so many of my updates are on or near the weekend.**

 **jonnywolf: I wouldn't be able to trust myself with giving him another sword. I would just push off revealing the keyblade even more than I already have. :P**

 **Dark Natsu Dragneel: …Fuck. I** _ **really**_ **like that idea, but it would mean scrapping some stuff I want to do.** _ **But**_ **it would also let me do other stuff I wanted to do…Freaking decisions…Meh, that's a problem for future me. Let him figure it out.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the Story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else. I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Diety Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Diety Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **End of 2** **nd** **Exam**

Five days have now passed since the fifth exam has started. Naruto and the others have spent the past few days recovering from the injuries they gained in the forest and relaxing. After giving the small performance and talking to Hikari and Yami, Naruto did not get back up until it was time for dinner. By that time, Sasuke had finally rejoined the others only to tell them that the curse mark had been taken care of.

The teams that had passed the exam were now meeting in the arena-like room where they were to be debriefed on the next stage. Looking around, Naruto noted that there was a stage in the front of the room as well as viewing balconies on two walls.

"10 ryō says we have to fight each other next." Naruto said quietly to his teammates. This made Yakumo roll her eyes as an amused smile quirked her lips a bit.

"That's a suckers bet. Especially with you of all people on the other side."

"Hey, you never know. I could be totally wrong and all we have to do is showcase a couple of our techniques."

"I bet we actually do have to fight." They turned to see Misa and her team walking up to them. "It really wouldn't surprise me."

"Troublesome...I just want to take a nap." Shikamaru said as he and his team joined them. Looking closer, Naruto noticed that they were a little dirty.

Naruto smirked at the Nara. "You guys should have gotten here sooner like we did. I had plenty of time to take naps."

Ino sighed. "I wish we were able to. I wasn't even able to take a bath before we were told to gather here!" She stroked her hair. "Look at this! I haven't been able to properly wash my hair in days!"

"At least you're alive, Ino..."

The Yamanaka sent a pout at Narumi when she and the rest of the rookies joined them. "But I'm dying on the inside!" Menma rolled his eyes and shared an amused look with Kiba and Saito. "I saw that!" Ino yelled at them.

"Well now, it is nice to see that you guys are still as lively as ever." Naruto frowned a bit when he heard that voice. The group turned to see Kabuto walk up to them with a smile plastered on his face. "I don't know how you guys can have so much energy in an environment like this."

Sakura blushed a bit at that. "Sorry for being so loud again, Kabuto-san." She tilted her head. "How did your team do in the forest? We never saw you in there." She asked.

Kabuto grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. "We barely got here in time. It was really tough getting a scroll." Naruto didn't miss the subtle glance that he sent at Sasuke and him.

"But at least you managed to." Chōji said with a smile of his own.

Kabuto nodded. "Yes, we did manage to." He glanced around. "But so did a lot of teams. Definitely more than I was expecting. There are thirty-two people here..."

Shino raised an eyebrow. "Is the amount of participants at this stage unusual?"

Kabuto shrugged. "Can't really say. I haven't made it this far too many times. Actually, only once before. But I don't think that this many people sticking around this late in the game is a frequent occurrence." He said. "There are actually eight teams from Konoha that managed to make it. Along with a team from Suna, Oto, and Kumo."

"Do you believe that something will be done to decrease the numbers?"

Kabuto opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off as multiple puffs of smoke suddenly appeared on the stage, with all of the jōnin sensei, exam proctors, and Minato appearing. "Everybody shut up and line up by team!"

The older Konoha genin sent a smile at the rest of them. "Well, I guess we're about to find out. Good luck you guys." And with that, he walked off to join his teammates.

Once they were all lined up with their teams, Anko started talking. "I must say, I am surprised at the amount of you that managed to get this far. I must have made things too easy for you..."

' _As if fighting a sannin was us having it easy.'_

"But regardless, congratulations on passing the second stage of the chūnin exams." She stepped to the side. "Hokage-sama has something to say to you worms so listen up!" She gained a twisted smile. "If any of you have problems with doing so, we can spend some quality one on one time to...remedy any issues you have."

Minato sweat dropped at the phrasing but sent her a nod and smile. "Thank you Anko." He looked at the assorted genin in front of him. "Once again, congratulations on making it this far. I know that it must have been difficult for you to do so, but you have already managed to finish two out of three exams."

Shikamaru sagged a bit more. "Thank kami...almost done with this troublesome thing..." Naruto smirked when he heard this get muttered.

"But before we continue, I would like to take a minute to speak to you about something." His smile dimmed a bit as he looked around again. "It is about the true purpose of the exam."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. _'The purpose of the exam?'_

A sigh escaped Minato's lips. "Although I wish it didn't have to be like this, there is a meaning to the exam beyond deciding who is ready to become a chūnin. These exams...are a substitution for active war."

Multiple genin throughout the room had their eyes widen in surprise at that. "The heck does that mean?!" Kiba shouted, earning himself a disapproving look from Kurenai.

Minato sighed. "I won't go too far into detail, but the basic summary is that the chūnin exams are a way for villages to get together and showcase their strength. This provides multiple uses." He said.

' _I get it now. The villages would of course want to show off their up and coming shinobi, but war is something that everybody would like to avoid...'_

"But why? Why should we risk our lives just to show off how strong the village is?"

"As shinobi, we truly surpass our limits when we need to. This is done when our lives are at risk." He shook his head. "But that is not the entire reason. Many people come to view the chūnin exams. And many of them are potential business for the villages."

Naruto's mouth formed a small frown. _'We really are just a way to bring in more money.'_

"I don't need to tell you how important this is for each village." He paused to look them over again. "But while that is a major reason, it is also true that the chūnin exams provide a chance for the villages to come together in peace to compete." He grinned. "You do your villages proud by showcasing your skills in front of a large audience like that." He spread his arms out. "So once again, congratulations! You have made it this far, and your goal is nearly in reach!"

Misa and Naruto exchanged smirks at this before Naruto turned his gaze to Gaara. _'I still need to take care of that situation...'_

"Now then. I believe it is time to get this show back on track. The next step for..." Minato trailed off as someone stepped forward.

The man coughed before speaking up. "If I may, Hokage-sama. I would like to be the one to explain the next portion of the exam." He coughed again.

"Ah, sure. They're all yours, Hayate." The man named Hayate nodded before turning to the crowd of chūnin hopefuls.

He wore the standard Konoha shinobi attire with the only variation being that his forehead protector was worn as a bandana. His hair was short and dark brown in color while he also had dark eyes. There were pronounced dark markings under his eyes. Naruto's eyes were drawn to the katana he had on his back. But there was something even more noticeable about the man that caught Naruto's attention.

' _Is this guy alright...?'_ Just by looking at him, Naruto was able to tell that he was sick. The man seemed to be unable to go an extended period of time without coughing. And those marks under his eyes showed a lot of fatigue.

Hayate coughed again before speaking. "My name is Hayate Gekkō. I wil-" He interrupted himself with a cough.

' _No seriously. Is he ok?'_

"Sorry about that. I will be the proctor of the third portion of the chūnin exams." His eyes briefly raked over the group in front of him. He coughed again before speaking. "Unfortunately, there are too many of you. Because of this, we will be running a preliminary round now before the exam."

Naruto shared a glance with Shikamaru. So there really were too many people...

"You will now all be selected two at a time. When your name is chosen, you will come to the center of the aren-" He coughed again. "Come to the center of the arena and commence in a one on one fight."

Naruto leaned closer to Yakumo. "You totally owe me 10 ryō." He whispered to her. Yakumo's response was to send her elbow into his gut.

Hayate looked around. "Before we continue, is there anyone who would like to forfeit now?"

Naruto noticed out of the corner of his eye that Kabuto shifted a bit. Looking over, he saw that Kabuto had his hand partway raised before pausing with a small frown on his face. After a moment, Kabuto lowered his hand again.

Naruto narrowed his eyes a bit. _'What was that about? He doesn't even look tired, why would he even think about giving up now?'_

Another cough. "No one?" Hayate waited for another moment. "Very well then. All thirty two of you will participate. I guess this will work out better in the end with these numbers..." He turned and nodded to Anko, who in turn nodded back before speaking into the headset she had on. The attention of the genin were drawn to back wall which retracted two panels to show a giant screen. "We will now select the first two combatants."

Naruto looked around. _'I don't really have a problem fighting anyone here. But I wish I had my sword still.'_ His eyes returned to Gaara. _'...Well, maybe I wouldn't like to fight him here and now.'_ He looked back as names started flashing on the screen as it decided on the first match.

 **Menma (Konoha) vs Misa (Konoha)**

Menma grinned widely. "Alright, here we go! I'm gonna prove once and for all how awesome I am-ttebasa!"

Misa smirked over at him. "You sure about that? I'm not going down without a fight."

Hayate coughed again before speaking. "The first match is between Menma of Konoha and Misa of Konoha. Participants, please come to the center of the arena. Those not in the match, please relocate to the viewing balconies. We will begin in a few minutes."

Naruto looked at both Menma and Misa. "Good luck to the both of you."

Misa's smirk only grew. "Sorry, Naruto. It looks like I have to kick your brother around a bit."

This got a challenging grin from the redhead. "I don't care if you have been a shinobi for a year longer than I have, there is no way I'm losing here!"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Both of you are truly humble individuals." And with that, he turned and walked towards the stairs leading to the balconies.

He was only able to go three feet.

"Yo yo yo! Hold it up there, bro!"

' _The hell was_ that _?'_ Naruto turned towards the source and stared.

It was a large man with dark skin and a muscular build that had whitish-blond hair and a goatee. On his right shoulder was the kanji for "iron" and on his cheek was a tattoo depicting bull horns. He also had on oval sunglasses and a white Kumo forehead protector. His attire consisted of the standard one-strap-over-one-shoulder flak jacket of Kumo, a long red rope belt, the standard Kumo hand and shin guards, and a white scarf. On his back were seven swords.

Naruto just stared as the moron in front of him continued to gesture around with various hand signs and shift his weight from one foot to the other. _'Oh dear kami no. Not another idiot.'_ Naruto turned around. "Sorry, but I'm not dealing with this. Go talk to someone else."

"Oh, what a cruel fate of the divine! To be rejected like that by Mr. Nine!"

That made Naruto freeze. He slowly turned back to him. "You know about the Kyūbi?" He asked. While it was more of an open secret, it was still slightly surprising to hear that people from other villages knew about it and would call him something like that.

"I wasn't totally sure to be fair, cuz it feels like the fox isn't all there!" The man said.

Naruto frowned at him before slowly nodding. "Yeah...I only have the soul while my siblings both got half of the chakra."

The man rubbed his chin on thought. "Oh, that's a new thought. But I guess that explains why I detect the fox in more than one spot!" He looked down at Naruto. "But we are getting off track. I'm Killer B, now you pick up the slack!"

Naruto sweat dropped. _'Pick up the slack? What the hell does that mean? Of the conversation? He wants me to introduce myself?'_ Deciding that this was the most likely conclusion, Naruto nodded. "Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze..."

B nodded. "It's cool to meet another jinchuriki, you can call me lord B!"

Naruto blinked at him. "Disregarding the fact that I'm only a partial jinchuriki, you are a jinchuriki?"

"I am the host of number eight, King octo-bull the great!" The man paused for a moment. Before Naruto could ask what was wrong, he pulled out a small notebook and started to write in it quickly while muttering to himself. "...King octo-bull...the great."

The sweat drop was only getting bigger. _'He is actually writing it down to remember it? That sucked!'_

B closed his notebook with a snap. "I look forward to seeing what you can do. You will have to give it your all if you want to beat my crew!" He gestured to the genin that were holding their heads in their hands on the other balcony. Naruto could only send them a sympathetic look.

He knew what it was like to have a teacher who was impossibly infuriating.

"But anyways, I think it's time for me to skedaddle. They are about to start the battle!" He raised a fist.

This action got a raised eyebrow in return. But understanding what he wanted, Naruto raised his own fist and bumped it with his.

He was not expecting what happened next.

* * *

 **Station of Awakening**

Naruto jerked into awareness and quickly looked around. "How the heck did this happen?"

" **I would like to know that as well."**

Naruto spun around at the voice and froze at what he saw. In front of him was a giant octopus...bull…thing. Going by what B had said and the number of tails, Naruto was quickly able to figure out what he was looking at. "The Hachibi..."

" **Indeed. But moving past that, how did we get here?"** He looked around. **"And where is here? Is this your mind scape?"**

"Well it must be. I don't think we would wind up anywhere else, ya see?" Great he was here too.

' _They gotta go!'_ Naruto quickly closed his eyes.

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

Naruto returned to awareness and immediately pulled his hand away from B as he glared. "You could have warned me that would happen."

B rubbed the back of his head. "I'm sorry about that, bro. It was actually the first time I've ever seen that, ya know?"

The crimson blond shook his head. "Whatever. No harm no foul." He turned away. "I wish your team luck in the exams."

The Kumo shinobi nodded with a grin. "Good to meet you, Mr. Nine. Be sure to get by this portion just fine." And with that, he left to join his team.

Naruto soon joined his team on the other balcony. They shot him curious looks. "What was that about?" Yakumo asked him.

She got a shrug in return. "Nothing much. He just was able to tell that I held the soul of the Kyūbi and wanted to meet me."

Yūgao nodded from her spot behind them. "Not surprising, really. Killer B is known to be the jinchuriki of the Hachibi as well as being an overall friendly person...if you don't insult his raps."

Narumi gaped a bit from her spot nearby. "That guy is a jinchuriki?" She looked at Killer B and narrowed her eyes as she scrutinized his appearance. "What form does the Hachibi take?"

"An octopus bull...thing..." Naruto was the one to answer, but he did so absentmindedly. _'What made us enter the Station of Awakening? Was it the fist bump?'_ He frowned as he thought more. _'Moving past that, I can't believe how polite that bijū was!'_ He couldn't even detect any obvious traces of darkness!

He blinked when he felt someone tap him on the shoulder to get his attention. Looking over, he was met with the slightly concerned face of Yakumo. "What's wrong?" She asked him.

Naruto's response was to give her a small smile and shake of the head. "Don't worry about it."

They looked back down to the arena when Hayate stepped in between Menma and Misa.

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

Hayate looked in between the two of them. "Are both of you ready?"

"You know it."

"Ready and willing."

"Good." He raised a hand, causing both of them to tense in preparation. He brought it back down swiftly after a moment. "Begin!" Hayate immediately jumped back as both Misa and Menma rushed each other.

The two of them started the match with a short exchange of blows before jumping away again. This short pause did not last long however as they went back in for another round. Menma launched a punch at Misa that she managed to block, but she was caught off guard when Menma used the momentum of his punch to spin around to her side and deliver a kick to her.

Despite being caught off guard, Misa was able to react quickly enough to catch the leg. Not wanting to give him the chance to try something else, Misa used the hold she had on him to knock him off balance.

Knowing that he was going down, Menma didn't fight it and instead rolled into it to dodge the strike that Misa sent. Immediately getting back to his feet, Menma used the opening to land a combo on Misa.

Misa took a few hits before breaking Menma's pace and returning her own blows.

* * *

 **Back with the Others**

The others had been watching silently as the match progressed. The silence was eventually broken by Narumi. "They look pretty even..." She said.

"No. They're not."

Narumi blinked before looking over to over to Wataru and tilting her head. "What do you mean? They look like neither can get the advantage for too long."

Wataru didn't look at her as he frowned lightly at the fight. "Look closer. They both seem to like relying on taijutsu and seem to be at about the same level in speed, but it also looks like Menma is slightly stronger. He is also better at thinking on his feet. Misa's style revolves around anticipating her opponent's moves and acting accordingly. Menma isn't really thinking ahead, he just...reacts..."

Naruto snorted. "That's a nice way to say he rushes in without thinking."

Wataru smiled wryly. "Maybe so. But either way, it's working for him. Misa is more experienced, but she may still lose this match."

"I think I see what you mean now..." Narumi said quietly as she looked back at the match. "Oh, it looks like it's ending..."

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

Bam! Misa was sent tumbling back as Menma managed to get a strong kick under her guard. She rolled for a bit before shakily getting to her feet as she panted and clutched her gut.

Menma, while panting as well, did not look as bad off as Misa did. He grinned at her as he stood in a battle stance. "You ready to give yet?"

She glared at him. "Oh, shut it you ass." She assessed her condition. After a moment of thought, she sighed and looked to Hayate. "I'm done. I don't think I will be able to keep up with him much longer. I'm satisfied with how far I've gotten, so no regrets."

Hearing this, Hayate nodded and raised a hand towards Menma. "Winner, Men-" He coughed again. "Menma of Konoha."

Some cheers began as the announcement was made. Menma grinned and walked up to Misa. "Awesome fight. I had a lot of fun. You doing alright?" He asked her.

The older Konoha genin smiled back at him and shrugged. "Thanks, back at you. And don't worry about it, I'm fine." She grinned challengingly at him. "But don't expect it to turn out the same way the next time we fight." This response made him smirk.

* * *

 **Back with the Others**

After the winner was declared, the others had begun to clap. Ikusa sighed and looked to Wataru. "That's a shame. But I guess it was hoping for too much for all of us to pass."

Wataru nodded. "Yeah, and it was bad luck that some of us have to face each other." They and the others turned when Misa and Menma joined them. "Nice job you two. Better luck next time, eh Misa?"

Misa shrugged a bit. "Yeah, I guess. I didn't pass this time, but I will next time for sure."

Naruto smirked at her. "Wow, what a good sport. I'm amazed you can be so mature about this." He shifted his gaze to his brother. "And who would have thought that you wouldn't be bragging a bunch about this?" They both rolled their eyes at him.

Narumi grinned at Menma. "Congrats, Menma. Nice to know you can actually perform decently in a fight without someone there to bail you out."

Seeing the glare her younger son was sending and knowing an argument was about to start, Kushina intervened. "Enough, don't fight now." She grinned at Menma and Misa. "But really, that was a good fight you two." She looked around. "But where's your sensei? Shouldn't they be here?"

Misa frowned a bit. "Sensei said that he had to leave on a sudden mission in another country. This was like a week back. He doesn't even know if he will be back before the exams end." They turned when they heard Hayate cough.

Naruto frowned a bit. "Was that a normal cough or one to try and get our attention?" He asked.

Yūgao sighed. "That was just a normal cough. If he wanted to get people's attention, then he would have made it louder."

Her students blinked at her. "How can you tell?" Yakumo asked with a tilt f her head.

Kushina grinned as she cut Yūgao off before she could answer. "That's because they're a couple! You should hear some of the stuff Yūgao-chan says about Hayate! She's so head over heels for him-ttebane!" Yūgao blushed a bit as sent a weak glare at Kushina. Her blush deepened when she heard Narumi and Yakumo giggle.

They looked back down as a cough sounded out again, but louder this time. "I think I see what you mean..." Naruto muttered.

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

Hayate waited for the chatter to die down again before speaking. "We are now going to select the participants of the next match. Please direct your attention to the screen." They did so and names soon began to cycle through. After a minute, two names were selected.

 **Saito (Konoha) vs Tenten (Konoha)**

"Would Saito of Konoha and Tenten of Konoha please step into the arena?" Before anything else could be said or done, the ears of everyone in the room were assaulted by something.

"YOSH! The time has come, my youthful student!" All eyes were immediately drawn to the form of Might Gai. "It is now that the flames of your youth will burn brighter than ever before!" He pointed to the arena. "I have faith that no matter the outcome, you will prove to all that your flames burn with a passion that can never be dimmed!" Tenten looked mortified at what she was hearing.

"YOSH!" Lee had no qualms with joining in.

Gai shifted his finger to the Kakashi. "Kakashi, my rival! This shall be the first test of which of us has the more youthful pupils! Are you prepared for this?!"

Kakashi just stood there with his nose in his book. After a moment, he sent a disinterested glance at Gai. "Hm? Did you say something?"

Gai clenched his fist and shook it back. "You and your hip attitude are growing ou-"

"Enough!" He was interrupted from speaking further by his female student. "I need to go down there now to have my match. I don't want you to speak anymore until it is over!" She glared at him. "Is that clear?" Gai averted his gaze a bit as he nodded silently. Tenten then turned her glare to Lee. "The same goes for you." Lee flinched and nodded. Tenten immediately smiled. "Good!" She then turned and walked towards the stairs.

' _What the heck is up with that team dynamic?'_ Naruto would be lying if he said that he didn't even find it little amusing. He looked over to Saito. "Well, good luck with your match."

Saito sighed and nodded. "Thanks. I hope she goes easy on me."

A hand clamped down on his shoulder. He looked back to see the eye smile of Kakashi. "I have faith in you. I know you will at least last a couple of minutes." All this did is make Saito slump.

Kushina glared at Kakashi. "That is no way to encourage your students, Kakashi-kun."

Kakashi flinched under the look and averted his eyes. "Ah. I understand, senpai..." The others smirked at the exchange.

Sakura turned to Saito. "Good luck, Saito. Kick some butt out there." She got a grateful smile in return.

"Hn. Don't lose too quickly…" This comment from Sasuke only served to make Saito slump even more.

Menma grinned widely and thumped his friend on the back. "Don't be like that! Go down there and show her what you're made of!"

"I'm more worried that she will forcibly remove the stuff I'm made of..." Saito sighed again before gathering his resolve. He put on a determined expression. "Let's do this." He turned and walked towards the stairs.

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

Saito soon made his way down to the center and stood off a bit from Tenten. She grinned at him. "Hey there. Good luck to the both of us. Let's have a good fight."

Saito smiled back and nodded. "Sure. The same for you. Let's show them something good."

Hearing that the both of them were done exchanging pleasantries, Hayate looked between them. "Are the both of you ready?" He asked them and got two nods in return. Nodding, he coughed before raising a hand. "Second match, begin!" He gave the signal and quickly jumped out of the way.

And not a moment too soon.

The instant that the match began, both Saito and Tenten immediately plunged their hands into pouches and pulled out scrolls. Simultaneously, they unrolled the scrolls and pumped chakra into them. The space between them was immediately filled with speeding kunai.

Seeing the oncoming danger, both of them jumped to the side. Reacting quickly, Tenten sent another wave of weapons at Saito. Her opponent saw this and had to jump out of the way again before hurling a kunai at her.

Tenten moved to the side and readied another set of weapons, but froze when he heard a hissing sound behind her. _'Oh crap!'_ She dove forward immediately. Boom! _'How did I miss that paper bomb attached to it?'_ Her eyes widened when she saw a shadow appear over her.

"I've got you now!" Saito had used the chance to get in close with a sword that he had unsealed from another scroll. Clang! Sparks flew as Tenten barely managed to bring out a kunai in time to block the strike. "Wow, you are really fast when it comes to getting the weapon you need. I was hoping to end it with that…"

Tenten sent him a small grin. "Thanks, I've worked hard to get my dexterity as fast as it is. You will need to be a little faster than that to catch me without a weapon." Although she said that, she was struggling to keep Saito's sword away. _'Geh. Using a kunai to block a sword sucks! But he came too quickly for me to bring out something else.'_ Tenten's grin grew. "But I'm really surprised. I never thought I would have to fight another weapons specialist."

Saito grinned and nodded. "Same here. I was shocked to see that we opened the match the same way. But…" He pressed down harder, causing Tenten to buckle a bit. "I would also like to see which of us the better weapons specialist is. Don't worry, this sword has a reverse blade."

He got a challenging smirk in return. "Oh, I already know who the better specialist is. I'll just have to show you!" She moved to the side, causing Saito to lose his balance slightly as the opposing force was suddenly removed from his sword. Using the chance, Tenten jumped into the air with another scroll in her hand. "Dodge this!"

* * *

 **Back with the Others**

"Oh wow, she fights just like Saito…" Sakura said quietly with wide eyes.

"Not quite. They do use similar tactics, but there are some slight differences." Kakashi said from behind her without even looking up.

The pink haired girl tilted her head curiously and looked back at him. "What do you mean, Kakashi-sensei? They are both using weapons to fight."

The response that she got was a glance and an eye smile. "Well, can you tell me what kind of weapons they are using?" She blinked and looked back to the fight. After a moment, she saw what he meant.

"Tenten-san prefers to keep her distance." The group turned to Sai when he spoke. "Saito-san is attempting to get close, but is unable to. Although they both started with ranged weapons, Saito quickly changed to close range when he saw that she was also a weapons specialist."

Kakashi nodded with another eye smile. "Exactly. Saito has always preferred to use swords and other close ranged weapons, but he often starts out with some long range weapons to see how his opponent reacts. But it looks like Gai's student prefers to keep her distance when she fights."

Narumi frowned a bit. "Then who would you say has the advantage? Saito with close range or Tenten-san with long range?" She asked.

"Mah, let's just watch and find out. It really depends on who can get the advantage first."

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

"Would you just hold still?!"

"Why would I do that?! Why don't you come closer?!"

Tenten growled a bit when she got that response. No matter how many weapons she threw at the guy, he would just keep moving out of the way! The only advantage was that he also wasn't able to get close. A smirk appeared on her face. _'Let's see him dodge_ this… _'_ She brought out another scroll. Instead of unrolling it, she rushed towards Saito. _'I will have to time this just right!'_

Although slightly surprised, Saito rushed forward to meet her while keeping one eye on the scroll in her hand. Once close enough, he brought forward his sword. Tenten didn't even blink so she could get the timing just right. _'Now!'_ Suddenly, she brought the scroll forward.

Seeing this, Saito changed the direction of his sword at the last moment to the arm holding the scroll, stopping her from opening it. Tenten stopped her arm and diverted her direction to the right, but she wasn't quick enough to dodge the sword. "Son of a-" She rolled into a kneeling position as she gripped her arm.

Saito just frowned at her. "What was that about? Was there any plan at all to that? Or were you just hoping that I wouldn't be able to react in time to stop that scroll?" He blinked when she saw the smirk on her face. "What?"

Tenten only smirked more. "Well, I would say that my plan worked out pretty well."

A small frown came to Saito's face. "I stopped you from opening that scroll, which is still in your hand, and managed to hurt you. Your speed and accuracy with weapons will now be hindered. How do you figure your plan worked?"

A giggle escaped Tenten. "Oh, just the fact that you're still standing there…"

Saito's eyes widened and his head snapped down. There, on the floor right where he was standing, was an opened scroll.

"Saito! Get out of there!"

"Shi-" Boom!

Before he could even begin to move or answer Sakura's shout, the scroll went off. "Gah!" Saito was launched into the air by the torrent of wind and weapons that launched out of the scroll. While the massive wind launched him into the air, the mass amount of weapons sliced into every inch of his body.

Thud! Saito soon returned to the ground. While hurt and winded, he wasn't out of the fight yet. He began to pick himself up, only to freeze when he felt the cold steel of a kunai tip on the back of his neck. "I would say you should give up." He could practically _feel_ the grin on her face…

Saito sighed quietly as he laid back down. "I should have seen that coming. A distraction with an obvious rush and then hitting me with a delayed attack…" He shook his head a bit before raising his voice. "I give up."

Hayate nodded and raised a hand. "Winner, Tenten of Konoha!"

Cheers rang out from the audience. Tenten was doing her best to ignore the obnoxious cheering of the two people clad in green jumpsuits. She removed the kunai threatening to stab into Saito and offered him a hand. "Great match. I had a lot of fun. It isn't that often that I get to have that kind of fight."

With a small smile, Saito took the offered hand. "Thanks. And you're right. There aren't enough weapons specialists around."

A cough interrupted them. They both blinked and looked to the side where Hayate was looking at them. "If you could please remove all of the weaponry from the arena so we can start the next match…" He said.

Both Tenten and Saito blinked at each other before gaining sheepish grins.

* * *

 **Back with the Others**

"That's too bad. It's a shame that Saito lost…" Sakura said as she watched Saito leave the room for a bit to get his cuts treated.

Menma shrugged with a small grin. "Maybe, but he at least managed to put up a fight. I thought he was doing pretty well up until the end there."

Kakashi nodded while looking at his book. "Saito performed well. Tenten just had some better tactics and maneuvers at her disposal to pull out a win." He was silent for a minute. Then suddenly, his shoulders sagged and he hung his head.

Both Kushina and Yūgao raised an eyebrow at the unusual behavior. "What's the matter with you?" Yūgao asked him.

"Gai won't let this one go for a long time…" This got amused looks from the two of them.

"Oh, look! The next match is about to be decided." Yakumo said. The others looked up to the screen as it cycled through more names. Eventually, it stopped on the next two fighters.

 **Sasuke (Konoha) vs Yoroi (Konoha)**

Sasuke gained a smirk when he saw his name appear on the screen. Without saying a word, he turned and left towards the stairs. "Good luck, Sasuke-kun!" Both Sakura and Ino glared at each other from where they were standing, before stiffening and diverting their eyes when Narumi cleared her throat.

The exit of the Uchiha made Naruto roll his eyes. "Wow. What a heart throb. It was totally cool of him to leave like that without saying a word. I'm totally holding myself back from throwing my panties at him…" Naruto said loudly in a sarcastic tone. Sasuke's ears turned red at this and he walked a little bit faster as Menma and Kiba laughed.

Yakumo rolled her eyes. "That was unnecessary." She admonished.

Naruto smirked. "Maybe so. But I had fun doing it."

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

Sasuke stood across from his opponent with a smirk on his face. He took in his appearance.

His appearance was greatly concealed by the mask he wore around his mouth and hung around his neck, the sunglasses he had on, and the bandana style of the forehead protector he had on. His attire consisted of what looked to be his team's uniform. Just like Kabuto, he was wearing a purple shirt with a white undershirt along with an obi around his waist and fingerless gloves.

Yoroi scoffed. "You're my opponent? A kid like you isn't worth my time."

This made Sasuke glare back. "I'll finish you quickly. I won't even have to use any jutsu to do it. All taijutsu." He crouched into a battle stance.

The response from his opponent began with a growl. "You arrogant little punk! Don't complain when I beat you into the ground." He also crouched into a battle stance.

Seeing that they were ready to begin, Hayate raised an arm with a cough. "Third math, begin!" He immediately jumped back.

The moment the match started, Yoroi formed a hand seal, causing his hands to be coated in blue chakra. He followed this up by rushing at Sasuke.

This tactic made Sasuke smirk. "A frontal assault? Is that all?" He moved out of the way when Yoroi lunged at him. "I don't know what jutsu you are using, but I don't see a problem as long as I don't let you touch me." He dodged to the side again when Yoroi tried to grab him.

"Would you just stay still?!"

Sasuke smirked as he avoided him again. "You're too slow. How have you managed to last this long with speed like that?" He crouched a bit. "Let me show you some _real_ speed!" He rushed at Yoroi and immediately got under his guard.

"Wha?!" Yoroi was cut off from any further comments due to the foot that impacted the underside of his chin, launching him into the air. Sasuke immediately followed after him.

"Take this!" Sasuke sent a strike to Yoroi's side, but it was blocked.

"Is that it?" Yoroi taunted.

Sasuke's smirk grew as he twisted his body around. "Not even close!" Wham! He sent a strong blow to Yoroi's other side. Another soon joined it, causing Sasuke to be able to position himself above Yoroi as they neared the ground. " **Lion's Barrage**!" Bam! Sasuke finished the combo with a strong kick to Yoroi's body the moment that he impacted the ground. Sasuke then flipped away and landed on his feet.

The room was silent for a moment as they waited for Yoroi to get back up. Not seeing anything being done, Hayate walked over to the genin and checked on him. After a moment, he nodded and raised a hand towards Sasuke. "Yoroi is unable to continue. Winner, Sasuke of Konoha."

Cheers greeted this announcement as Sasuke walked away towards the stairs, smirk still on his face.

* * *

 **Back with the Others**

"Well _that_ was a quick match…" Menma said with Saito, who had just gotten back, nodding in agreement.

"Yeah, it was. But it looked like Sasuke-kun was in top form while his opponent was still fatigued. Plus, I think his opponent wasn't that skilled in the first place…" Kushina said. She turned to Kakashi. "But that move in the end, that looked a lot like one of Gai-kun's moves…"

Kakashi nodded. "I believe it was based on one of his moves. Sasuke fought with the mini-Gai before the first exam. He must have been able to copy it then…" He turned to Sasuke who had just joined them. "Is that about right?"

"Hn."

With a nod, Kakashi eye smiled at Kushina. "That means yes in Sasuke-ese." This remark earned him a glare from Sasuke and amused looks from the others. Kakashi turned towards the screen. "It looks like the next match is about to be decided." They all turned to the screen as it selected the next pair of names.

 **Ikusa (Konoha) vs Temari (Suna)**

Ikusa smirked and nodded. "Well then, I guess it's time to show you all how a real shinobi battles." Misa, Naruto, and Wataru rolled their eyes.

"Whatever. Just don't completely get destroyed in seconds."

A smirk appeared on Ikusa's face. "Don't you worry about it. I'm sure that I will be able to blow away the competition." Misa and Wataru immediately looked at each other with entertained looks.

"Now he's done it." Misa started.

"Yes, it is a lost cause now." Wataru turned to Ikusa. "Try not to get hurt too badly out there. That jinx you just implemented might make you get hurt pretty badly…"

Ikusa huffed. "Whatever." He started to walk towards the stairs.

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

Temari smirked as she stood across from Ikusa. "I hope you won't be too mad when you lose." She taunted.

Ikusa rolled his eyes. "Why does everyone keep telling me that? I would like to think that I have a pretty good chance of winning here."

The Suna genin looked amused. "I don't think you have much of a chance if you have to beat me."

"Well, I guess we will have to see then, won't we?" Ikusa crouched in preparation, causing Temari to do the same.

Hayate nodded. "Fourth match, begin!" He jumped back.

The moment he had the go ahead, Ikusa flew through hand seals before taking a deep breath. " **Wind Style: Air Bullets!** " He expelled a multiple blasts of wind at Temari.

Temari blinked at the attack before smirking. She brought around her fan and waved it at the oncoming attack. A blast of air shot out of the fan, countering Ikusa's attack and causing it to fade. "A wind user? It's just your bad luck that you have to face me." She said. But she blinked when she didn't see her opponent anywhere.

"I wouldn't be too sure about that." Temari was forced to dive to the side as she heard the voice behind her, but not fast enough to completely avoid the object that ripped her sleeve. She whirled around the moment she regained her balance with wide eyes to see Ikusa standing there with a short sword in his hand that was encased in chakra.

She narrowed her eyes at it. " **Flying Swallow**." She said. _'But how did he get close so quickly?'_ The answer soon came to her. "You manipulated the air around you to allow yourself to move quicker…"

Ikusa smirked. "Yep. I guess you would figure it out, being a wind specialist." Temari blinked at him in surprise. "Oh, don't be like that. How could you not be a wind specialist with that big ass fan you carry around?"

Temari smirked. "Heh, I guess it was kind of a giveaway…" She crouched in preparation. "I guess you are a close to mid-range wind user? Let's see how you do when you can't get in close!" She waved her fan again. " **Wind Style: Wind Cutter**!" Blades of wind shot out of her fan and towards Ikusa.

* * *

 **Back with the Others**

Asuma grinned as he watched the fight. "Two wind users? And both of them are facing each other? That's an interesting matchup."

Kurenai smirked at him. "You would be interested in this one."

The response she got was a shrug and a grin. "How could I not be? There aren't too many of us wind users in the village. I probably know all of the people who use it."

Ino tilted her head at him. "There aren't? I would think there would be more than that…"

Her teacher sighed and shook his head in dismay. "Nope. Wind users are super rare around here, much less people who specialize in it. I don't even specialize in it completely. I'm still one of the best wind users in the village, but I also balance out with some other techniques."

Ino nodded. "I get it…"

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

' _Dammit! She really won't let me get any closer!'_ Ikusa cursed in his mind as he was forced to move out of the way of another blast of wind. While he knew some ranged wind techniques, he wasn't that good with them. He always preferred to get in close or keep _a little_ distance. But she was forcing him to stay on the other side of the room! "Hey, it totally isn't fair that you have that freaking fan! I don't have anything to boost my range!"

"Don't care! It isn't my fault you aren't ready for this!" Temari waved her fan again, launching more blades of wind at him. "You really are useless at long range, aren't you?"

Ikusa growled. "You know what? Fine! If you wanted a long range battle, I'll give you one! Fan or no fan, you're going down!" He started forming hand seals. He took a deep breath before exhaling. " **Wind Style: Vacuum Great Sphere**!" A giant sphere of blast of compressed wind was launched at Temari.

Instead of moving out of the way, Temari smirked and readied her fan. She brought it back before swinging it and dispelled the attack. "Is that it? I'm a little disappointed." She shook her head. "But I guess that was all you could do. It has been a fun fight."

Ikusa frowned at her. "What are you talking about? I'm still good to go."

Temari shook her head. "You won't be in a second." Whoosh!

"Argh!" Ikusa yelled in pain as a tornado suddenly descended upon him, catching him completely off guard.

"It took me a little longer to set up because we are indoors, but I eventually managed to do it." Temari grinned at him. " **Wind Style: Great Task of the Dragon**." She stated as the tornado dissipated, revealing a severely cut up and downed Ikusa. She turned to Hayate. "I don't think he is getting back up."

Hayate looked at Ikusa before nodding. He coughed before raising a hand towards Temari. "Winner, Temari of Suna."

* * *

 **Back with the Others**

Misa sighed as Ikusa was carted off to the infirmary. "We warned him."

Wataru nodded in agreement. "We absolutely did. There was no way he could say all of that and come out on top still."

Naruto looked extremely amused at their conversation. "You guys guessed that would happen just by what Ikusa said before the fight?" He asked them. He got two nods in return.

"Yeah, it pretty much became a given he would lose the moment he opened his mouth." Misa told him.

Yūgao sent her and Wataru a quizzical look. "Shouldn't you two be more concerned about your teammate? He was hit pretty hard back there."

"It's his own fault for getting arrogant at the last second. He won't get any sympathy from me."

With a snort, Naruto turned to the screen as names began to cycle through it. The next pair of names were soon selected.

 **Karui (Kumo) vs Kiba (Konoha)**

"Alright! About time! I was getting so bored of waiting!" Kiba pumped a fist in the air when he saw his name get selected.

His teacher sent him a reprimanding look. "Kiba, take this seriously. You could overestimate yourself and wind up getting landed in the infirmary."

"Kurenai-sensei is correct. Is it not best to exercise caution when facing an unknown opponent?" Shino asked monotonously.

Kiba just waved them off. "Ah, don't worry about it! I'm sure this will be an easy win!" He grinned down at Akamaru. "Right Akamaru?"

"Arf!"

"Um…I-I-I think that y-you should be ca-c-careful, Kiba-kun…" Hinata said quietly. Naruto frowned as he noticed that she became even more nervous when the names were selected.

"Not you too, Hinata! Don't you have any faith in me?"

"I-it's not about h-having faith in y-you…"

Kurenai sent a sympathetic look at her before looking back to Kiba. "Like we said, take this seriously." She sent him a small smile. "Go down there and prove how much you've grown."

Kiba grinned widely. "You got it! But I'm sure you guys are just worrying too much." They were interrupted from saying anything further when they heard an angry yell from the other balcony.

"Enough! I'm about to put you in your place, mutt!" They turned to see who yelled.

It was a girl with dark skin and long spiky red hair and amber eyes. She was wearing a short-sleeved outfit with frilly edges and fishnet stockings. She also had on thigh-high boots with white soles and a Kumo forehead protector worn like a bandana. On her back was a katana.

Kiba glared back at her. "What was that?! I'll kick your ass!"

"I bet you couldn't even beat a kitten, dog boy!"

The boy next to her sighed. "What are you doing, Karui? What if the Inuzuka clan takes offense to your insults? They will be angry and then Konoha will be angry because it is such a prominent clan. And what if this leads to even more tension between us and them? That could lead to the fourth great shinobi war. What if we get deployed? Then we will ha-"

"Shut up, Omoi! Things will never get that bad!" Karui yelled at him.

Omoi had dark skin and short, spiky, white hair with dark eyes. His outfit was made up of a dark overlong shirt with a hood, red bandage hand guards, Kumo shin guards, and a black Kumo forehead protector. He also had a katana on his back. In his mouth was a lollipop.

"Don't do this now, you two. It totally isn't cool." The third member of the team said.

She had fair skin and blue eyes along with straight, blond hair that was framing her shoulders with an asymmetrical bob style that had her front bangs reaching her shoulder. She wore a grey outfit that was cut low, showing off some of her cleavage. Under this, she wore mesh armor. She also had on a short skirt, red hand guards, and high boots. She had a tantō strapped to her back. Her face was set in a stoic expression.

"But Samui, what if this starts a war? We would be forced to fight in it. Then we will be killed by an enemy shinobi. Our families will be forced to bury us at such a young age and then they wi-"

"Are you still talking?!" Karui rounded on Omoi as he started to ramble again. All three of the Kumo genin ignored the raps coming from Killer B.

Naruto just watched this entire scene with a sweat drop. _'Why is it so hard for me to come across normal people?'_

Before they could start fighting some more, they were interrupted by a cough. "Both fighters, please enter the arena."

Karui gained a sheepish expression before smirking to her team. "I've got this in the bag. Be back in a second."

On the other side of the room, Kiba was growling. "I'll show her. Let's go Akamaru!"

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

"I hope you're ready to get your ass kicked, mutt." Karui taunted.

Kiba scoffed. "As if someone like you could actually beat me. Akamaru, hold off for a bit." He crouched low in preparation. Karui mimicked this by unsheathing her katana and getting into a battle stance.

Seeing that the two of them were ready, Hayate nodded and raised a hand. "Match five, begin!" He immediately jumped back.

"Let's do this!" Kiba rushed in as Karui stood there.

Karui smirked at him. "A frontal assault?" She side stepped him easily. "That won't cut it. But this will!" She brought her sword forward in a slash, making a light cut across Kiba's side. "Don't worry, I'll be sure not to damage you too badly!"

"Gah!" Kiba spun around and glared. "Let's see you keep up when I speed it up a bit!" He sped towards her again. Bam! Karui wasn't able to react quickly enough with the new speed. "What's the problem? Can't keep up?" Kiba went in repeatedly for continuous blows.

"Tch! Not at all!" Karui suddenly caught his fist with one hand, causing Kiba to freeze in surprise. "In fact, I'm doing just fine!" She pulled him forward and off balance before swiping at his chest with her katana.

"Ow! That thing freaking hurts!" Kiba yelled at her after rolling away with a new cut across his chest. He glared at her smirking face. "Akamaru, let's show her how we beat down our enemies!"

"Arf!" The two of them rushed in.

Karui jumped out of the way of a punch from Kiba, only to be forced to duck under the leaping dog. "As if it would be that easy!" Even though she said this, she was having some difficulty keeping up with the both of them. _'Fine then, time to play a little dirty!'_ She lashed out a hand as Akamaru leaped at her again. Karui managed to get a hold around one of the dog's legs.

"Akamaru! Let go of him!" Kiba demanded.

"Not on your life!" Karui returned before holding her katana up to the dog. "Just give it up now!"

Kiba glared at her, debating on his next move. After a moment, he smirked before reaching a hand into his pocket. After grabbing what he wanted, he pulled it out to reveal a red pill. He aimed and flicked one towards Akamaru's open mouth.

"As if!" Karui simply moved Akamaru out of the way. "Do you really think I would just stand here and wait for you to do that? Not happening!" She pressed the katana against Akamaru until he whimpered. "Once again, give up."

Her opponent growled. But after a moment, he slumped his shoulders with a sigh. "Fine, I give up. Just don't hurt him."

Hearing the forfeit, Hayate nodded before raising a hand towards Karui. "Winner, Ka-" He coughed again. "Karui of Kumo." Karui smirked as her team clapped before she released Akamaru, who immediately ran over to Kiba and whimpered.

The dog got a sad smile in return as Kiba picked him up. "Don't worry about it, buddy. It was my fault for not coming up with a better plan than to just rush in there." He stroked Akamaru's fur. "We'll win this thing next time." He looked up to Karui. "This won't go the same way the next time we fight."

"Sure it won't. Keep telling yourself that."

* * *

 **Back with the Others**

"That's what he gets for just rushing in there without a plan. Akamaru nearly paid the price for it." Narumi said.

Yakumo watched as Kiba left to go get patched up. "Well, the hit and run tactics are often used by his clan, so it isn't really a surprise that he would go into that right away."

"But he should have changed it up a bit when he realized that his opponent could keep up with him." Naruto interjected.

"Yes…That is true, I suppose…"

Naruto nodded before looking up to the screen when the next names were being selected.

 **Misumi (Konoha) vs Gaara (Suna)**

This pairing made Naruto grimace. _'Sucks to be that guy…'_ He looked across the room to where Gaara was standing and was not surprised to see both of his siblings eyeing the redhead warily. He looked at the other boy and noted that he looked nearly identical to his teammate, if not for the normal glasses instead of the sunglasses.

"What are your guesses for this match?" Naruto turned with a raised eyebrow to Misa. She gave him a bland look. "It is obvious by the look on your face that you are expecting this to be kind of one sided. So in favor of who?" This question gained the attention of the others and they turned to face Naruto.

In return Naruto just shook his head. "Gaara is going to finish this thing in a flash…And there's a real chance that this will get bloody." He turned back towards the arena as some of the genin paled.

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

Hayate looked in between the two fighters. "Are you both ready?" He asked, only to get one nod in return. Figuring that the silence was agreement, Hayate nodded and raised a hand. "Match six, begin!" He jumped back.

Misumi crouched in preparation of an attack, but nothing came. Gaara just stood there as sand slowly circled around him. "Oh? Do you want me to start? Fine then!" He sent a punch from where he was, and to everybody's shock, it elongated the distance between them.

Gaara just stood there as the fist came at him, not even bothering to uncross his arms. Once the fist made it to a foot away from him, it was obvious why. As if reacting to his thoughts, a wall of sand suddenly appeared and encased the hand. "What?!" Misumi tugged on his arm, but the sand wouldn't budge. "Dammit! Let me go!" Slowly, the sand began to crawl up his arm and towards his body.

* * *

 **Back with the Others**

"That's the end." Naruto said quietly as he and the others watched the sand slowly make its way the rest of the distance.

Sai nodded. "It would be smart of him to give up now. It was over the moment that the sand touched him." The others glanced at them before looking back.

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

"Damn it! Why won't this sand let go?!" No matter how hard Misumi pulled, the sand would not let go of the hold it had on him. By now, it had covered his entire arm and was beginning to spread across his chest. Eventually, his entire upper body was covered.

Gaara, who had been silent up until this point, raised an open hand. Slowly, he began to close it into a fist. Misumi grunted as he felt the sand constrict around him. Naruto suppressed a shiver when he spotted the crazed smile forming on Gaara's face. "Scream. Let me hear you. Mother wants to hear you scream…"

"Gah! Get it off!" Misumi was having difficulty breathing by this point. Soon enough, it got to the point where he had collapsed to his knees. "I give! I give! Just get it off!"

Ignoring the pleading, Gaara continued squeezing, making Misumi scream more.

"That's enough!"

"Let him go!"

"He already gave up!"

Gaara ignored all of this as he just continued what he was doing. Whoosh! He froze when he felt a large amount of killing intent suddenly appear directly behind him. Gaara immediately abandoned what he was doing and whirled around with wide eyes, coming face to face with the stern expression of the Hokage.

Minato gave him an intense look. "That's enough. He has already given up. Call back your sand."

Everybody was silent for a minute as they watched the scene. Not immediately reacting, Gaara just stared at Minato. But just when Minato was about to try again, the sand pulled away from Misumi. The genin had passed out after the pressure had gotten to be too much.

Once all of his sand was back, Gaara disappeared in a swirl of sand before reappearing by his nervous team. Minato spent a minute to regard them before turning to Hayate as Misumi was rushed to the infirmary. "Select the next pair." Hayate nodded.

* * *

 **Back with the Others**

"Tou-chan is such a badass!" Narumi grinned. Although slightly annoyed by the language used, Kushina let it go this time as she nodded in agreement.

Saito gulped. "What the heck is up with that guy? He's completely insane!" Many of the others nodded in agreement.

' _Darkness will do that to a person…'_ Naruto thought to himself. He glanced at the screen when the next pair was determined.

 **Sakura (Konoha) vs Samui (Kumo)**

Seeing that it was her turn, Sakura gulped. But after a moment, she adopted a determined expression and nodded. "Alright. I'm ready to go!"

The others were surprised to hear the resolve in her voice. Kakashi sent an eye smile at her. "I'm sure you will do great, Sakura."

This piece of encouragement got the pink haired girl to send him a grin while Saito slumped. "Why weren't you like that for me, Kakashi-sensei?" Saito lamented as Menma snickered.

"Hm? Did you say something?" This did nothing to improve Saito's sulky mood.

Ino smirked at Sakura. "Try not to embarrass yourself too much." This was rewarded with a light hit from Narumi.

After making sure that Ino would behave, she turned to Sakura. "Go out there and win, Sakura." Narumi said with a grin.

Sakura grinned back and turned to Sasuke, who was looking away. She opened her mouth, but stopped herself before she said anything. She shook her head and grinned at the others. "Wish me luck." And with that, she walked towards the stairs.

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

Sakura took her position across from Samui and smiled. "Sorry to keep you waiting."

The blond girl shook her head. "It's cool. This is the first time I've had peace of mind from my teammates…" This statement made Sakura sweat drop a bit before she got into a battle stance. Seeing her get ready, Samui did the same.

Hayate looked between them and raised his arm. "Seventh match, begin!" He jumped back.

The moment the go ahead was given, Sakura charged forward and took out a kunai. She made a swipe for the other girl, but was blocked. Sakura quickly spun around her opponent and tried to get a hit in on the other side.

Samui sent Sakura her usual blank look. "Is that really your best? Are you taking this seriously at all? Underestimating me isn't cool."

Sakura frowned at her. "I am taking this seriously." She tried to get another hit in, but it was easily blocked. "I'm taking this more seriously than I ever have before." She tried again, but was dodged.

The Kumo genin blinked. "Then why are you so weak?"

"It's because I _am_ weak." This response stunned everybody a bit because of the harsh tone behind it. Sakura's eyes were lit with a new resolve that nobody had seen her with before. "I'm weak, so I am not able to beat you. I know that."

Samui tilted her head. "Then why don't you give up?"

Sakura glared. "Because I refuse to stay weak!" She rushed at Samui again, but all her blows missed. "I know I won't win this. I know that even if I land a hit, it won't do much to you. I get that. But I refuse to just back down and sit on the sidelines again while everybody else fights!" This declaration further stunned everyone. "All I have ever done is sit on the sidelines. I won't do that anymore! I was so useless in the forest! While everybody else was fighting and getting hurt, I couldn't do a thing!" Another blow was deflected. "It won't happen again!" She sent a powerful strike at Samui, but it was dodged when she jumped back. Sakura stood there panting as she watched her opponent.

* * *

 **Back with the Others**

The Konoha genin watched with wide eyes as Sakura yelled her frustrations. Narumi gained a sad look. "Sakura…"

"Wow…I had no idea she was _that_ frustrated about it all…" Yakumo said quietly. The jōnin just stood back as they watched the fight silently. Even Kakashi had put his book down to openly watch.

Menma and Saito traded wide eyed looks as they chose to stay silent. Naruto smirked. _'Good to know she was serious about not staying on the sidelines anymore.'_

Ino just stared at the scene in silence with wide eyes.

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

Samui just stood there and watched her. After staying silent for a moment, a smirk slowly spread across her face. "That's pretty cool of you." She got into a battle stance. "Fine then. I will beat you down until you won't be able to get back up."

Sakura grinned and got back into a battle stance. "Good, that's how I want it to be!" She rushed back in and sent another slice at her opponent. Samui side stepped it and responded with a punch to the side. Sakura cried out before gritting her teeth and retaliating with a kick that was easily blocked. Samui then used the opening and countered with her own kick.

For the next few minutes, everyone watched as Sakura was beat around by Samui. No matter how many times she was knocked down, she would continue to just stand back up again. Samui had started with a smirk, but it slowly changed into a small concerned frown. "I think you should forfeit. You have proved yourself enough, it's cool to know when to stop."

Sakura panted as she pushed herself back to her feet. "No…Not yet. I told you, I will keep going…until I can't get…back up." She finally managed to get her feet, but she swayed a bit. "I can still stand…so I can still fight!" She sluggishly rushed at Samui.

Seeing this, Samui frowned some more and decided on her next course of action. Once Sakura was close enough, she dodged the kunai and stepped out of the way. She then lashed her hand out and grabbed a handful of Sakura's hair. She followed this up by unsheathing her tantō and pointing it at Sakura's back. "What will you do now? I have you subdued, will you submit?" Samui really hoped this worked, she didn't want to hurt the girl any further.

Sakura panted a bit as she kneeled with her back against the blade. She shook her head. "No. It isn't over yet…"

Samui frowned more. "What are you going to do? It's cool of you to be this resilient, but I have complete control." She couldn't see it, but Sakura smirked.

"There's still one thing I can do." Before anything else could be said, Sakura lashed out the hand she was holding the kunai with. Eyes all around widened as she hacked off her own hair. Sakura rolled forward and spun around with a grin. "It looks to me like I can still fight. So let's keep going!"

Samui just stared at her for a moment before looking back at the hair she was gripping. The smirk soon came back as she dropped the hair and shook her head. "You are too stubborn." She sighed. "It wouldn't be cool of me to insult your determination." Sakura tensed as Samui crouched. "I will do as you ask and make it so you can't get back up."

Before Sakura could react in any way, Samui blurred forward towards her. Wham! Sakura hunched over with wide eyes as the pommel of the tonto was thrust into her gut. Slowly, Sakura's eyes began to close as her body lost its strength. Before she could hit the ground, Samui caught her.

The Kumo genin sighed before smiling down at Sakura a bit. She looked up when Hayate walked over to them. After checking up on Sakura, he nodded and raised a hand. "Winner, Samui of Kumo."

* * *

 **Back with the Others**

The entire room was silent. But after a minute, Naruto began to clap. Quickly following his lead, Misa and her team did the same. Narumi and Yakumo soon joined them. Eventually, everyone from Konoha had joined in. Even Sasuke was giving some reluctant claps.

Yūgao looked down at Sakura from her position. "That was impressive. Maybe not the combat, but the resolve shown was really something." Kushina nodded in agreement.

Ino had been silent throughout the entire fight. Her mind was racing with the words that Sakura had said and the determination that her rival had shown. She and the others turned when Samui walked over to them while carrying Sakura.

Samui nodded to them and set Sakura down against the wall before looking at Kakashi. "You are her sensei?" She asked, getting a nod in return. "Cool. She is fine, but she will need a little bit to wake up."

"Hm…Well, thank you for bringing her over here." Samui nodded to Kakashi's thanks before turning and leaving to go join her team.

Shikamaru sighed. "Troublesome. Who would have thought that Sakura would be able to push herself that far…?" He slumped more than he usually did. "Now it will seem even worse if I just give up right away…"

Misa sent him an amused look. "Well, look alive. We're about to find out who is next." The group turned towards the screen as the names stopped.

 **Ino (Konoha) vs Kankurō (Suna)**

Asuma grinned down at his female student. "Well Ino, I do believe it is your turn." When he got no response, his grin dimmed a bit. "Ino?" He got no response as she just continued to stare at Sakura. He was about to place a hand on her shoulder, but she snapped to attention before he could.

"I'll do it! I'm not backing down either!" She gained a determined expression before turning and walking towards the stairs without any further words.

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

Kankurō smirked at her as she approached. "Well, I guess I got lucky. You won't even last a minute." This remark got him a glare in return.

Ino was silent as she looked at him. "Maybe, but I'll be sure to kick your ass before that!" She turned her gaze back up towards the others. After a moment of thought, she took out a kunai. Before anyone could question what she was doing, she brought it up to her long hair and cut it, surprising everyone. She looked at the fist holding her hair. "If Sakura can do it, so can I. I probably won't win this, but I will be sure to at least make you suffer!" She threw the hair to the side and went into a battle stance. Kankurō's smirk grew as he took the large object off his back and propped it up next to him.

Seeing that both of them were ready, Hayate nodded before raising a hand. "Match eight, begin!" He jumped out of the way as Ino rushed in. Kankurō waited in place as she got closer. Once she was close enough, Ino launched a strike at him with the kunai, but it was easily deflected.

"Wow, you really suck. I won't even need to use anything to beat you!" Ino growled at the taunt as she tried to land a kick, only for it to be blocked. "Here, let me show you how that should have worked." Wham!

A kick was sent at Ino and she was unable to completely move out of the way in time. Kankurō's leg managed to catch her side, forcing her to stumble back. Not wishing to give her any time to recover, Kankurō pursued her and launched more attacks.

"Come on! Can't you keep up?" Ino scowled as she was forced to back up from the relentless onslaught of attacks. "This is just too easy!"

* * *

 **Back with the Others**

"Come on! You can do it, Ino! Teach that jerk some manners!" Narumi's grip on the railing tightened as she saw another blow get in and land on Ino. She really didn't like that Suna genin! She whirled around on the rest of team 10. "And why aren't you worried?" Asuma just sent her an amused look while Shikamaru just looked bored. Chōji was the only one to respond.

"I'm not because Shikamaru isn't." The Nara sighed when a glare was pinned on him.

"And why aren't you?"

"Troublesome…Just pay attention to the fight. Ino isn't out of this yet. Things are actually going how she wants them to." The others blinked at that. Narumi sent him a confused look before turning back to the fight.

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

"You ready to give up yet?" Ino growled when she heard the obnoxious voice again.

"Not on your life!" A smirk formed on Ino's face. "But I think you're about to."

"Wha-"

"There!" Immediately as she yelled this, Kankurō's entire body froze in place. He showed visible signs of struggling, but he was unable to move a muscle.

"What?! What did you do to me?!" Kankurō demanded.

A victorious grin came to Ino's face as she panted a bit. "Oh, nothing much. Just led you into a trap."

"What trap?!"

Ino shrugged. "Just the one where I use my hair to send my chakra to you and paralyze you." An impish smile was on her lips. Kankurō gaped. He was standing on the hair that Ino had thrown earlier.

* * *

 **Back with the Others**

Shikamaru sighed and leaned back with a small smirk. He looked at Narumi. "You see? Nothing to worry about. Ino had that planned out."

The other genin watched with wide eyes as Kankurō tried to struggle some more. A low hum sounded from Kakashi as he kept his nose in his book. "That was well thought out of her. But it relied a little too much on her opponent actually engaging in a taijutsu battle…" Asuma sighed and nodded in agreement.

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

"Now then. Do you give up?" Ino asked Kankurō with a smirk.

"Like hell I do!"

Shaking her head with a sigh, Ino responded. "Well, let me see if I can get you to change your mind." She raised her hands and formed a hand seal towards Kankurō.

"Hey, what are you doing?!"

"Oh, nothing much! **Mind Body Switch!** " Ino's form immediately slumped to her knees as Kankurō went rigid.

Hayate, knowing what this probably meant, looked at Kankurō. "Do you forfeit?" He asked.

Everyone was silent as they waited for a response. Kankurō soon turned to Hayate and opened his mouth. "Hell no."

* * *

 **Back with the Others**

Shikamaru jerked forward when he heard the reply that Kankurō gave Hayate. "What?! What the heck is Ino doing? She has it in the bag!"

Behind him, Asuma was frowning. "I don't think that's Ino…"

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

Over by the wall of the arena, the bundle that Kankurō had set down began to move. All eyes were instantly glued to it as a hand escaped the bindings. Soon, a person worked his way out of the wrapping. Many of the genin had their eyes widen in surprise when a smirking Kankurō emerged.

"Wow, it's a good thing I came prepared…" He raised his hand and flexed a finger. Instantly, the other Kankurō jumped away from Ino and to his side. "Man, you gotta love puppets." He turned to Hayate. "Does this mean I win? She apparently took herself out with a failed technique…"

Glancing back to Ino, Hayate nodded and raised a hand to Kankurō. "Winner, Kankurō of Suna."

* * *

 **Back with the Others**

Narumi slumped as Asuma went down to retrieve his student. "Aw, that sucks. It would have worked if that guy hadn't pulled something like that…" Yakumo frowned a bit in thought.

"But what did he mean by puppets?" She asked.

Yūgao turned to answer her question. "One of the things that Suna is well known for is their puppetry. They make these puppets that are rigged with a vast amount of weapons, often coated with poison, and then control them from a distance using chakra threads." She gestured to Kankurō. "It looks like he disguised his puppet as himself in order to misdirect his opponent. The fact that he wasn't found out right away shows the amount of skill he possesses." Understanding, Yakumo nodded.

' _But really, both Sakura and Ino surprised me with their performances. I didn't think they would do that well. Sakura for her tenacity, and Ino for her thinking on the fly. She obviously thought of that only after seeing Sakura cut her hair.'_ Naruto blinked back into awareness as the screen stopped on the next two names.

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 23!**

 **Just kill me now. Killer B is a pain in the ass to write. I think his character is awesome, but I just don't like to be the one to write him.**

 **Oh goody. More fights I have to write up… -_- I don't want to be here forever, so I kept these relatively short. None of these were really that important, so I had no problem doing that. I hope nobody minds.**

 **Giving Saito a combat style similar to Tenten's was a really obvious choice to me. For those of you who haven't seen/read Zero no Tsukaima, Saito is the MC of that series and the familiar chosen to be Gandálfr. This gives him the ability to use any weapon proficiently, hence why I made him a weapons specialist in this.**

 **The canon fight between Sasuke and Yoroi was pretty quick, and that was when Sasuke had just finished the second exam and was still tired. I don't see how a fully rested Sasuke would have trouble beating him.**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	24. Chūnin Exams: Prelims Part 2

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 24!**

 **I'm sorry for the late update, last week kicked my ass so hard. School just tore me apart with all of midterms and crap going on. It was a whole thing. Midterms, projects, meeting with people…it all just sucked. I wanted to get the chapter out Saturday, but I got distracted by a group project where I had to meet on Saturday (Which really is not how I like to spend my weekends) and then I just forgot to do it Sunday.**

 **I messed up in the last chapter, but there is no way that any of you even noticed. In the Karui vs Kiba fight, I had intended for Kiba to win, but I instead had Karui win. I guess this was from my own lapse in attention. I didn't realize I did it until the next day when I was double checking the list of fights and saw that I had Kiba listed as one of the victors. It isn't that big of a deal, but I still had to change a couple things because of it...*shrugs* Oh well.**

 **Holy shit. Twilight Key is now the ninth most followed Naruto/Kingdom Hearts story. That is pretty awesome.**

* * *

 **Dark Natsu Dragneel: Yeah, I thought of that. I like that idea, but I have another that would also work for that pairing if I didn't have him go to Destiny Island.**

 **Woffie: Didn't see that response coming. And I specifically avoided using any gender for the Kyūbi up until now to leave that option open. :P**

 **animecollecter: Probably single.**

 **KaiserUltima: I'm not planning to go to other worlds until the time skip. And Aqua is still an option.**

 **Golden feathers Edward: That would be so boring! I might have a few canon fights, but not everything!**

 **dotJKLO: That made me laugh a bit. Sorry, but that was absolutely intentional!**

 **lusic: Thanks! I'm happy to know that this story was your first pick. Welcome to one of the best crossover categories on the site!**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else. I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Diety Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Diety Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **Sai (Konoha) vs Dosu (Oto)**

Sai blinked when he saw that his name was chosen for the next match, but he immediately turned towards the others the next moment.

His teammates grinned at him. "Good luck out there, Sai. You've fought this guy before, so nothing he does should be able to surprise you." Yakumo smiled at him. Naruto nodded in agreement.

"She's right. You've got this in the bag. Just be sure to be careful of that arm of his." He grimaced at the memory. "He only got me with it a bit once, but it still knocked me off my game for a second."

Sai looked between the two of them before a small smile appeared on his face. "Thank you, your words are appreciated." He told them.

Yūgao grinned at him as well. "I know you're ready for this. But still, there is never anything wrong with knowing when to give up. This is actually the time to do it if needed, you won't have that luxury in real battles."

Sai nodded to her. "Understood." And with that, he turned and started walking towards the stairs.

* * *

 **Down in the Arena**

Dosu tilted his head at his opponent once he reached them. "Well, I suppose that we are going to have a rematch, eh?"

Hearing this, Sai nodded while plastering a smile to his face. "Indeed. Let's have a good fight." He got into a battle stance.

"Hm...Yes, let's." Dosu got into his own battle stance before looking to Hayate and nodding.

Nodding in return, Hayate got to business. He called out while raising a hand. "Match nine, begin!" He quickly lowered the hand before jumping out of the way.

The moment that they got the go ahead, Sai was forced to jump back in order to avoid the swipe that Dosu sent at him. Seeing that he was about to try again, Sai jumped further back to get some more time to make a few ink creations.

"It's not that easy!" Dosu followed after him, not letting up in his assault. Sai was forced to continue dodging in order to avoid all of the attacks. He knew that blocking would still result in falling victim to the attack, so his only option was to dodge. "I had some time to think after our last fight." Dosu said. "It is obvious that I was so overwhelmed because of those ink creatures that you had. But what would happen if I didn't give you the chance to make any?" Dosu asked.

' _That is unfortunate.'_ Sai thought to himself as he dodged another blow. _'It would appear that he is smarter than I initially thought he was.'_

* * *

 **Back with the Others**

"Well, that certainly isn't good..." Yūgao said quietly.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Thank you for clarifying that for us, sensei..." He muttered.

"Ara? Did you say something, Naruto-kun?" A sweet voice asked from behind him, sending shivers down his spine.

"No, of course not." Damn, she was doing that more often lately...

"Oh, how silly of me." She shook her head with an amused smile while Naruto sent a light glare to the snickering forms of Menma and Saito. "But really, things are going to be a lot tougher for Sai if he can't use his ink creatures..."

"It doesn't help that he can't block any strikes due to the risk of still being affected by the technique that guy is using..." Yakumo added quietly.

"That too..."

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

' _Well, this is a problem...'_ Sai thought to himself as he dodged another swipe. _'Although his form leaves much to be desired, there isn't any point to me spotting openings if I cannot get close...While it is true that I do not have enough time to summon any of my ink creatures, it is also true that he is unable to land a blow on me…This is now a battle of stamina. Whoever tires first loses.'_

Keeping that in mind, Sai simply continued to dodge all of the poorly executed attacks that Dosu sent at him. Unfortunately, Dosu seemed to have some decent stamina. He was still going at full strength when Sai started to tire.

Dosu chuckled as they continued with the same pattern that they have been using. "So, how much longer do you think you will be able to last?" Another strike was dodged. "It is pretty obvious that this is getting us nowhere. You can't get close and can't create any of those things, and I can't land a hit. But the thing is…" He suddenly sped up! Sai was caught slightly off guard, causing his reaction to be delayed. "…You don't look like you can last much longer." He swiped at Sai, and it grazed his shirt as the artist jumped back.

Landing on his feet, Sai stumbled for a bit as a feeling of nausea assaulted him. _'That truly is unpleasant…'_ Using the chance, Dosu closed the distance again while Sai was still recovering. Knowing what was coming, Sai quickly opened his mouth. "That's enough. I forfeit." He declared.

Hearing this, Dosu instantly halted a couple feet away. He glanced to the side where Hayate was standing, waiting for the ruling. Hayate coughed before speaking up. "Very well." He raised a hand towards Dosu. "Winner, Dosu of Oto."

Dosu relaxed and stood back up into his normal slouched postured. "Good choice, it would have gotten a lot worse if you didn't give up."

Sai plastered on a smile and sent it his way. "Thank you, I believe it was a good choice. It was obvious that you were capable of lasting longer than I could." Dosu stayed silent for a moment, before nodding and turning back towards the stairs.

"It may have been different if we were working with our teams…" He walked away.

* * *

 **Back with the Others**

Yakumo sighed. "Oh, that's unfortunate." She said.

Naruto nodded in agreement. "Yeah, but it was the smart choice to make. While Sai's stamina is decent, he was never a powerhouse about it. His fighting style doesn't require him to be. While the same could be said for his opponent, being a close range fighter made him have more stamina." It was at that point that Sai rejoined them. Naruto sent a small smile his way. "Better luck next time, eh Sai?"

The black haired boy returned the smile. "It would seem so. I apologize to you both for failing you." This made both of his teammates frown at him.

"Sai, you haven't failed us in any way. Yeah, you didn't win, but that doesn't mean you failed us. You shouldn't think like that." Yakumo admonished him. Naruto nodded next to her.

Sai blinked at them in surprise before his smile grew a bit. "I see…" Yūgao smiled at the interaction from her position next to Kushina. A feeling of pride swelled in her chest.

"Glad you understand that." Naruto said. He then turned to the screen as more names began to cycle through on the screen. In his head, he was going through a list of who was still left. _'We are now more than half way done. Gaara has already gone, so I would consider the biggest threat as already over with…'_ It was then that the screen displayed the next two names. Seeing who was up next made Naruto frown a bit.

 **Narumi (Konoha) vs Kabuto (Konoha)**

Narumi pumped a fist a bit. "Yes, it's show time-ttebane!" She whirled around to face the others. Menma smirked at her.

"Good luck out there, sis. You should aim to perform as well as I did." This made Narumi roll her eyes.

"And here I was impressed that you won without doing any major bragging…" She said. Narumi then blinked in surprise when she heard a groan from nearby.

"Ugh…what hit me…?" The group turned towards the wall to see that Sakura was starting to come around. The pink haired girl blearily opened her eyes, only to freeze when she became aware that she was the center of attention. "Um…Hi?" She provided.

Kakashi sent an eye smile at her. "How nice of you to join us, Sakura-chan."

"Yeah, you and Ino have both been out of it for a bit." Narumi said with a grin.

Sakura blinked when she heard this. "Ino?" That was when she noticed the blond girl next to her. "Oh, did she lose too?" A pause. "And what happened to her hair?!" She exclaimed in surprise.

Misa sent her a smirk. "She cut it off in her fight to trap her opponent." This response was rewarded with an incredulous look.

"She was actually willing to go that far to win?" That didn't sound like Ino…

"She said that if you could do it, then so could she." Sakura was stunned by this. She turned back to the girl next to her, a small smile pulling at her lips.

Narumi bound forward. "But really, that was amazing, Sakura! I never knew you had that in you!" She praised. Sakura blushed a bit when she heard this, and it got more pronounced when the others echoed similar thoughts. She opened her mouth to respond, but was interrupted by a cough.

"If both combatants would please enter the arena…" Narumi blushed a bit.

"Whoops, almost forgot…" She waved at them. "Wish me luck!" She started to walk towards the stairs, but stopped when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Turing, she was greeted with the face of her older brother. "Nii-chan?" She asked. She was curious as to why he was giving her a serious look.

"Be careful out there, Narumi." He still didn't trust Kabuto. Something about him just made Naruto uneasy.

Narumi grinned at him. "No need to worry! I got this!" Her cheerful attitude made Naruto smile a bit. Seeing him nod, Narumi turned back towards the stairs and continued walking.

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

Kabuto smiled at Narumi as she approached. "Well Narumi-san, I hope you don't beat me down too hard."

The redhead smiled back. "Come on, Kabuto-san. You shouldn't give up before you even try." She jumped into a battle stance. "Show me what you can do-ttebane!" She exclaimed with a massive grin stretching across her face.

Kabuto sighed, but the smile was still present on his face. "You're right, you're right." He got into a battle stance. "The best of luck to the both of us." Narumi nodded in agreement.

Seeing that the both of them were done talking, Hayate raised a hand. "Match ten, begin!" He lowered his hand before quickly jumping back.

The moment the match started, Kabuto rushed towards Narumi while his hands flew through some hand seals. When he finished, his hands were shrouded in blue chakra. Not wasting another moment, he swiped his hand at Narumi.

Seeing the danger, Narumi bent backwards to avoid it. At the same time, she kicked up towards his hand with one leg, catching the underside of his arm and forcing it into the air as he let out a pained hiss. Despite being deflected, Kabuto brought his other hand forward towards his opponent.

Not halting her momentum for a moment, Narumi continued with maneuver and turned it into a cartwheel to avoid the next strike. The moment her feet touched the ground again, she rushed forward and sent a punch at Kabuto. He saw the attack coming and stepped to the side to avoid it while reaching a hand out towards Narumi's arm.

Not wanting him to touch her with that technique, Narumi suddenly bent to the side to slightly change the direction her body was moving in, allowing Kabuto to miss the mark. She quickly regained her balance and grabbed onto Kabuto's over stretched forearm before using her hold on it to flip Kabuto.

Deciding it was best not to fight it, Kabuto allowed himself to be flipped, only to flip around in the air and land on his feet. He smiled at his opponent. "You are really good at avoiding attacks, Narumi-san."

Narumi stuck her tongue out at him. "Well, it doesn't help that your **Chakra Scalpels** provide me with some extra motivation to not let you touch me…"

Kabuto blinked before the smile on his face grew a bit. "Oh? You know the technique I'm using?" He asked her. She nodded in return.

"It's kind of hard not to when they are one of Baa-chan's favorite way to train us…" She shivered. "That along with her monster strength…"

"Ah, I guess I should have guessed that you would have seen them before because of Tsunade-sama." He got into a battle stance. "But enough of that. Shall we continue?" He asked her.

Grinning, Narumi decided to be the one to start them off and rushed towards him.

* * *

 **Back with the Others**

"Huh. Guess that means he's a medic-nin, or at least has some training as one…" Menma said quietly before shrugging. "But that isn't a problem. There's no way that he will be able to hit Narumi with them."

Sakura smiled a bit. "That's true. Narumi has always been really good at avoiding attacks, especially with her flexibility."

Shino adjusted his glasses. "Narumi-san's combat style has always revolved around her ability to avoid her opponent's attacks while countering with some of her own. As such, it stands to reason that Kabuto-san would have difficulty landing a hit on her."

"But what happens if he does land a hit?" Saito asked, only to have Menma hit him upside the head with a glare.

"Shut up, there's no way he will." He nodded towards the fight. "Look, Narumi is completely dominating out there. While no attacks are landing on her, she keeps dealing out her own blows as she dodges. Give it a little more time and she will win this."

Naruto smirked at his brother. "And how many times has that exact strategy managed to work on you, Menma?" The embarrassed blush he got was all the answer he needed.

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

Kabuto panted a bit as he stood across from a grinning Narumi. "It really is hard to land hits on you…" He winced when he shifted his stance a bit. "You have landing hits while dodging down to an art…"

Narumi shrugged a bit. "Well, it only really works when I'm actually able to move out of the way. It would really suck if you managed to land a hit on me."

Her opponent let out a small laugh in return. "If only it was that easy." His eyes flickered to the side for a moment. He sighed before dropping his stance and stopping his technique. Looking to Hayate, he spoke up. "I give up. I'm running low on chakra and I'm tired. At this rate, I'm going to collapse." He said.

This admission made Narumi blink in surprise before a pleased grin spread across her face. Hayate nodded and raised a hand towards her. "Winner, Narumi of Konoha!" Cheers broke out at that announcement.

Kabuto smiled and walked over to Narumi before extending a hand. "Good match." He said. "Congratulations on winninig."

Narumi shook his hand with a sheepish grin. "Thanks. And it was a good match. If you were up against someone else who didn't have dodging as such a large part of their style, you probably could have won."

A sigh preceded the response. "Maybe, but maybe not." He shrugged. "I'm satisfied with how far I've gotten. This just wasn't my exam." He nodded at her. "Good luck in the future exams. And the same to the others." Narumi blinked in confusion.

"Why can't you tell them that yourself?" She asked him. Kabuto gave her an amused look.

"Have you forgotten that both of my teammates are currently in the infirmary? I haven't gone to see them yet because I had yet to fight. But now I am able to."

"Oh yeah…"

He gave her a small wave. "See you around, Narumi-san." He turned and left. Following this, Narumi also turned and walked away.

The moment she got to the top of the stairs, she was greeted with an excited Sakura. "Great job, Narumi! That was a flawless win!"

Narumi grinned back. "Thanks! But I think I just got a little lucky. Kabuto-san was still tired from the forest. His team only just got back before we gathered here, remember?"

"Oh, that's right…"

Naruto's gaze followed Kabuto's form out the room. Once he was gone, he turned to Narumi with a smile. "Great job, Narumi." Menma nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, but some of these people were thinking that you might lose." He shot a smirk at Saito. "No faith in you, whatsoever."

"What was that?"

Saito cowered upon seeing the glare that Narumi was sending his way. He rapidly shook his head in denial. "That's not what happened! Don't listen to that jerk!" He shouted.

"Would you people please quiet down a bit?" The group turned when they heard a groggy voice speak up. "How is a girl supposed to sleep with all of this noise you're all making?"

Asuma smirked a bit. "Nice of you to rejoin us, Ino. You've been out of it for a little bit."

Ino just stared at him blankly for a minute as she processed what he just said. Her eyes soon widened as she looked around. "The fight! What happened? Did I get him?" She asked.

Narumi shook her head with a sad smile. "Sorry, you didn't. Turns out the makeup boy was using some kind of puppet to fight. You thought it was him, so you used your jutsu on the puppet. In the end, you kind of knocked yourself out…" She finished as she rubbed the back of her head.

The blond girl gaped. "I was fighting a puppet the entire time?!" Her face morphed into a scowl. "I was so sure I had him!"

Yakumo shrugged. "Well, better luck next time, right?"

"Hmph. I wanted good luck this time." She looked around again. "So, how long was I out?"

"Troublesome. You weren't out that long. Only two fights have passed. Sai's and Narumi's." Shikamaru said, causing Ino to perk up.

"And? What happened?" She prompted and looked between the two in question.

Sai plastered a smile onto his face. "While Narumi-san was able to come out victorious, I was not so fortunate."

"Oh, that sucks." Ino looked over to Narumi. "But nice going, Narumi! Who did you fight?"

Narumi grinned at her. "Sai-san had to fight one of the Oto genin while I fought Kabuto-san." She shrugged. "I think that I won partially due to circumstance."

Menma snorted. "You dominated the entire time, stop being so modest about it. Brag a bit."

Narumi opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off. "They're about to determine the next match, pay attention." Kushina told them. They turned to the screen as more names began to cycle through before stopping.

 **Neji (Konoha) vs Chōji (Konoha)**

The instant the names were shown, Hinata stiffened in place. Chōji on the other hand, paled when he saw who his opponent was. "Oh, great. I get to face the scary guy from the forest…" The Akimichi mumbled.

Shikamaru looked at him. "Be careful out there, Chōji. The guy is pretty tough, but I know you can handle it."

Naruto nodded in agreement. "He's right. I know you've got this, Chōji." He said with a grin.

Hearing the confidence that they had in him brought a smile to Chōji's face. He nodded at the two of them before turning and walking towards the stairs.

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

Neji had left for the arena without a word, choosing the peace of waiting for his opponent to arrive over the shouting of his teammate and teacher. He turned his stoic gaze when Chōji arrived. "So you are my opponent? I suppose I should be grateful." He said.

This insult made Chōji flinch, some of the confidence he gained leaking away. But he soon adopted a determined expression, but it was still easy to spot the nervousness he held. "Say what you want, but I'm going to prove that I can do this."

Neji scoffed. "Are you sure you are capable of doing anything? Your fate is to lose to me here and now." He shook his head. "Save yourself some trouble and forfeit now before you get hurt." Up in the viewer's area, Gai adopted a rare frown when he heard his student's words.

Chōji flinched again upon hearing this. He opened his mouth to respond but was cut off. "Hey! Why don't you shut the hell up-ttebasa?!" Chōji's eyes widened in surprise as he turned to face the source of the shout. He was greeted with the scowling face of Menma. "Why do you have to be such a jerk? Are you that afraid of getting your butt kicked?!"

"Tch. As if that is a possibility. I admit you and your siblings may present a challenge to me, but not the likes of him." Neji nodded at Chōji as he said this. "Although…" His eyes shifted to Hinata, who flinched again. "There are others who would present an even smaller challenge…"

"What was that?!" Kiba couldn't believe the words coming out of this jerk's mouth. "Chōji, kick this guy's ass! Make him regret ever speaking!" Some of the others shouted similar thoughts.

Bolstered buy amount of support he was getting, Chōji steeled himself and got into a battle stance. Seeing this made Neji scoff again. "It is your choice to fight against your fate, but it is useless in the end." He slid into his own battle stance. "I shall prove to you why that is."

Seeing that the both of them were ready, Hayate nodded and raised a hand. "Match eleven, begin!" He jumped back and out of the way.

The moment the match began, Chōji thrust a punch out, confusing some of the spectators. " **Partial Expansion**!" He called. The confusion was instantly changed into surprise when Chōji's arm grew in size as it reached across the arena. But unlike the earlier genin who only stretched, Chōji's arm also grew in all around size.

Seeing the attack coming, Neji simply stepped to the side and out of harm's way. Not being deterred, Chōji brought the hand back before lashing out with a leg that grew in size as well. "Again!" Neji simply jumped over the leg as it swept across the room.

"Is that it? You will need more than that to beat me." Neji said with a smirk.

Chōji frowned when he was told this. Deciding on his next move, he drew back the leg and formed a hand seal. " **Expand**!" He shouted. Eyes widened when Chōji's body instantly grew in size, forming a shaped reminiscent of a sphere. He quickly tucked in each of his limbs. " **Human Boulder**!" He declared, before chakra started to shoot out of his body and he began to rapidly spin in the direction of Neji. Chōji used the spin to speed towards his opponent.

Neji scoffed again. "That still is not good enough." He declared as he jumped out of the way. Bam! Chōji smashed into the wall behind Neji as he was unable to turn quickly enough. Not deterred in the slightest, the boulder that was Chōji started to spin in the opposite direction before speeding towards Neji again.

* * *

 **Back with the Others**

"Troublesome. This isn't going well for Chōji…" Shikamaru muttered as he gripped the railing.

Menma sent him a confused look. "What are you talking about? Look at Neji-teme! He can't even get close! There is nothing he can do."

Naruto shook his head with a frown, but didn't take his eyes off the fight. "But Chōji can't get close either. Neji-san is able to dodge everything with ease. I'm pretty sure he is just waiting for Chōji to tire out." He glanced at Shikamaru. "The **Expansion** techniques are really chakra consuming, right?"

Shikamaru nodded absently. "Yeah, Chōji can't keep it up forever. He may have some decently sized reserves, but it still takes a lot. Look at the chakra that he is using to propel himself. You can tell just by looking that it's a lot…" This admission made the others look back to the fight in worry.

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

Neji watched with a smirk as Chōji missed again and ploughed into another wall. His smirk grew when he saw that instead of starting to spin in the other direction to try again, the jutsu was released as a panting Chōji fell to his hands and knees with sweat dripping down his face. "Well, do you realize the futility of this now?"

Chōji looked up to him with a light glare, but it was greatly offset by the obvious fatigue he was experiencing. He struggled to his feet. "It…isn't over…yet…" He panted out as he finally managed to stand, but he stumbled a bit before catching himself.

The smirk on Neji's face grew. "Oh yes, I do believe it is." And without any further words, he sped at Chōji.

Seeing the oncoming attack, Chōji rushed to defend himself, but was not fast enough to do anything to stop the palm thrust to his chest. "Gah!" Chōji stumbled back while clutching his chest. He soon fell to his knees.

Neji shook his head. "Do you see how futile it is? I do not even need to use my bloodline to finish you. Any basic attacks will suffice." He raised a hand. "Such as this." And without any mercy or hesitation, he quickly struck in multiple places around Chōji.

"Arg!" Unable to do anything to stop the attack, Chōji was forced to take all of the damage. Eventually, the attacks stopped and Chōji crumbled the rest of the way to the ground.

The Hyūga turned away. "That's enough." He looked to Hayate. "Proctor, I do not believe that my opponent is in any condition to continue the fight." Hayate nodded before raising a hand towards Neji with a cough.

"Winner, Neji of Konoha."

With that done, Neji turned and began to walk towards the stairs, but he soon stopped and turned his head to look at the Naruto and the others. "I told you it was futile. All this trouble could have been avoided if he had just given up and accepted his fate."

* * *

 **Back with the Others**

Menma was gritting his teeth in rage as he tightened his hands around the railing. "That bastard! I'm absolutely going to kick his sorry ass!" Shikamaru was glaring at Neji in silence from his spot, but his eyes soon averted him to follow Chōji's unconscious form out of the room.

"Language." Kushina said absently with a frown on her face. "That kid does have a serious attitude problem. I'm honestly surprised that someone like that is on Gai-kun's team…" She said.

Naruto watched Neji walk back to his silent team with a heavy frown. _'I can't detect anything now, but I wouldn't be surprised if he is in danger of falling into darkness at some point if he doesn't get some sense beat into him.'_

"Do you think Chōji is alright?" Ino asked worriedly.

Her teacher sighed. "He should be fine. Hayate was down there watching the fight, he would have stepped in if he saw that any fatal blows were being attempted. I'm pretty sure Gai would have stepped in as well. Not to mention me." He looked over the faces of the genin before clapping his hands. "Ok, enough of that. You can go check on Chōji later. Right now, focus on the screen." Some of them reluctantly nodded before turning to the screen as the next pair of names were selected.

 **Lee (Konoha) vs Naruto (Konoha)**

Naruto blinked in surprise when he saw his name was selected. "Oh, I guess it is my turn…" He said.

"Heh, this should be good." Misa smirked at him. "I remember seeing him around the academy a few times even though he was in the class below me. He isn't worth mentioning when it comes to ninjutsu and genjutsu, but I hear that his taijutsu is really up there. You'll need to work hard to beat him."

The crimson blond recalled the brief display he saw before the first exam along with the info that Kabuto gave them. "I would say so, yeah." A sad sigh escaped his lips. "Especially because I don't have my sword…"

Narumi sent a bright grin at him. "Don't worry about it, Nii-chan! I know you've got this-ttebane!" Naruto opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off by an earsplitting shout.

"YOSH! The time has come for me to fan the flames of my youth!" Lee jumped onto the railing and pointed at Naruto. "Naruto-kun! Let us give this battle everything we have!"

Gai quickly joined in on the shouting. "Yes! Such an excellent idea, my youthful student! I know that combined, both of your flames of youth will shine brighter than anything ever seen before!"

Back with the others, Naruto shivered. "That doesn't sound like a good idea to me…" He said quietly.

Menma sent a sympathetic look at his brother. "Yeah, I wouldn't be too excited to get near that either…"

"Oh, don't be so mean. Lee-san is just very…exuberant…" Yakumo defended weakly.

Yūgao smirked at Naruto. "Who knows, Naruto. You may come to admire that exuberance and wish to be like that yourself…"

Dull heterochromatic eyes met hers. "You would be ok with me showing up to all practices and missions dressed and speaking like that?" Naruto asked her. Yūgao took a moment of silent thought before shivering and shaking her head.

"Never mind…"

"That's what I thought…"

Kushina stepped forward with a nervous smile. "Good luck, Naruto-kun. Be sure to do your best, but try not to get too hurt…" Naruto looked at her for a moment, holding back a confused frown, before he nodded and started to head towards the stairs.

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

"Yosh! It would seem that we are going to be able to fight each other after all, Naruto-kun!"

A slightly amused smile tugged at Naruto's lips. While it was slightly unnerving, there was still a somewhat amusing quality to Lee. "It would seem so, Lee-san." He slid into a battle stance. "Let's have a good match." He said.

The grin on Lee's face grew even wider. "Yes, let's!" He slid into his own battle stance, but blinked in confusion after a moment. "What happened to your sword, Naruto-kun? Do you not wish to battle with it?" He asked.

Naruto sighed sadly. "Unfortunately, it was destroyed in the forest. I will have to do without it. But don't worry. I am confident in my other abilities as well."

Lee grinned wider again. "Yosh! How youthful of you to not have to rely on your blade!"

"Um…Thanks?"

Hearing that the talking was finished, Hayate raised a hand. "Match twelve…" He coughed again. "Begin!" He jumped back and out of the way.

The instant that Hayate finished, Lee blurred as he rushed at his opponent. Once he was close enough, He jumped into the air and whirled around while lashing a leg out at Naruto. " **Leaf Whirlwind**!" He called.

Naruto, already having prepared himself for speed after seeing how fast Lee was before, was able to react quickly enough to raise an arm to block. Naruto grit his teeth in pain when he felt the force behind the kick. _'Holy crap, he is freaking strong!'_ Lee stared with wide eyes at someone actually managing to block his strike. Taking advantage of the moment, Naruto quickly shifted his arm and gripped Lee's leg. With a grunt of exertion, he turned and flung Lee into the nearby wall.

Jolting out of his surprise, Lee grinned again before twisting in the air and landing with his feet against the wall. Not wasting a moment, he jumped off the wall and sprung back at Naruto with a punch ready.

Now knowing just how strong he was, Naruto instead chose to quickly step out of the way before he lashed out with a kick to Lee's side. Expecting such a counter, Lee placed his other hand on the leg as he dodged it and used it to vault over Naruto and land behind him. Using the surprise of his opponent as an opening, Lee sent another kick to Naruto's back.

Although slightly surprised that such a move was used against him, Naruto was able to quickly shake off his surprise and dive forward. But he was not fast enough to completely dodge the blow. Wham! Naruto was sent forward as the kick impacted, but he was able to recover and spin around in time to dodge the follow up blow and send a punch to Lee that connected.

Seeing that Naruto was going in for another strike, Lee quickly jumped back and out of the way. He landed and got into a battle stance as a huge grin formed on his face. "This is truly surprising, Naruto-kun! Not only are you keeping up with me, you are also able to block my strikes! That is very impressive!"

Naruto grinned a bit as he shifted his stance. "Thanks, but you are seriously strong and fast. I knew about the speed a bit based off of what you did before the first exam, but the strength surprised me." Naruto was extremely thankful for the physical training that Urahara put him through now. Without that, he was pretty sure that he would have been greatly outclassed. Naruto crouched lower. "Shall we continue?"

Lee nodded with a grin. With a nod of his own, Naruto was the one to rush back in.

* * *

 **Back with the Others**

Sakura watched the fight with wide eyes. "Wow. They are both so fast!" She said.

Yakumo smiled when she heard this. "Yes, Naruto has always been very fast. It is something that he has trained himself in a great deal." Her eyes shifted to Lee. "But Lee-san is pretty fast as well…I think he may even be a little faster than Naruto."

Yūgao hummed in agreement. "He is a little faster. And stronger too. While Naruto is very impressive, he doesn't focus on only taijutsu like his opponent does. He also trains in his skills with a sword along with his other techniques. But, because he doesn't have a sword, it became a lot harder for him…"

Some of the genin traded glances, but didn't say anything. Noticing this, the jōnin traded their own looks, also staying silent. The silence was soon broken by Narumi. "So what does that mean for Nii-chan? If he doesn't do something soon, he will be overwhelmed, right?"

Yūgao smiled at her. "Well, I wouldn't worry about it. I'm sure Naruto has an idea or two to stay in the running."

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

' _Well, crap. This isn't going too well…'_ Naruto winced a bit as he was forced to block another strike before retaliating with his own. _'I can't beat him in taijutsu, so I will need to think of something else…'_ After a moment, he decided to try and catch Lee off guard. Seeing that Lee was coming back to attack again, Naruto thrust his hand forward. " **Fire**!"

Lee's eyes widened in shock as a fireball suddenly shot at him. He instantly changed the direction he was moving in to the side, but was unable to dodge the blast completely. "Gah!" Lee jumped back to inspect the damage done to his arm. After assessing the damage, he turned wide eyes to Naruto. "That is truly amazing, Naruto-kun! You are able to bring the flames of your youth out as an attack!"

Naruto sweat dropped. "Yeah, sure. Let's go with that…" Glancing around, Naruto noticed the surprised looks many of the people in the room were giving him. He sighed a bit. _'Well, there goes that secret…'_ He looked back to Lee when he started to get up.

"But even so, I am not out of this yet!" Lee rushed forward at Naruto, ready to jump out of the way of any other attacks. Naruto watched him get close, and moved out of the way of the kick sent to his head. Ducking down, Naruto sent an uppercut to Lee that was also dodged. Seeing that Lee was about to counter, Naruto raised his other hand, making Lee's eyes widen. " **Fire**!" The fireball was dodged as Lee sprung back.

Not deterred in the slightest, Naruto rushed after Lee. Once he was close enough, he sent a strike at Lee. Lee raised an arm to block it, only to blink in surprise when it turned out to be a feint as Naruto rotated his body around him while using the momentum to add strength to his kick.

Although not expecting the feint, Lee was able to catch it and used the grip to tug Naruto closer while bringing his hand back to punch, only to abort this action in favor of releasing his opponent and jumping away as Naruto raised his hand again. Landing a good distance away, Lee grinned at his opponent. "The threat of your flames of youth keeps me on my toes, Naruto-kun! I am unable to get close for too long or risk being burned!"

Naruto shrugged a bit with a smile. "Well, I guess it is a risk you'll have to take…"

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Naruto blinked and turned to the source of the shout, Might Gai. The green clad jōnin gave Lee the thumbs up with a dazzling smile. "Go ahead, Lee! Take them off!"

Lee blinked in surprise before raising a hesitant salute to his teacher. "But, Gai-sensei…You said that would be a last resort. Only too be used when the lives of very important people were at stake!"

Gai nodded. "That's right, I did. But this is an exception!"

A smile formed on Lee's face. "I understand. Thank you Gai-sensei!" And with that, he jumped away onto the nearby statue before sitting down and rolling up his pant legs. Naruto blinked in surprise when he saw what Lee had on.

' _Weights? He does that too?'_ His mind went back to Urahara's words when he first gave Naruto the weights. _'That's right…Urahara said that he got the idea from seeing the 'flames of youth' of someone…'_ He observed as Lee took of the weights he had on both legs.

Finally managing to free himself of the weights, Lee stood up and held the weights out to each side. "That is much better! I will be able to move freely now!" He dropped the weights. The eyes of everyone in the room tracked the weights as they fell to the floor. Nobody was expecting what happened next. Boom!

Eyes all around widened at the massive impact that the weights created upon hitting the ground.

' _You have_ got _to be shitting me!'_ Who the hell uses that much weight?!

* * *

 **Back with the Others**

"You have got to be kidding me…" Menma muttered with shock.

"I must be dreaming. There is no way that's real…" Narumi followed.

"How the heck does he even _move_ with that much weight on him?" Misa asked weakly.

Behind them, Kakashi sighed as he brought a palm to his face. _'That's just too much, Gai…'_

Asuma's expression soon changed from surprised to amused. "Wow. I definitely didn't see that one coming. Gai really pushes him pretty hard, doesn't he?"

"That goes beyond pushing him. How does a genin even do that?" Kurenai asked. "If he was that fast with that much weighing him down, I don't see how he will have any trouble now…"

Yakumo frowned in worry. "I'm sure Naruto will think of something…" She looked back to his teammate to see his eyebrow twitching at the absurd thing he just witnessed. Soon though, he jumped back onto the other statue on the opposite side of the room before crouching down. "Look, Naruto is up to something." This made the others turn to see Naruto rolling up his sleeves a bit.

Ino frowned in confusion. "What is he doing?"

Narumi squinted to get a better look. "It looks like…He is taking something off of his wrists…wristbands?"

Yūgao smirked when she saw the way that Naruto had to grab the wristbands. "Not just any wristbands, weighted ones."

Menma's eyes widened. "What?! You mean Aniki had on insane weights like Lee?!" The purple haired jōnin shook her head.

"I really doubt he had on anything that extreme. He probably had on some decent weight, but nothing like Lee." They watched as Naruto sealed away his wristbands.

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

Naruto looked back to his opponent after he sealed away his wristbands. _'There is no way I will be able to keep up on my own now, even with chakra boosting me. If I want to win this thing, I will need to tap into some twilight power to boost my body…'_ Naruto closed his eyes for a moment as he concentrated. Slowly, a breeze started to shift around him as he summoned the twilight.

Somewhere in the viewing area, a predatory smile slowly spread on a hidden sannin's face as he detected the shift.

Being careful not to use too much or else risk creating visible signs of twilight, Naruto opened his eyes and looked back to his opponent who was watching him. "Ready when you are."

This proclamation brought the grin back to Lee's face. Without any further words, both of them disappeared in a burst of speed. Bam!

The two of them reappeared in the middle of the arena where they both had a hand that was extended in a punch, while another was raised to catch the punch of the opponent. Lee's grin grew even wider. "I am truly amazed, Naruto-kun. I would never have thought that you were holding back so much! You're strength seems to match my own!" The grin grew. "But…" He disappeared.

Wham! Naruto was sent flying to the side as a heavy punch met his cheek. He was able to quickly recover and land on his feet to see that Lee was grinning at him. "While you are as strong as me, I do not think that you are quite as fast as me."

Naruto wiped away the blood that was dripping from the corner of his mouth. "No, I think that you still have me beat there. You really are insanely fast."

Lee nodded. "Yes, I truly pride myself on my speed." He crouched low. "Let me show you why!" He blurred forward again.

Naruto instantly ducked down to avoid the kick to his head that nearly hit him. Using the chance, Naruto sprung back up with a strike of his own, but Lee blurred away again. Bam! Naruto was knocked to the side when Lee landed a blow.

"Gah!" Naruto quickly spun around and landed on his feet, only to be forced to dive out of the kick Lee sent at him. Not wasting a moment, Lee was instantly in pursuit of Naruto. He quickly caught up to the blond and delivered a devastating blow to Naruto's chest. Naruto grunted in pain, but still sent a retaliatory strike that was dodged when Lee jumped away.

Naruto was left huffing and clutching his chest. _'This really isn't going well. I need to step up my game soon or it will all be over…'_

* * *

 **Back with the Others**

"Come on, Nii-chan! You can do it! I know you can-ttebane!" Narumi cheered.

Shino adjusted his glasses. "I am forced to question the confidence you have in Naruto-san. While I agree that he may be the strongest out of those in our class, it would seem that he is unable to keep up with Lee-san."

Narumi spun around with a ferocious glare on her face, making Shino actually flinch a bit. "What was that?" She asked dangerously. She was about to tear into him, but stopped when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She shifted her glare onto the person, but faltered when she saw it was her mother. "Kaa-chan…" She said.

Kushina sent her a stern look. "Calm down. What he says is completely true. And even if it wasn't, he is allowed his own opinions."

"But…"

Misa smirked over to Narumi before looking back to the fight. "Hey, relax. This is Naruto we're talking about. I'm sure he still has a thing or two up his sleeve to turn this thing around." Narumi sighed, but relented as she turned back to the match.

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

Naruto ducked as Lee sent another fast strike to him, quickly followed by another, but this one was dodged too. Naruto smirked a bit. _'It looks like I'm finally adjusting to his speed a bit. I still have a lot of trouble keeping up, but it is still an improvement…'_ Deciding to try going on the offensive, Naruto quickly raised a hand. " **Fire**!" A fireball shot out at Lee.

Lee's eyes widened before he jumped out of the way. He landed a good distance away with a grin. "I almost forgot you could do that, Naruto-kun! That was very close!" He crouched. "But it won't be enough!" He blurred away.

' _Damn it! What does it take to hit this guy?!'_ Naruto was doing his best to deflect all of the blows raining down on him, but he was unable to block and avoid them all. A punch to the gut slipped past his defense, soon followed by one to the shoulder, then one to the face. A frustrated growl began to form in Naruto's throat. He had enough of getting punched around! _'Enough of this!'_ Another blow to the face sealed the deal. "That's…E…nough!"

Lee was momentarily blinded by the flash of light that suddenly surrounded Naruto, but a sharp cut to his chest was made him quickly jump away. Once he landed away, he was stunned to see that Naruto was giving him a heavy frown with some kind of strange weapon in his hand. Looking down, Lee saw that there was a cut that went across his chest, obviously made by the strange weapon. He looked back up when he heard a frustrated sigh.

"You know, I really didn't want to use this. But if I want to get out of this, then I need to stop trying to fight you with what you're good at." Naruto got into a battle stance. "If taijutsu is your specialty, then kenjutsu is definitely mine." He rushed forward.

* * *

 **Back with the Others**

"What? What kind of weapon is that? It looks so stupid!" Kiba shouted.

Narumi quickly sent him a glare. "Don't say that. That weapon is awesome! It's what Nii-chan used in the forest after his sword was destroyed-ttebane!"

Menma nodded in agreement with an amused look on his face. "While I agree that it is pretty stupid to lower your over the looks of a weapon, you have to admit that sword looks pretty weird."

From his spot next to him, Saito was observing the keyblade in great interest. "I've never seen a weapon like that one before. I wonder what it is…"

Asuma glanced to Yūgao. "You have any idea? I can't say I've seen something like that before."

Yūgao frowned as she shook her head. "I have no idea. Naruto has never used that before in any of our training sessions. I didn't even know he had it, I thought he only had that black sword. What about you, Kushina? Care to tell us what it is?" No response was given. Yūgao shifted her gaze to see Kushina frowning in thought at the sword. "Kushina?"

Kushina didn't hear any of this. All of her attention was on the weird blade her oldest son was holding. _'Why does that blade look so familiar? I swear I have seen something like it before…'_ But she just couldn't remember where. The argument the genin were having grew in volume as Kiba started yelling.

"I don't care what you say! There is no way that a sword made to look like a key is an actual weapon!" This made Kushina's eyes widen.

' _A key? Where…That's it!'_ Her mind went back to the drawings that Naruto used to make when he was younger. A lot of them were of people who fought with giant keys! _'That's one of those key weapon things that Naruto used to dream about! But…Where did he get one? Did he make it? And wasn't it just a dream?'_ She was pulled from her thoughts when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned and was greeted with the slightly worried face of Yūgao.

Seeing that she had her attention, Yūgao spoke up. "You alright?" She asked.

Kushina gave a hesitant nod before turning back to the fight. "I'm fine. Don't worry about it." She was going to look over those drawings again when she got back home.

* * *

 **Play Fairy Tail OST Lightning Flame Dragon Roaring**

 **Back in the Arena**

Now that he had his keyblade, Naruto was the one that was pressing the attack while Lee was forced to dodge. Lee already knew from the cut on his chest that the strange weapon in Naruto's hands was dangerous, so blocking was out. All he could do was dodge. A grin soon resurfaced on Lee's face. "It would seem that you now have a sword to use. But do not think that you will win now." He disappeared in a blur of speed, only to reappear behind Naruto. "I am still in this to win." He sent a punch forward.

"Arg!" Lee quickly jumped back after his arm was cut into. He sent a shocked look at Naruto, who smirked.

"Don't think that I will keep letting you hit me. I'm getting used to your speed. You're still faster than me, but the advantage my blade gives me makes up for it." He got into a battle stance. "So. What are you going to do?"

The grin on Lee's face only grew. He looked over to the balconies. "Gai-sensei! I am requesting permission to use that technique!"

A frown formed on Naruto's face. _'That doesn't sound good…'_ He shifted his gaze and saw that Gai was giving a serious look to Lee. After a minute of thought, he opened his mouth to respond.

"I give you permission! But only the first two!"

The grin on Lee's face kept growing. "Thank you, Gai-sensei!" He looked back to Naruto. "Prepare yourself, Naruto-kun! I shall end this match with this next move!" He crouched a bit and crossed his arms. "I hope you are ready!"

' _Ready for wha-'_ Whoosh! Naruto was completely unprepared for the sudden spike in chakra that Lee released. His eyes widened. _'Oh crap.'_

Lee was gritting his teeth as he concentrated. "Gate of Opening. **Open**! Gate of Healing. **Open**!"

' _That's a lot of chakra!'_ Naruto tensed in preparation.

"I hope you are ready for this, Naruto-kun! This will be the end of our fight!" Lee immediately disappeared in a blur of speed. Wham!

Naruto was sent reeling by the force of the blow to his side. _'Oh kami, he actually got stronger and faster!'_ Bam! Another blow soon followed. Not wanting to go down so easily, Naruto grit his teeth and attempted to counter, but all of his slashes were dodged.

"It is no use, Naruto-kun. You cannot keep up with me as I am now."

' _Like hell I can't!'_ But no matter what he tried, Lee kept on moving out of the way while pushing him back. _'Damn it! I need to go faster!'_ Another dodged swipe coupled with another punch landing on Naruto. _'This isn't good enough! I need to be faster!'_ Another dodge, but it managed to create a small slice on Lee's shoulder. Naruto didn't falter as chest was punched. _'Come on! I can move faster than this!'_ A cut was made on Lee's arm. _'Faster. Faster. Faster_. Faster! _'_ Unnoticed to all but one in the heat of the battle, Naruto's eyes began to glow a bit.

' _Faster!'_ Crash!

There was stunned silence throughout the room as Naruto moved his head out of the way of the strike that Lee had sent at him, causing Lee's arm to get embedded into the wall. Lee was too shocked that Naruto had actually managed to move completely out of the way to do anything. Using the chance, Naruto quickly acted. Wham!

Lee grunted at the sudden strike to his abdomen sent by the crimson blond. Using the surprise of his opponent against him, Naruto instantly grappled Lee and slammed him into the ground. Eyes widening in alarm, Lee instantly moved to get up, but stopped when he felt cold metal on his throat. Eyes widening even further, he followed the length of the strange blade back to its huffing owner.

 **End Music**

Naruto stood over Lee with the tip of his keyblade ready to impale him. "You…lose…" He panted out.

The green genin just stayed in place in silence for a moment while panting. When his brain finally caught up to what happened, a rueful smile appeared on his face. "It would appear that I do. You have defeated me, Naruto-kun." He turned his head towards Hayate. "I forfeit the match!"

Hayate took a moment to just stare at the two of them before he managed to collect himself and nod. He raised a hand to Naruto. "Winner, Naruto of Konoha." Stunned silence greeted this announcement before cheers erupted in the balconies.

Sighing in relief, Naruto moved his blade away and offered Lee a smile and a hand. "That was a great match. You really had me on the ropes for most of it."

Lee grinned at him as he accepted the hand. "But I still lost. But I do not regret it! It was truly an honor to do battle with you! I am going to learn from this, and use it to grow stronger." He pointed at Naruto. "Next time, I shall be the victor. Of that you can be sure!"

Naruto sweat dropped. "Right…"

"Yosh! I shall go consult Gai-sensei on my match! He can tell me what I did wrong! My flames of youth may have been bested by your own, but they have not died out! I wish you luck in the rest of the chūnin exams, Naruto-kun!" And before Naruto could reply in any way, Lee was speeding off.

"…Ok then…" With a tired sigh, Naruto dismissed his keyblade and turned towards the stairs. The moment he made it up to the others, he was bombarded with congratulations from all around. He raised his hands to try and quell the noise. "Right, thanks. But Lee-san was really strong, I nearly lost back there…"

Yūgao grinned at him. "Well, it isn't really that surprising, especially given how Gai deemed it ok to teach him the inner gates, but you still did great." Narumi then bounced over to him.

"You were awesome, Nii-chan! You both were moving so fast! I couldn't even follow you guys with my eyes during some parts-ttebane!"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I wasn't even able to keep up for a lot of it. I think I just got luck in the end there with the adrenalin or something…"

Kiba rushed forward. "Enough about the speed! Sure you were fast, but whatever! What was up with that weird sword you were using?!" This question made Naruto flinch internally.

"That was…Just something that I got a while back. I don't normally use it because I have my other sword, but I obviously had to use it now." He could see that many of them still had questions, so he decided to change the subject. "I'm going to take a quick nap now. Only for a bit. Wake me up after a match has gone by."

Menma snorted. "Of course you would want to take a nap during the chūnin exams."

Naruto smirked at him. "Well, I'm tired after that. I'm sure that if Shikamaru had already gone, he would do the same thing."

"Troublesome…" He didn't deny it.

"Now then, if you'll excuse me…" And without any further words, Naruto walked over to the wall and sat down on the ground against it and closed his eyes. Sleep soon overtook him.

* * *

 **A Little Later**

"Nii-chan, wake up. A match has passed." Narumi's voice woke Naruto from his sleep. The crimson blond yawned as he came back to awareness before blinking at his sister.

"What happened in it?"

"It was Shino-san against the annoying Oto genin. Shino-san won." That wasn't a surprise. Naruto nodded and got up and looked at the giant screen as it selected the next two names.

 **Kin (Oto) vs Yakumo (Konoha)**

Naruto looked over to his teammate. "Well, I guess you two will be getting a second round…How confident are you?" Yakumo smiled at him.

"I will be back within five minutes." Naruto blinked at that. Wow, she must have something planned. Naruto's eyes were drawn to the bag she had on her back.

Yūgao grinned at her female student. "While it is good to be confident, don't let it go to your head."

Yakumo sighed and nodded. "I understand…" She looked at the others. "Wish me luck!" She turned and started to walk towards the stairs.

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

Kin grinned as she watched her opponent approach. "Oh, I am going to enjoy this, bitch."

Yakumo simply raised an eyebrow before responding. "And how are you so sure that you will come out victorious? As I recall, you were defeated fairly simply before."

The answer was preceded with a growl. "I'm going to rip your tongue right out of your mouth!" She got into a battle stance as she pulled out senbon.

"I would like to see you do that." Yakumo pulled the bag off of her back and rummaged through it for a moment. Soon, she found what she was looking for. "Ah, there it is." She pulled out some kind of rolled up scroll before putting her bag back on and turning to Hayate. "Ready."

Quirking an eyebrow at the lack of a battle stance but having a feeling he knew what was about to happen, Hayate nodded and raised a hand. "Match fourteen, begin!" He didn't even bother jumping back.

The moment the go ahead was given, Kin started the motion of throwing the senbon, but froze suddenly. Her eyes were stuck on the item that Yakumo had unrolled and was presenting to her opponent.

Everyone was silent as they waited for something to happen. "AAHH!" Eventually, the silence was broken by Kin suddenly dropping her senbon as she gripped her head and screamed while falling to her knees. Yakumo just watched as her opponent passed out without her lifting a finger before turning to Hayate with a raised eyebrow. Hayate nodded before coughing and raising a hand.

"Winner, Yakumo of Konoha." He announced.

With a satisfied nod, Yakumo put away her scroll before turning and walking back to the stairs. When she reached the others, she was greeted with silence, making her look around to see the surprised, and in some cases unnerved, looks she was getting. "What?"

Naruto shook his head with an amused smile. "Nothing. Nothing. You don't mess around, do you?"

"Why should I? I didn't want to spend any more time than necessary down there with her." She looked around again. "Was there something wrong with what I did?" Multiple gazes were immediately averted while the amused jōnin watched. Their attention was soon drawn when screen started to cycle through names again.

 **Omoi (Kumo) vs Hinata (Konoha)**

"Eep!" Hinata squeaked when she saw that she was chosen. Her nervousness only grew when she saw who her opponent was. She shakily turned to look when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

Kurenai gave her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry about it. I know you will do great." Kiba was quick to put forward his own opinion.

"Yeah! You'll be awesome, Hinata!"

"I am confident you will perform well." Shino added.

Hinata blushed under all the encouragement. "T-Thank you…" She said quietly. The other genin were quick to wish her luck as well. Soon, Hinata's eyes shifted to Naruto.

Seeing her looking his way, Naruto grinned. "Go out there and show them what you've got. I know you will kick some serious butt."

Hinata's eyes widened, but a determined glint soon flashed across them. "Right." She turned and began to walk towards the stairs.

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

Hinata walked to her spot across from her opponent as her nervousness came back. She jumped a bit when she heard her opponent sigh in despair.

"Oh no. What will I do now? Out of all the people here, I have to fight a Hyūga. And she is obviously a main branch one…What if I beat her, and the Hyūga clan gets angry? They will want repercussions. And then the Inuzuka will support them because of those insults Karui said earlier. That will be bad. _That_ will definitely lead to war. Then I will be deployed, and the-"

"Oh kami, would you just shut up and fight?!" Karui shouted from her spot.

Omoi slumped even further before he looked at Hinata. "Would it be ok for you to just forfeit now? I don't want to hurt you, so that would be great. Plus, you don't really look like much of a fighter…"

This last remark made Hinata flinch again. "Uh…um…" She looked around nervously. Eventually, her eyes locked with another pair of pupil-less eyes in the balconies. Seeing her looking his way made Neji scowl even more, which in turn made Hinata flinch again. "I…" Hinata looked down as her hair shadowed her eyes. "I…" She took a deep breath. "I won't give up!" She declared, stunning everyone in the room.

Hinata raised her head, showing determined eyes. "I refuse to give up when everyone else is fighting! I won't be the one to back down." She activated her bloodline, making the veins around her eyes bulge and slid into the Hyūga battle stance. "I won't give up, no matter what you say!"

Omoi blinked at her before slumping even more. "Such misfortune…" He got into his own battle stance.

Seeing that the both of them were ready, Hayate raised a hand. "Match thirteen, begin!" He quickly jumped back.

The moment the match began, Hinata rushed at Omoi and sent a palm thrust at his chest. Omoi was able to dodge the strike and counter with a punch. Hinata quickly maneuvered to the side of the strike before inflicting multiple jabs around Omoi's arm.

"Omoi, you idiot! Why would you get close?!" Realizing his mistake, Omoi quickly jumped back to gain some distance. Hinata didn't pursue, instead choosing to slide back into a battle stance. Once he landed, Omoi pulled back the sleeve of his top to inspect the damage done to his arm. Just like he expected, several marks were forming around his arm where he was struck.

A sigh escaped from Omoi. "Man, that was stupid of me. I forgot who I was fighting." He looked forlornly at his arm. "What if this is permanent? What if I'm never able to mold chakra with this arm again? I will have to learn how to use jutsu with only one arm now. But I may fail. And the-"

"Focus on the match!"

Omoi slumped again. "Stupid flat chest, telling me what to do…" He muttered.

"What was that?!"

Ignoring her, Omoi reached for the katana on his back. "I didn't want to use this because I may hurt you too badly, but I don't really have a choice." He slid into a battle stance. "I will try to make this fast." He the rushed forward.

Seeing the attack coming, Hinata dodged to the side before trying to close the rest of the gap. Not wanting her to get close, Omoi used his momentum to send a kick at her, but it was easily dodged. Wanting to use the extended limb against him, Hinata moved her hands towards Omoi's leg, only to be forced to jump back as the sword made another swipe.

Not wanting to give her a chance to readjust herself, Omoi instantly followed after her with multiple swipes. Although she was dodging most of them, small cuts were still forming in various places on Hinata. This pattern continued for the next few minutes with Hinata only managing to land a few blows. Soon, a panting Hinata stood across from a winded Omoi.

Omoi tilted his head. "Ready to give up yet?" He asked her.

Hinata shook her head defiantly. "Never…" Omoi sighed again.

"Of course not." His expression hardened. "I'm going to end this now before you get hurt too badly." Before Hinata could react in any way, Omoi rushed forward with a horizontal swipe. Frowning, Hinata jumped out of the way, but was shocked to see a bolt of lightning shoot off the blade and after her.

"Wha-AH!" Hinata screamed as the electricity struck her, but she managed to land on her feet before falling to her knees. She began to get to her feet, but she was obviously struggling.

"That's enough. You have done well, but I am ending this." Hinata stiffened at the voice behind her. But before she could do anything, a strong strike hit the back of her neck. She struggled to remain conscious, but it was a losing battle as her world turned dark. She soon collapsed forward.

Omoi sighed again as she sheathed his sword and looked at Hayate. "Am I done?"

Hayate nodded and raised a hand. "Winner, Omoi of Kumo."

Hearing this, Omoi slumped. "Hopefully the Hyūga clan won't be too angry with me…"

* * *

 **Back with the Others**

"Aw, Hinata lost…" Sakura said sadly.

Kiba was growling nearby. "That jerk just got her with a cheap shot! How could anyone expect lightning to suddenly shoot off of a sword like that?! I be-"

"Kiba, that's enough." Kurenai cut him off. Seeing that he was about to protest, she continued. "Hinata lost fair and square, it is unfortunate, but it still happened." Her expression softened. "She put up a great fight, but her opponent was just stronger." Kiba sighed and nodded reluctantly.

"That was a great fight?" Multiple glares were turned to the source, but Neji just ignored them all. "That was pathetic. She was unable to do any real damage to her opponent."

Menma glared along with some of the others. "What the heck is your problem? Why do you need to be such a jerk about everything?!"

Neji scoffed. "Just because you can't handle the truth does not make it any less true. She lost, as was her fate. It only shows just how wort-"

"Neji, enough." The stern look his teacher gave him and the tone silenced any further comments. With a huff, he turned away.

Although some of the others looked as if they wanted to speak, the looks the jōnin gave them kept them quiet. They turned their attention to Hayate when he coughed.

"We will now be having the final match. Would Shikamaru of Konoha and Wataru of Konoha please enter the arena."

Shikamaru sighed as he slumped his shoulders. "Troublesome. I just want to go home…"

Naruto smirked at him. "Hey, think of it like this. The sooner you finish your fight, the sooner we can finish the exam." This did little to encourage Shikamaru.

"Don't be such a lazy bum, Shikamaru! Go down there and fight!" Ino admonished with her arms crossed. Shikamaru only sighed again, but a hand on his shoulder made him turn his head to see a smiling Wataru.

"Come on, I would like to get this over with as well."

"Troublesome…"

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

Wataru grinned at Shikamaru. "Well, Shikamaru. I never really expected for you to be my opponent. Would it be asking too much for you to just give up?"

His opponent looked to be considering it for a moment before sighing and shaking his head. "I would love nothing more than to do just that, but there are certain troublesome women who would never leave me alone if I did that."

"You're damn right, you lazy ass!" And there goes Misa…

The grin on Wataru's face grew. "Well then, I guess I have no choice. But you know, I would like to at least have you try if we are going to fight…"

"That's too much work…"

The grin turned into a smirk. "Oh? And what if I am able to convince you to do so?"

Shikamaru raised a lazy eyebrow. "How would you do that?"

Wataru shrugged. "Oh, I don't know…But perhaps me doing you a favor would do the trick?"

"Like what?"

"How about I pay to for that limited edition kage shogi set that I know you have your eye on?"

Instantly, the entirety of Shikamaru's attention was zeroed in on Wataru. "What?"

"I said I would pay to for that limited edition kage shogi set. The one that they have at the board game shop? I know, given your passion for shogi, that you would want it. But I doubt you have bought it due to the high price." The smirk was only growing. "If you give this fight your all and defeat me, then I will buy it for you."

"Are you serious?"

"Of course."

A grin formed on Shikamaru's face. "Fine. I'll fight you with everything I have. Just don't complain when you go broke." He got into a battle stance before nodding to Hayate.

Wataru laughed. "I'll be sure to hold it in." He too got into a battle stance before giving the ready signal.

* * *

 **Back with the Others**

Ino could do nothing but bury her face in her hands as Naruto, Misa, Chōji, and Kiba laughed. "I can't believe that idiot. Getting eager to fight over a stupid board game."

Asuma found the entire situation _very_ entertaining. "Well, you can't say it didn't do the trick, Ino. Shikamaru looks like he is ready to go now."

"Ugh! You're all just a bunch of idiots!"

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

Hayate looked between the two combatants before coughing and raising a hand. "Final match, begin!" He quickly jumped back.

Not wasting any time, Ikusa's hands flew through some hand seals. " **Fire Style: Exploding Flame Shot**!" Shikamaru was forced to dive to the side to avoid the fireballs that were suddenly flying his way.

"Troublesome. Although I agreed to fight, how am I supposed to win this?" Shikamaru muttered with a sigh. Taking in the situation, a plan soon formed in his head. "Might as well end this quickly…" The moment the volley of fireballs ended, Shikamaru rushed towards Wataru.

This action stunned Wataru for a moment, but he soon recovered and sent more fireballs at Shikamaru, who managed to dodge out of the way of each. "What do you plan on doing with a frontal assault? It isn't like I will let you get close!" Wataru soon jumped back in order to gain some distance, but Shikamaru kept his rush up. Deciding the best option was to just keep on backing up, Wataru did just that as he continued to fire fireballs at Shikamaru.

Shikamaru was silent as he continued to rush forward while dodging the flames. _'Just a little more…now!'_ Without wasting a moment, Shikamaru formed a hand seal. Instantly, his shadow darkened and shot at Wataru.

Seeing the oncoming danger, Wataru prepared to jump back again, only to freeze in place as he realized where he was. Sending a quick glance behind him, he saw that he was nearly under the balcony. He sent a smirk at Shikamaru. "Oh, so that was your plan? To have me place myself under the balcony where you can use the shadow cast by it to your advantage? I almost forgot you can do that." He jumped to the side. "Not gonna happen!"

"Tch." Shikamaru recalled his shadow before quickly following in pursuit. The previous chase resumed as Shikamaru dodged more fireballs while Wataru tried to hit him while backing up. Soon though, Wataru was forced to stop as he realized he was in the corner of the room. Using the chance, Shikamaru formed the hand seal again and sent his shadow forward.

Wataru smirked at the sight. "Just because I'm in a corner doesn't mean I have nowhere to go." He crouched. "After all…I can still go up and over!" He sprung up and over Shikamaru, before landing on the side with an ever growing smirk. He slowly raised a flaming hand towards Shikamaru. "Now you are the one with nowhere to go. You should really give u-"

"Shadow possession, success." This declaration stunned Wataru.

"What? How? When?!" He quickly tried to jump back, but found that he couldn't move. Shikamaru turned to look at him with a smirk on his face while Wataru struggled. "When did you do it? I was fine a second ago!"

Shikamaru shrugged. "Well, look at the ground in between us." Wataru did so, and was stunned to see that their shadows were connected.

"But when?!"

The smirk on Shikamaru's face grew a bit. "Well, you were right to keep me away, but you were thinking in a three dimensional view. That isn't what's important here. I only need for our shadows to touch to get you."

Wataru frowned in confusion. "But they never did! You never got close!"

Shikamaru shook his head. "You're still thinking in terms of distance. Think back on the fight from a top down point of view, as if you were watching it from above. What did you do in the end?" Wataru thought back to a minute ago. He was in the corner with a shadow rushing at him, so he had to dodge. He couldn't dodge to either side, so that meant he had to…His eyes widened.

"I jumped over you. Our shadows connected then…"

"Exactly. Now then, do you give up?"

Wataru sighed with a resigned smile. "I guess I do. I know that I'm essentially your captive right now. I've lost fair and square."

"And the shogi set?"

This made Wataru laugh a bit. "I will keep my word and pay for it." Shikamaru nodded with a smile.

Hearing the forfeit, Hayate raised a hand towards Shikamaru. "Winner, Shikamaru of Konoha."

Shikamaru sighed and released the technique, a sigh escaping his lips. "Man, that was troublesome…" Wataru walked over to him.

"Maybe so, but I still enjoyed it." A smirk grew on his face. "And I'm willing to bet that Misa got a kick out of watching you actually jump around for a bit."

"Tch." They both turned to Hayate as he spoke up.

"This concludes the final match. I now ask that all those advancing to-" Another cough. "To the next stage please meet in front of the stage."

* * *

 **Few Minutes Later**

The sixteen victors of the preliminaries were lined up in front of the stage facing the Hokage and the proctors. Hayate soon stepped forward. "I would like to congratulate each and every one of you for coming this far and qualifying for the final exam."

Naruto looked around again to reconfirm who was moving on. His eyes were soon drawn back to the front when Hayate continued after a cough. "The Hokage will now speak to you about the next step."

With a nod to Hayate, Minato stepped forward with a smile. "The final exam is pretty straight forward. It will be a tournament. As I said before, many people come and view the chūnin exam finals, often coming from distant places. They all come to see you fighting for each of your respective villages with everything you have." He looked at each of them. "That is why the final stage will be held a month from now." Quiet chatter began when he said this.

' _I guess that's a good thing. Gives me some time to prepare…'_ Naruto's eyes shifted to Gaara, but were drawn back to the front when Minato continued.

"Think of this month as a chance to prepare not only your body, but your mind. You can use this to study up on your opponent and plan accordingly."

' _Meaning we will be learning who we are up against here and now…'_

"I would like to allow you all to leave here and now, but there is one more thing that we need to do." He nodded to Anko. Seeing the gesture, she nodded back before walking forward with a box in her hand. "Each of you will be drawing a paper from the box that Anko is holding. Don't crowd around, she'll come to you."

"Don't take too long, maggots!" Multiple sweat drops were made.

After everyone drew a number, Minato nodded. "Starting from the left, tell us the number on your paper." He looked to Neji. "You first."

Nodding, Neji held up his paper. "One."

Following his lead, Tenten spoke up. "Six."

Shikamaru sighed. "Fourteen."

"Eleven." Shino said evenly.

Menma smirked. "Two." His eyes met with Neji's.

Nodding with a grin, Narumi spoke up. "Seven!"

Naruto held up his number. "Four."

Yakumo smiled. "Thirteen."

Sasuke looked at his paper before looking away in disinterest. "Ten."

Kankurō smirked. "Twelve."

"Sixteen." Temari said.

"Nine." Gaara said quietly.

Samui looked to the side. "Three."

Karui grinned. "Eight."

Omoi sighed. "Five."

"I have number fifteen." Dosu finished.

Ibiki nodded as he noted each number. After he got each of them, he turned the clipboard around to show them a tournament bracket with each of their names. "Here are the pairings."

"Match one, Neji of Konoha vs Menma of Konoha." The two of them never stopped glaring at each other.

"Match two, Naruto of Konoha vs Samui of Kumo." Samui and Naruto looked at each other before looking away.

"Match three, Omoi of Kumo vs Tenten of Konoha." Tenten grinned while Omoi sighed.

"Match four, Narumi of Konoha vs Karui of Kumo." Karui smirked, making Narumi glare.

"Match five, Gaara of Suna vs Sasuke of Konoha." Gaara looked over to Sasuke who looked back with a smirk.

Naruto sighed. _'Just great. The two people here who I would call unstable are going to be fighting each other.'_

"Match six, Shino of Konoha vs Kankurō of Suna." Shino just adjusted his glasses while Kankurō smirked.

"Match seven, Yakumo of Konoha vs Shikamaru of Konoha." Shikamaru sighed while Yakumo rolled her eyes.

"Match eight, Dosu of Oto vs Temari of Suna." The two of them looked at each other.

"These are the pairings for the tournament a month from now."

Shikamaru raised a hand. "Does that mean that only one of us will be promoted?"

Minato smiled and shook his head. "Not at all. All of you can become chūnin, or none of you. You will each be judged based on your performance. Obviously, those who advance will have more chances to show that they should be promoted. Any other questions?" None were raised. "Then you are all dismissed. I will see you a month from now!" He disappeared in a yellow flash.

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 24!**

 **I really do apologize if the end seems a little rushed, but I really wanted to get this thing out as soon as possible.**

 **Little late to ask this, I know, but what do you guys think of my grammar and sentence structure? I noticed a few chapters back that I start a lot of my paragraphs with the name of the person that talks in it. Ever since then, I have tried to tone that down a bit. Does anybody actually care? I felt like I was doing it too much, but it is just what comes naturally to me.**

 **Original plan was for Naruto and Lee to fight and Naruto has trouble with the darkness during it due to the curse mark. But whatever, I like this too. I obviously put more effort into that one though.**

 **Naruto finally openly used his keyblade!**

 **Prelims are over! Finally! Training month is next!**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	25. Month of Preparation

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 25!**

 **Oh hey, we passed 200k words. Awesome! Although I wonder how much of that amounts to AN's…But we're at least close to 200k in story content.**

 **Shorter chapter, I know. But there wasn't really much for me to put here. I don't want to go over the entire month, so I didn't. I put all of the important stuff. I could have made it longer -maybe- but then it wouldn't be uploaded this weekend.**

 **This was, by far, my least productive chapter ever. Not only is it a lot shorter compared to the other recent ones, but I also worked so freaking** _ **slowly**_ **on it. I really only got 1k words done every hour and a half to two hours.**

 **Good to know my grammar and sentence structure isn't too terrible. That's always something I worry about in the back of my head.**

* * *

 **LordGhostStriker: No, he doesn't. I said that was the** _ **original**_ **plan. I had been planning to give Naruto the curse mark, but scrapped that idea when I saw how many people didn't want that.**

 **Dark Natsu Dragneel: I can't really give you an exact number of chapters, sorry. I plan to do the Kingdom Hearts story during the time skip, but I don't know how long it will take to get there. I go into each chapter with what I want in it in mind, but that changes a lot, especially when I need to split a chapter or merge it with another. I don't plan on doing any fillers -I think- so that means that after the chūnin exams, it is just that Akatsuki bit, maybe a Sasuke arc, and that's pretty much it. Unless I forgot something.**

 **prototype gear: Where Neji fits in on the strength scale has always confused me a bit. He can beat Lee, but loses to Naruto. In my opinion, Lee was the strongest genin at this point in time, regardless of his fight with Gaara. I just don't see how Neji can beat him every time.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else. I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Diety Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Diety Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **Station of Awakening**

"So in the end, you got your ass kicked so much that you had to resort to using your keyblade in front of an audience. That sound about right?"

Naruto glared at Yami when she rephrased what he said. "I wouldn't put it like that, but the basic idea is there." The smirk on Yami's face grew.

"So after all that training, all that hard work, you were backed into a corner by someone else just like that. And to top it off, it was a genin that did it."

"Hey! Lee-san is super over powered for a genin! I know I might be considered over powered for a genin as well, but really! Who the hell could have expected something like the inner gates being thrown in my face?!"

Yami snickered. "Well, maybe you should have expected it. Based on what you said, it sounds like both this kid and his sensei are absolutely insane, despite being taijutsu experts."

"But teaching that to a genin?" Naruto sighed in frustration before shaking his head. "Whatever. It already happened, I'm not going to dwell on it. Bottom line is that I used both magic and my keyblade in front of a large group of people. Those secrets are out."

Hikari nodded from where she was watching the argument. "Yes, although it would have been better to reveal them on your own terms, it was going to happen eventually. Look at this as a chance to stop holding back as much."

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, sure. That's true enough."

"Good. Now then, you said you have a month before the next part of the exam?"

"Yeah." Naruto crossed his arms. "We drew lots to see who we would be up against and then were told we had a month to prepare."

"And who are you up against?"

"I drew a Kumo genin named Samui. Based off of what little fighting I saw her do and her appearance, it looks like she may prefer to use close combat like I do. She only fought using taijutsu and kenjutsu for a second, but that may have been because she wasn't pushed hard enough."

"Another kenjutsu user, huh? I would be surprised if they were better than you when it comes to that." Yami said.

Naruto shrugged. "It would be stupid of me to think I'm the best at kenjutsu of all the genin, but I also have to agree with you a bit there."

Hikari tilted her head. "So? What will you do? How are you going to prepare?"

"I was planning on just going to Urahara and asking him for some training. He apparently has some techniques that are similar to lightning release jutsu he would like to train me against. Yūgao-sensei also told both Yakumo and I that she is available if we want."

"Hmm, that would probably be a good idea. The two of us can also help you with that..." Naruto smiled gratefully. "Well, that sounds like a plan. Let's move onto the next topic." Hikari and Yami's expressions grew serious, causing Naruto's to do the same. "What are you planning to do about Gaara?"

Naruto sighed. "I really don't know. I never got a chance to do anything about him during the exam so far. My best bet will probably be trying to see if I can do something over the next month..."

"Wow, what an extravagant plan you have come up with. My mind has truly been blown."

"Tch. Well, what do you suggest?!" Naruto glared at Yami.

Yami shrugged in return. "I dunno. Why don't you just walk up to him right now and do it? The secret about the keyblade has already been blown, so why not?" Naruto sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Like hell I could do something like that..." He looked over to Hikari. "Do you have any ideas?"

Hikari shook her head. "Nothing here, sorry. I agree that you should just try and see if you can do something about it over the next month. But if you can't, you will need to make an opportunity appear yourself or risk him falling into darkness."

"Figures..." Naruto shook his head again. "Whatever, it's just about morning now. I'm going to head out now. Talk to you two later."

"Until next time."

"See ya."

* * *

 **Uzumaki-Namikaze Household**

Naruto finished gathering the rest of his supplies before walking out his door and making his way towards the front door. He had just started reaching for the handle when he was interrupted.

"Ah, Naruto..." Naruto blinked and turned towards the source of the voice and was greeted with the form of his father. Minato sent a smile at him, but it faltered a bit when he saw that he only got a raised eyebrow in return. Not wanting to back down, he continued speaking. "I'm glad to see you are up and ready, I was just about to come and get you."

Slowly lowering the hand that was reaching for the door, Naruto turned to face him fully. "What for?" He asked.

Minato smiled a bit. "I'll tell you at the same time I tell your siblings. Come on." He turned and started walking towards the living room. Naruto frowned a bit before following.

Once they entered, Naruto looked around to see who else was there. Sitting on the couch were Menma and Narumi while Kushina, Tsunade, and Jiraiya were standing on the other side of the room.

Jiraiya looked over when they entered. "About time, gaki! I don't have all day, you know! What was so important that you had to make us wait?" Naruto frowned when he heard this.

Minato blinked before sending his own frown at Jiraiya. "I had to get Naruto, of course. He needs to be here too." This response made Jiraiya blink.

"Wha...Oh, yeah. Fine then..." He promptly shivered after feeling the look Kushina was sending his way from behind him.

After looking at his teacher for a moment longer, Minato turned to Naruto with an uneasy smile. "Please go sit next to Narumi and Menma while we talk to you."

Naruto slowly nodded before making his way over to the vacant spot on the couch. When he was settled, Minato nodded and smiled at the three genin.

"I want to start off by just saying how proud of you three I am. You have done a fantastic job, and I know you will show everyone what you can do in a month's time." Narumi and Menma beamed at the praise. "The reason that you three are here is because we have decided to talk to you about something very important." The serious look on his face made all three of them grow a little nervous. "We have decided...that it is time that you know about a group of people that you will eventually encounter."

Narumi blinked. "What makes them so special?"

Jiraiya had his own frown as he responded. "The thing that makes them special is who they are and what they want."

"And that would be?" Menma asked quizzically.

Minato sighed. "We don't know the identity of all of them, or even the amount of people they have, but they all have one thing in common." His frowned deepened. "Each one of them is an S-rank missing-nin." All three of their eyes widened.

' _A group made up entirely of S-rank criminals? That just screams problem...'_

"What did you mean that we will be encountering them?" Narumi asked.

Kushina had a variety of emotions filter through her face, from worry to anger. Eventually, she just sighed and looked at her daughter. "That goes back to what they want...they are collecting the bijū." This answer stunned those who were unaware.

"They…They want the bijū? Why the heck would they want to gather all of them?" Menma asked in bewilderment.

Jiraiya shook his head with a frown. "We don't know. It took me a long time to even confirm that this group existed and that small bit of information. But leave finding that out to us. You should be focusing on something else."

Naruto frowned internally when he heard this. _'I think I know where this is going…'_ And he wasn't sure how he felt about it.

Although slightly worried about the information just revealed to them, Narumi was still curious about what the adults had planned. "What should we be focusing on?" She asked with a tilt of her head.

Tsunade grinned. "You should be focusing on your training and preparation for when you will face them. You have a month now where you won't be getting any missions. Although it is nowhere near as much as we would like, it is still time that can be dedicated to training."

Jiraiya grinned as well. "Exactly! This gives us a chance to up your training. Both Tsunade and I are going to be around the next month to help out."

Kushina frowned. "Kakashi-kun was supposed to be here to help out as well, but he has his own student to train." She looked between her children, her eyes turning slightly hopeful when they landed on Naruto. "So…Are you ready for this?" Narumi and Menma looked to each other and grinned before turning back to her.

"You know it!"

"Heck yeah!" Tsunade and Jiraiya's grins grew when they heard the excitement in their voices.

The toad summoner nodded. "If you two behave well enough, then I _may_ even let you sign the toad summoning contract."

Tsunade huffed and rolled her eyes, but a smile was playing on her lips. "How do you know they even want to sign that? Narumi-chan and Menma-kun might want to summon slugs instead."

"Why the heck would they want to do that when toads are an option?"

While this argument was going on, confused looks blossomed on the mentioned genin. They glanced at each other again before looking over to their sibling, who had his head lowered, making it so they couldn't see his eyes. They soon looked back to the bickering sannin. "…What about Aniki?" Menma asked. This simple question silenced everybody.

Narumi nodded in agreement. "Yeah. What about Nii-chan? He's training with us, right? What about him signing one of your contracts?" She said as she turned a light glare on the two sannin. Menma immediately followed her example as Kushina and Minato frowned a bit at Jiraiya and Tsunade.

"You two said that you would help Narumi and me, but Aniki is here too! He should be included. Right Aniki?" Nothing was said.

"…" The younger siblings blinked and turned to Naruto when he didn't say something similar. Minato and Kushina were also surprised about his silence. Naruto simply ignored the looks he was getting as he continued to think.

' _I just don't get it! What changed? Why are they trying to include me now, but not before?'_ A few months ago, he was sure that his parents would not have even made sure he was present for a meeting like this.

"Nii-chan?" Naruto was pulled from his thoughts and turned to Narumi. "What do you think? Aren't you looking forward to the training?"

Naruto looked away as he thought about the question. Was he? Did he want to train with them? A few years ago, he would have jumped at the chance. But now? He just didn't care either way. In fact, he would rather train with Urahara and Soifon. The both of them were incredibly strong, and they knew about his abilities. Meaning that he could train with that and not get questioned. With that in mind, Naruto turned towards Minato and Kushina's hopeful expressions.

"Sorry, but no thank you. I have my training taken care of." Stunned silence ensued.

Minato soon recovered enough to shakily respond. "What? But…What do you mean no thank you? You don't want to train with us?" Both he and Kushina felt a small sense of hurt and desperation grow in them.

Naruto shrugged. "Never said that. Just that I already have my training taken care of. You don't need to worry about it. Go ahead and focus on Narumi and Menma." This casual reply and dismissal of their help shocked them into further silence.

Soon, the smile returned to Jiraiya's face. "Well, that's great! It's nice to know that there are still some brats out there who are dedicated enough to their training that they don't need people to hold their hand!" He gestured to Naruto in a shooing motion. "Now scram. If you already know what you're going to be doing, then get to it. Just be sure to stay out of the way." The way he said it and the eager acceptance of what was said made Naruto scowl.

Naruto made to get up. "Like heck it's great-ttebane! Naruto, stay right where you are!" He sighed and promptly relaxed back into his seat as Kushina whirled around to glare at Jiraiya, making the white haired man flinch. "Don't just go and dismiss my son like that after we just told him that someone is after his life!"

"B-but, why is he in danger? The Akatsuki is after the bijū. Narumi and Menma are the ones who have the chakr-"

"And what about the soul?! You don't maybe think that they will be after Naruto too?!"

"The soul…" Jiraiya's eyes widened. "Oh yeah…" He waved Kushina off. "Meh, don't worry about it. If I was the Akatsuki, then I would try eliminating the bigger threats first, meaning the ones with the power of the bijū. We can just train Naruto later, or something…"

The scowl on Naruto's face was growing by the minute. _'Training me later after Narumi and Menma? Now where have I heard that?'_

Even the frown on Minato's face was growing deeper. "How could you say that, sensei? We shouldn't just dismiss Naruto in favor of teaching Narumi and Menma. We should train all three of them together."

Tsunade stepped forward. "I'm with the pervert on this one. We should focus on those who are the most likely to be targeted. I wouldn't say we are dismissing Naruto, more like pushing his training back a bit while we focus on the more pressing matters."

' _I'm still here!'_ Naruto was starting to grit his teeth in anger.

Kushina was nearly growling at this point. "I cannot believeyou two are saying that!"

"Kushina, think about it! Not only are Narumi and Menma more likely to be targeted first, but you have to think about the pro-" He cut himself off as he realized what he was about to reveal. He sighed in frustration and shook his head. "Just don't worry about him. Plus, he would only be a burden at this point." Jiraiya paled when he realized what just came out of his mouth.

Kushina's glare rose to new levels as she began to stalk towards him. Her hair was slowly rising into the air as her inner habanero emerged. "How dare you…" Minato had his own glare directed at his teacher.

Naruto got to his feet, catching the attention of Narumi and Menma. "Nii-chan?" Narumi asked. Her questioning voice gained the attention of everyone else. Naruto had a blank expression on his face.

"Glad we can agree. If that's everything, I'll be going now." He started to walk in the direction of the front door, but Minato stepped in front of him.

"Naruto, wait. I'm sure that sensei didn't mean that. You aren't a burden and we want you to train with us."

Naruto shook his head. "No, really. It's perfectly fine. You should focus on Narumi and Menma. Like they said, they are more likely to be targeted." He sidestepped Minato and continued. "As I told you, I already have plans, so don't worry about it. After all, I would hate to be a _burden_." For a moment, his blank expression slipped, showing great anger under it.

Bang! Before anything more could be said, Naruto walked out the door and closed it behind him. Narumi and Menma flinched at the loud sound. "Naruto, wait!" After throwing another glare at Jiraiya, Kushina rushed to the door and pulled it open, only to see that Naruto had already vanished out of view.

* * *

 **Urahara's Training Ground**

A **Corridor of Darkness** appeared in the middle of the training ground, unseen by anyone. After a moment, Naruto emerged from it and promptly dispelled the corridor as he crouched over with his hands on his knees in an attempt to regain his breath.

"Dammit…I still need to…increase my resistance to darkness…" While he was now able to travel in the corridors without having to ask Hikari and Yami to shield him, it took a lot more out of him to do so.

After he managed to regain his breath, Naruto made his way over to the ladder that led back into the back of the shop. He soon found Urahara sitting at the normal table in the tea room with Yoruichi lounging lazily nearby. Urahara blinked when he saw Naruto, but a grin soon surfaced on his face.

"Oh, Naruto-kun, welcome back! Safe to say that you missed little old me during your time in the exams?"

Naruto sighed as he plopped himself down in across from the shop owner. "Shut up, moron. If anything, I wasn't gone long enough."

Yoruichi cracked an eye open at him. "Disregarding Kisuke and his need to be obnoxious with every sentence, how did the exams go? Well I hope?" The groan the cat got in response was not the expected response. "Well…that doesn't bode well. Did something happen?"

Naruto slumped. "What _didn't_ happen?"

* * *

 **One Retelling Later**

The tea room was silent as Naruto gave the other two occupants some time to absorb the information that he just gave them. Eventually, Urahara was the first to respond. His normal grin was nowhere to be seen.

"Well, this does pose a problem. And a rather serious one, too…"

Naruto snorted. "Which bit? The part where I was forced to reveal way more than I am comfortable with, or the part where it was revealed that one of the biggest psychopaths out there is aware of light and darkness to the point he can control darkness, _or_ the part where he is going to lead this world to getting swallowed by the darkness?"

Urahara frowned as he fanned himself. "While it is unfortunate that you had to reveal your ability to use magic in front of an audience, we are lucky that people will just believe it to be a simple jutsu that you don't need hand seals for. The keyblade is a bit harder to explain, but it isn't a devastating thing to reveal. The guy controlling darkness? _That's_ a problem. And a big one." Yoruichi nodded in agreement.

"Yes. And the fact that he was even able to summon and control the heartless worries me."

Naruto nodded, but his mind was somewhere else. He was thinking about something that Orochimaru said to him. He hadn't put much thought into it, but looking back, it set him on edge. "There's one thing that the snake said to me that worries me…" Urahara raised an eyebrow.

"Besides the parts where he talked about darkness and heartless?" Naruto just ignored the hint of sarcasm.

"…He said…that he always expected me to have an affinity for darkness…" Naruto frowned, the others mirroring his expression. "Because of everything going on, I just never really thought about it. But…how could he have possibly expected something like that? I've never even met the freak before!"

Urahara frowned as he thought about it. "That is strange. I don't see how he could have predicted something like that. He can't possibly know about Hikari and Yami training you to use both light and darkness, but it is clear that there is some other factor that he is aware of that would make him think that way."

Naruto's frown deepened. "It gives me the creeps. That guy is creepy in every possible way imaginable…And fighting him made me realize something…" Urahara and Yoruichi were silent as they waited for him to continue speaking. "I'm still not strong enough."

They blinked when they heard that. "What makes you believe that?" Yoruichi asked him.

"During that fight, I…I was just toyed with the entire time. I couldn't do anything against him. He was in control from the start, and the only reason that we all got out of there alive is because he allowed it. And I know it won't be the last time I see him. I can't do anything against him as I am now. If he attacks again, I won't be able to stop him. And if he targets the people I care about, he will be able to just knock me aside and continue. I need to get stronger."

A smirk slowly made its way onto Urahara's face. "Is that so…?" He mused. "Well then, I guess it falls upon me to make sure that my student gets stronger. But are you up for it?"

Naruto grinned at him. "I would be a pretty crappy student if I refused when my teacher is so willing to help me. We have a month before the next exam, we can work every day until then."

The cat frowned. "Won't people question where you are going every day?" The scowl that flashed across Naruto's face immediately grabbed the attention of Yoruichi and Urahara. "What happened?" Yoruichi asked.

Naruto looked away. "I was hoping that you would be ok with me sleeping here for the next month…" He asked.

"Why? What happened?" Urahara asked, only to get a shrug. "Naruto." The crimson blond sighed when he heard the serious tone from the normally laid back man.

"Jiraiya and Tsunade are going to help my parents train Narumi and Menma. They will be focusing on the two of them for the next month."

Urahara frowned. "But not you?"

Naruto shook his head. "No. I would just be a…burden if I was there." Dead silence.

"Did they say that?" Yoruichi asked in a chilling tone. "Were those the words used?"

"Yeah, but I think it might have been a slip of the tongue. Jiraiya said it after I told them I already had training plans. He said it was a good thing because they could then focus on my siblings without having to worry about me."

Yoruichi hissed. "How dare he! How could he say that?! I should go slash him apart!"

Naruto's eyes grew wide in surprise before he frantically shook his head. "No, don't!" He sighed. "Just…forget about it. I don't even care. It's not like this is anything new." Urahara looked like he was going to reply, but was cut off. "Look, I don't want to talk about it. Can we please just move on?"

Urahara and Yoruichi looked at each other before looking back to him. "Fine…" Urahara said reluctantly before he returned to fanning himself. "So the four of them will dedicate the next month to training your siblings? While I get that the chūnin exams finish in a month, aren't some of them normally really busy?"

"Oh, did I not mention that?" Naruto sighed again. "This is really important because apparently there is this group of S-ranked missing-nin out there that are collecting the bijū. And that of course means…"

"That you and your siblings are targets…" Yoruichi finished. Naruto nodded.

"Exactly. Because of that, us getting stronger became more of a priority than it was." A determined look crossed Naruto's face. "I _will_ get stronger. The whole reason I've ever been getting stronger is to protect those who are important to me. Only Orochimaru's own agenda saved us in the forest, that won't happen with these guys. I'm not going to just sit around and wait for them to come and do whatever. I'll grow stronger so I can fight them."

Both Urahara and Yoruichi couldn't help the smiles that appeared. Urahara stood up. "Is that right? Well then, I guess we should get going. If you want to become as strong as them, then you can't slack off!" He pointed dramatically towards the door. "Follow me, we are off to train!" Naruto rolled his eyes, but smiled and followed anyway.

* * *

 **Urahara shop (Three Weeks Later)**

Naruto sighed as he walked towards the door of the shop. It has now been three weeks since the end of the preliminaries and Naruto was dead tired. While Urahara trained him into the ground during the day, Hikari and Yami were relentless while he was in the Station of Awakening.

' _Sometimes I wonder if they just like to beat me up…'_

"Oh? Where you going at a time like this?" Naruto blinked and looked to the side to see Soifon lounging on a cushion with another magazine. Naruto shrugged with a small smile.

"Just out and about. I kind of want to just get out and walk around for a bit. I haven't really left for the past three weeks. I just want to relax for a bit before I head into the Station of Awakening to train with Hikari and Yami."

Yoruichi smiled and nodded. "Oh, I get ya." She turned back to her magazine and waved a lazy hand in his direction. "Well, don't let me stop you."

Naruto had an amused smile on his face as he responded. "Right. See you when I get back." And with that, he stepped out into the cool night air and walked away. He didn't really have a destination in mind, he was more just letting his mind wander as his feet walked.

As he walked, he reflected on what he managed to accomplish so far. _'Urahara pumped up my training even more…And Soifon-san started to help me improve my taijutsu…I don't think I'm on the level of Lee-san, but I think I wouldn't get kicked around as much if we were to fight again.'_ He turned down another street. _'Hikari and Yami have also helped me refine my magic and teach me a couple new spells…but I'm not sure if I would say that I've mastered them yet…'_

His mind went back to the fight in the forest, like it has been doing often lately. _'I know that I'm still no match for someone like Orochimaru. I don't think I will be for a long time.'_ He stopped walking in the middle of a deserted street. His hands balled into fists. _'How long will it take me before I'm able to fight on that kind of level? I need to-'_ Clang!

Naruto blinked before turning towards the source of the sound. Clang! Clang! The repeating sound of metal clashing against metal echoed throughout the night. "A fight? At this time of night?" Naruto muttered to himself before his eyes narrowed. _'There isn't any training ground over there. Meaning that whatever is going on could be serious…'_ He crouched in preparation. _'Better go check it out!'_ Naruto promptly jumped on to the nearest roof before starting to head over to the noise.

The fight sounded like it was relatively close, only a block or two away, so Naruto was able to get close quickly. As he neared it, there he masked his presence so he wouldn't alert those fighting that he was there.

Whoosh! "Argh!" Just as the fight was about to come into view, a powerful gust of wind and cry of pain echoed into the night air. Naruto quickened his pace across the roof. Eventually, he was finally able to gain eyes on the fight.

Or the result.

"Hayate-san!" Naruto rushed over to the bleeding form of Hayate Gekkō who was laying on his back in a pool of his own blood with a long cut going across his chest. Lying on the floor next to him was his katana. Naruto immediately brought his hand forward to check for a pulse. A sigh of relief escaped him when he felt the weakened pulse. "Hayate-san, can you hear me?" No response. "Dammit Hayate-san! You better not die on sensei like this!"

"Gah…Who-" A weak groan came from Hayate. He tried to speak, but was interrupted by a cough. But unlike his normal ones, this one made him cough up blood.

Naruto glared at him. "Shut up! Don't try to talk right now!" He looked over the injuries Hayate had. _'Damn, what do I do? He won't last long like this…'_

"N…No. You have to li…listen." Hayate coughed up some more blood. "You…have to w…warn the Hokage…" Another cough.

"You can warn him yourself! I'm going to get you some help." Naruto moved to pick him up, but was stopped.

"No! This…This is more important…Tell the Ho…Hokage that Suna…and Oto are going…to attack…"

Naruto's blood ran cold. "An invasion? They will start a war?"

Hayate weakly nodded. "Yes…Tell the Hokage…that they will attack…during…the…exam…" Hayate's voice trailed off as he slowly closed his eyes.

Seeing this, Naruto spoke up. "Hey! Stay the hell awake-ttebayo! You aren't going to kick the bucket now!" No response. "Dammit!" Naruto looked over his injuries again. _'He's lost too much blood and he's still bleeding! He won't make it to the hospital at this rate. Crap, I don't have a choice…'_ Naruto brought his hand forward, hovering it over Hayate's wound. "I really hope this works…" Naruto took a breath.

" **Cure**." A green light surrounded Hayate, bathing the area in a soft glow. When it faded, Naruto inspected his work before heaving a sigh of relief. _'Thank kami that worked.'_ The wound wasn't completely healed, but it was still a lot better than what it had been a minute ago. Naruto then inspected how much energy he had left. _'That took quite a bit. Not as much as it could have, but it definitely isn't something I can spam…'_

Naruto shook off these thoughts as he thought of the next thing for him to do. _'There's an invasion coming. And Suna and Oto are behind it. It is during the final exam. It is obvious Hayate-san saw something that the enemy would rather he didn't…Other people need to be told. But first, I need to get him to the hospital…'_

* * *

 **Urahara Shop (Twenty Minutes Later)**

Naruto walked through the front door of the Urahara shop and immediately walked to the back room. Once he entered, Urahara and Soifon glanced up at him. His serious expression immediately told them that something happened. "What is it?" Soifon asked.

Naruto sat down on a cushion. "Konoha will be invaded during the final exam in two weeks." Grim silence ensued.

"How do you know?" Urahara asked seriously. Naruto immediately went on to recount what happened while he was out.

* * *

 **One Retelling Later**

Urahara sighed when Naruto finished telling them what happened. "Well, this poses a problem."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "I figured that much. What do you think we should do?" He asked.

"Nothing."

This made Naruto blink in surprise before his mind registered what he just heard. "Nothing? You think we should just do nothing?"

Urahara nodded. "Yes." He swiftly raised a hand to silence Naruto when he opened his mouth. "Give me a second to explain. I think _we_ shouldn't do anything. You got that exam proctor help in time, right?"

"Yes…"

"Then that means that he will be able to inform the necessary people. _They_ will do something. _We_ should just continue training like usual and prepare ourselves for the attack. That sound reasonable to you?"

Naruto reluctantly nodded. "Yeah…"

"Good!" Urahara made a shooing motion with his fan. "Now be a good boy and go to bed. I think it's time for your night training to begin! Hurry, it is very important for you to learn all the different ways that it is possible for you to get your ass kicked!"

Kami, Naruto really hated this bastard sometimes…

* * *

 **Konoha Hospital (One Hour Later)**

Hayate weakly groaned as he returned to awareness. The first thing his sluggish mind registered was that he wasn't dead.

The second was the pain.

"Guh…That hurts…"

"Hayate!" Hayate blinked when he heard the voice and weakly turned his head to face the person who just rushed to his side. Seeing who it was made him smile.

"Yūgao…"

The purple haired jōnin gave him a teary smile and nod. "Yes, I'm here. Are you alright? How do you feel?" She asked him in worry.

"Well, I'm not dead…So I would say I feel better than I expected I would…" Yūgao was not amused by the poor joke.

"Take this seriously, idiot. You nearly died tonight. It's a miracle that you're still alive." It seemed that just saying that brought more tears to her eyes.

"I'll say." The two of them turned their heads to the source of the new voice. Tsunade was standing in the doorway. She walked into the room, Minato right behind her. "If it wasn't for the fact that you are still breathing, then I would have never believed you had lived long enough with that kind of wound to make it here."

Minato nodded with a smile. "It's great to see that you're alright, Hayate. You gave us all quite the scare."

Hayate's eyes widened. "That's right! Hokage-sama you'v-" In his haste to report to Minato, he forgot that he was injured and quickly sat up.

Yūgao was immediately hovering over him again while Tsunade glared. "Hey! Watch it there, idiot! You may be alive, but you're still in no condition to be doing that!"

Minato nodded in agreement. "She's right. Take it easy Hayate." Once he saw that Hayate was settled back in and the pain had subsided, he nodded again. "Good. Now what were you trying to tell me?" He asked.

Hayate's expression grew serious. "We are going to be invaded during the final exam." This one sentence made the temperature of the room drop. In an instant, Minato's entire presence shifted. He was no longer Minato, the kind Hokage, he was now Minato, the Yellow Flash and the man who played a huge role in securing victory for Konoha in the last war.

The piercing blue eyes of the Hokage never moved an inch from Hayate's own. After a moment, Minato spoke up.

"Tell me what happened tonight." It wasn't a request.

* * *

 **One Retelling Later**

"Suna and Oto are going to attack during the final exam?" Minato asked after he heard the story from Hayate. Hearing this, the wounded jōnin nodded.

"Yes. I believe what I stumbled upon was a meeting between the two sides."

Tsunade scowled. "I always knew something was off about that Kabuto kid. I should have guessed that he was a spy from the beginning. And for Orochimaru no less…"

Minato shook his head. "Regardless. We can use this to our advantage." The others blinked and looked over to him. "It is obvious now that Suna is working with Oto to attack us. I'm not sure what role Orochimaru plays with Oto, but he must at least be fairly high up if he is leading them. I wouldn't be surprised if he turns out to be their kage. We can use this as an early warning and prepare for the attack."

The sannin smirked. "You want to use this as a chance to get rid of Orochimaru, don't you?" Minato smirked back, making Tsunade's smirk turn into a grin. "I like it."

Hayate coughed. "But won't they know that we know now, thus making the entire thing pointless?"

The smirk on Minato's face grew. "Not at all." When he saw the confusion on Hayate's face, he continued. "As far as everyone else is concerned, Hayate Gekkō died tonight against an unidentified enemy, thus making it so the warning never reached others." Hayate's eyes widened.

"How would that work?"

Minato gestured to Tsunade. "Tsunade personally oversaw your treatment, no one helped her. You were brought in quietly with no witnesses. The only reason we found you was because someone left you on the roof of the hospital and left a note on Yūgao's front door telling her where you are and to be quiet about what happened. We don't know who. Probably the same person who healed you enough to survive." Minato shrugged. "Meaning that the enemy thinks you died."

"But…But I know who saved me…" This one claim silenced the others. Minato blinked in surprise.

"You…you do?" He asked.

Hayate nodded. "Yes. They arrived just after the enemy left. My consciousness returned for a bit and I was able to convey the information of the attack to them. I had thought that they would have been the one to tell you what happened, but I guess not seeing as I was the first to tell you."

Yūgao took Hayate's hand in her own. "Who was it? I want to thank them for this." She smiled at him when he looked her way. "I don't think I can ever repay them for this. I'll have to introduce myself to thank them." She blinked when Hayate chuckled. "What? What's so funny?" She asked him.

"Nothing…It's just…" He shook his head. "You already know the person. Definitely much better than I do."

Yūgao blinked. "I do?" A nod. "Who is it?"

Hayate smirked. "I was fading in and out of consciousness at the time, but there were two things that I clearly remember. The first was the person saying, 'You better not die on sensei like this,' and the other was hair that had a mix of blond and red." The eyes of everyone in the room widened at this.

"N…Naruto? He's the one that saved you?" Yūgao asked weakly, getting a nod in return.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was him. I admit that I was not as lucid as I could have been, but still."

Minato stepped forward. "Would you have any idea where he is?" The others blinked when they heard the worry in his tone. "Naruto disappeared three weeks ago. We haven't seen him since he told us he had plans for his training…"

Hayate shook his head. "No, sorry. I have no clue." He looked to Yūgao. "He's your student. You have any idea?"

Yūgao shook her head. "I haven't seen him since the preliminaries. I told him that he was welcome to come to me if he wanted some help with training, but he told me he already had something planned."

Hearing this, the Hokage sighed and slumped. "That's fine…" He shook his head before another thought came to him. "But…That would also mean that Naruto was the one to heal you…" The eyes of the others widened at that realization. "I was not aware that he knew any medical techniques…Or that he could even _do_ any."

Naruto's sensei nodded in agreement. "I didn't even know. He has never done something like that before now, as far as I know."

Tsunade hummed to herself as she went over the chart detailing Hayate's condition. "Well, whatever he did, it worked. And well. It wasn't a complete job, but it definitely was a good one for an emergency job without any tools. You should be fully recovered by the time the final exam starts." The others were silent as they thought about it.

Eventually, Minato broke the silence. "Well, regardless, it is good to know you will be fine, Hayate. If you remember any other details about what happened, contact me." He looked at each person in the room. "It goes without saying that everything discussed in this room is to be kept quiet. I will notify people who need to know starting tomorrow." They nodded. "Good. Have a good night." And with that, he disappeared in a yellow flash.

* * *

 **Station of Awakening (Few Hours Later)**

"Alright! That's enough!" Hearing that shout, Naruto sighed in relief before he got out of his battle stance and dismissed his keyblade. Yami soon followed. "Pretty good. Or at least, not terrible."

"Please, you don't have to lavish me in such generous praise…" Naruto said sarcastically.

"Whatever. I call it like I see it."

"Please, you two. Don't start arguing again. I think you've already filled that quota for this session." Hikari interjected as she walked up to them. She smiled at Naruto. "You have really improved, Naruto-kun. I think it is only a matter of time before you are ready to learn the next technique."

Naruto smiled. "That's awesome, thanks." He grew silent as a thought crossed his mind and he looked down in thought.

Seeing the thoughtful frown on his face, Hikari spoke up. "What is it? Is something wrong?" She asked him. Naruto shook his head.

"No, nothing's _wrong_ …I was…just wondering if I should go out and find a summoning contract…Or if there is even one that would fit my combat style…" He would rather not sign the toad or slug contract, but he didn't know of any others beside the dog contract, and that was out too.

Yami and Hikari blinked before looking at each other for a moment. They soon turned back and Yami spoke up. "You want a summoning contract?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah. The conversation I had a few weeks ago got me thinking about it. Narumi and Menma have probably both signed one by now, and I was thinking I should probably do the same." He sighed. "But I have no idea where I can get one to sign…"

Hikari and Yami frowned in thought and traded another glance. "Well…we can help you out there…"

Naruto blinked in surprise and looked at them. "You guys have a contract I can sign?"

"No…We don't have something like that…" Hikari smiled. "…But we have something that is just as good."

Yami smirked. "Probably even better."

Now Naruto was _really_ curious.

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 25!**

 **Like I said, short chapter compared to the others. I still think 7k words is pretty good for a fic that gets updated every week though. There are so many out there that just upload a 3k word chapter once a month.**

 **Naruto and the others were finally told about the Akatsuki!**

 **Things escalate in the Uzumaki-Namikaze family! And Jiraiya's fat mouth isn't helping!**

 **Yes, I totally saved Hayate. Deal with it.**

 **I have had Naruto summons picked out for a while now. Some of you can probably guess what it is, and that's fine. I had to go ask another author to use his idea for the summons so it would make sense. I try to not alter too much when it comes to how things work, but I like what I have planned.**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	26. Time To Say Goodbye

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 26!**

 **Almost there…I am so looking forward to thanksgiving. I can practically taste the food already.**

 **Whoa! What the hell happened? I normally get around 14 reviews per chapter, but this time I got over 30! Did I do something differently?**

 **I always enjoy reading the theories you guys throw around concerning what I have planned. Some of you guys are right -sometimes scarily so-, some of you guys are wrong -sometimes hilariously so-, and then some of you are half right.**

 **This chapter is meh.**

 **I've posted a FAQ on my profile if you're curious.**

* * *

 **LorgGhostStriker: I'm behind on Hunter of the Dark by a few chapters and haven't read it in a while, meaning I don't remember what the summons were in that. I'd check, but I'm also lazy. And I have never read a story with a light heartless concept, but sounds interesting.**

 **ARSLOTHES: The Kyūbi guardian thing would come in later if I do it.**

 **prototype gear: I know, right?! Everybody seems to do that! I'm not against it, but it really is a common thing. And I've never even thought of mechs as a contract…well, besides in Rise of the EggFox Empire…**

 **plums: So you wanted me to give him a curse mark? That was what I was planning on, but popular opinion vetoed that.**

 **dotJKLO: Was that first part sarcasm? Sorry, but I'm having a little trouble telling. I apologize at the speed I'm going at if it is.**

 **Azarune: Thanks! I have always enjoyed imagining scenarios in my head about how things could have gone or if another universe was added in the mix. Fanfiction is just a way for me to bring it out.**

 **NecroSaintCreed: You're worrying over nothing, I've got this.**

 **VitaSen: Thanks! I think it's because there aren't that many people who read this crossover category. It has a lot of stories, but that doesn't mean a lot of people read it.**

 **Guest: That made me laugh. Nobody has taken that seriously before.**

 **Dominus1: You've probably figured it out already, but Saito isn't a main character.**

 **InfernoOfChaos: Thanks! It's probably because this story is only 3 months old and isn't in a popular category. There are plenty of stories, sure, but that doesn't mean plenty of people read them. There's only one story here that is even above 1k favorites/follows and that thing is over 8 years old.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else. I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Diety Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Diety Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **Urahara shop (Day of the Final Exam)**

"Got your kunai?"

"Yep."

"Got your shuriken?"

"You know it."

"Got your other tools?"

"Probably."

"Remember who you're up against?"

"Yeah."

"How abou-"

"Soifon-san! I'm fine, really! You don't need to go over every little thing." Naruto said with a roll of his eyes.

Soifon smirked playfully before shrugging. "I'm not too sure about that…" Her amused eyes followed Naruto's form as he scrambled around the room to gather all of his supplies. "It looks to me like you have some trouble keeping track of things.

Naruto scowled, but couldn't exactly refute. "It's not like I wanted to have that training session in the Station of Awakening last that long. Before I even realized it, I was running late."

"Well, I wouldn't say late…but you sure are cutting it close." Soifon said with an amused tone as she glanced at the clock. "I'm pretty sure you need to be there in about fifteen minutes…"

"I _know_. Thank you for the reminder…" Naruto finished his rapid movement around the room as he grabbed his forehead protector and secured it around his head. "Well, I guess I'm off." He turned towards the door, but paused when he Soifon stepped in front of him with ever increasing amusement. "What?"

Soifon didn't respond verbally, she merely pointed to the object that was on the desk. Confused, Naruto turned to see what she was pointing to, only to smile sheepishly and rub the back of his head. "Whoops." He walked over to pick up the rectangular case and secured it on his leg. "Not my fault. I'm still not used to carrying this thing."

"Well get used to it. It would suck if you didn't have it when you needed it." She shook her head. "Anyways, you really should hurry." Nodding to her, Naruto quickly walked through the door and made his way to the exit of the shop. He was just about to walk out the door when he was interrupted.

"Wait a moment, Naruto-kun! You wouldn't leave before seeing me, would you?" With a tired sigh, Naruto turned to face the grinning form of Urahara.

"You were holed up in your stupid lab a moment ago. I wasn't about to risk myself to go see you." Naruto retorted.

The candy store owner just grinned behind his fan. "Oh how cruel! My student doesn't even wish to speak to me! What if I had some wise advice that I wished to share with you?"

Naruto simply stared at him for a moment with a raised eyebrow. "Do you?" Suddenly, Urahara's entire presence changed as he stared at Naruto. Naruto, seeing the change, unconsciously tensed in preparation.

"Try not to embarrass yourself too much!" And just like that, irritation flared through Naruto and the tense atmosphere dissipated instantly.

"Freaking dumbass…" Naruto muttered before turning away.

"But seriously, make sure to keep your guard up." The serious tone made him turn back to Urahara. The fan was put away and the look in his eyes displayed just how serious he was. "Remember what is going to happen today. If you need to forfeit to save some energy, do it. It is better to be able to fight when it really matters than during a test."

Naruto nodded in response. "Right."

He got a nod in return. "Good." The serious air dissipated again and Urahara smiled, but it wasn't one of his usual infuriating ones. "Soifon and I will be around. You might not see us, but we'll be there."

This greatly surprised Naruto. "You're coming to the exam?" It was nice to know that they will be coming to support him.

"Well of course! No matter how much of an embarrassment you are, you are still my student! What kind of teacher would I be if I didn't even come to see the failures of my student?"

' _I swear to kami, I will snap and kill him one day.'_ Naruto spun around back towards the door. "Whatever. Come or don't come, it doesn't matter to me." And with that, he was out the door and on his way to the exam arena.

Urahara chuckled as he watched him leave. "He's as much fun to mess with as Ichigo-kun…"

"While I admit it is extremely amusing, you really should let up on the poor kid a bit." Soifon said as she walked up to him. Urahara just shrugged unrepentantly, grin still present on his face.

"I like to think I'm building his patience and teaching how to keep a cool head."

"Pretty words. And the actual reason?"

"Like I said, it's pretty fun."

* * *

 **Konoha Stadium**

Although he didn't show it, Minato was starting to get anxious. It was nearly time for the opening of the final exam, but Naruto still hadn't shown up. He glanced back to the line of genin that were standing in the center of the arena. Even from up in the kage booth above the giant screen, Minato was able to tell that Naruto wasn't among them. If he didn't hurry he would be late.

"I am sure that Naruto-san is nearly here, Hokage-sama. He probably just lost track of time." Minato looked to the man that was standing a little off to the side of his seat.

The man was wearing the standard Konoha jōnin attire. He had spiky black hair and dark eyes. The most eye catching feature of the man was the large scar on the left side of his face that spread across the bridge of his nose.

Minato sighed. "That's probably it. I'm just worried that he won't make it in time, Raidō."

Raidō nodded in understanding before a small smirk appeared on his face. "I would be more worried about the Uchiha showing up on time, what with him training with Kakashi." The smirk grew when he heard the responding sigh from the Hokage.

"Kushina will kill Kakashi if he makes Sasuke late..." He really wished that Kakashi didn't insist on upholding that reputation on always being late. He understood why Kakashi did it, but still...Minato looked up when he heard someone approaching and smiled when he saw who it was. He quickly stood up to greet the man.

"I'm happy to see that you were able to make it."

"Humph. As if I would come to see my team sweep this thing."

Minato sweat dropped a bit but couldn't help the growing smile on his face. "I wouldn't be too sure of that. My own genin are pretty tough, Raikage-dono."

The man in front of Minato was a muscular, tall, dark skinned man with whitish-blond hair that was combed back along with a small mustache and beard. He had pronounced cheekbones along with tear troughs under his eyes and a crease along his forehead. His outfit consisted only of black pants, a golden belt with a boar on it, and black shinobi sandals that were white and red around the shins. On either of his arms were gold bangle bracelets. Similar to the haori Minato was wearing that was red, this man wore a yellow haori. On his head was a kage hat with the kanji for "lightning."

The man rolled his eyes. "Don't give me that. I would rather not do the whole formality thing."

Minto smiled wryly and shrugged. "Sounds good to me. I wasn't looking forward to keeping it up for hours on end." He offered a hand. "Good to see you again, A-san."

A smirked and grasped the hand with his own. "Same to you, Minato." He applied more force to his hand, making Minato suppress a wince. "I have been wanting to get a rematch in with you at some point. We never did finish our last fight..."

The Hokage laughed nervously as he pried his hand away. "I am sorry to say that I will have to decline...I don't think that a fight between the two of us will send a good message to our villages..." A opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted.

"Come on blondie, are you scared to face the might that is Killer B?" Minato blinked and turned to Killer B.

"Oh, hello there, B-san. It is nice to see you as well." B nodded back in return.

"Yo! Lord B is here so don't fret no mo-Gah!" B was interrupted when A whirled around and grabbed his head with one of his hands.

"Don't go interrupting a conversation between two kage, moron!" A raged. "You know better than to do that!"

"Sorry! I'm sorry! It won't happen again, Bro! I swear!" B shouted as he gripped A's wrist in an attempt to free himself.

"Being sorry won't change the fact that you did it! For that you get the claw!" A tightened his grip.

"Gah! Too much! Too much! That freaking hurts, ya fool!"

"Who you calling a fool?!"

Minato and Raidō just watched the interaction between the two with sweat drops. "I feel like I've seen this before..." Raidō muttered as his mind went to the relationship between Kushina and Kakashi…and Jiraiya as well. "But a bit different..." Knowing exactly what he was referring to, Minato chuckled a bit.

A sigh from nearby grabbed their attention. "I'm sorry about them, Hokage-sama. The boss is often like that. It gets a little dull after a while..."

Turning to the one who had spoken, Minato noted that it was a man a few years younger than Kakashi. He was a fairly tall, dark skinned man with a slightly bulbous nose, bored looking black eyes, and shaggy white hair that covered his left eye. He wore a dark uniform consisting of a sleeveless top with a high collar, loose fitting pants, bandages on his wrists, and the standard Kumo flak jacket. He had multiple tattoos on him, but the one that caught Minato's attention was the one depicting black lightning. On his back was a folded up sword.

"It's not a problem. That is simply the type of relationship they have. We have a few people like that here in Konoha." Minato said with a smile.

The man nodded. "So this is nothing new to you? That must be pretty dull..." He said with a sigh.

' _I'm getting the impression that is guy is almost a Nara at heart.'_ Raidō thought to himself.

Before anything more could be said, A tossed B to the ground and turned to the other Kumo Nin. He nodded in approval. "At least you know how show respect, Darui." The now named Darui just nodded in response. A looked around the booth. "Are we the only ones coming, Minato?"

Minato shook his head in response. "I received a letter from Rasa-dono saying that he would attend. He should be arriving shortly." His mind went to the planned invasion. _'He would of course come to oversee the attack...'_ Just then, another presence grabbed his attention. Minato smiled. "I believe that's him now." He turned to the entrance of the booth.

Walking in at the time was a man who was obscured by his outfit. He was wearing a green kimono, a white haori, and the green kage hat with the kanji for "wind" on it. Most of his face was covered by the white cloth he had on as a mask.

Seeing who it was, Minato plastered a smile onto his face as he greeted the man. "Kazekage-dono, it is good to see that you were able to make it."

The Kazekage nodded back. "I wouldn't miss this. I am looking forward to seeing how our genin perform." Minato just nodded back. The cloaked man turned to A. "It is nice to see you as well, Raikage-dono."

A regarded the man for a moment before nodding. "Kazekage-dono." He said gruffly. He respected Minato, and that showed in the way he treated him. To A, Minato was someone he was willing to disregard formalities with. That was the way A showed respect. The Kazekage however, was not held in a similar regard.

Minato looked between the other two kage. "Well, now that the both of you are here, we should be starting soon."

The Raikage glanced down into the arena. "It looks like there are a couple missing, Minato."

The cloaked man nodded in agreement. "Indeed. And two of them are the ones I was looking forward to seeing the most..."

"As unfortunate as it is, we cannot wait simply for a few late genin..." Although he said that, Minato was really wishing that Naruto would show up. He was starting to think that something may have happened...

* * *

 **In the Stands**

"Where the heck is he? He will be late if he doesn't hurry..." A worried Kushina said to herself. A large group consisting of the Konoha genin that didn't advance and their sensei, bar Kakashi were seated together in the stands.

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure Naruto will be here any moment now." Yūgao reassured Kushina from her seat. An amused smile grew on Yūgao's face. "Sasuke on the other hand...Well, we just need to hope that Kakashi decides to show up soon."

Kushina scowled at that. "I can't believe it-ttebane! I swear, if Kakashi-kun's bad habits wore off on Sasuke..."

"You don't think that Sasuke-kun will be late for his match, do you?" Sakura asked in a slightly worried tone.

"Can't say for sure. It might honestly happen if left up to Kakashi..." Yūgao said. Sakura and Ino traded worried glances.

"Don't sweat it! I'm sure that Naruto and Sasuke will make it!" Kiba said with a grin. "Right Akamaru?"

"Arf!"

"But they better hurry, I think it's going to start soon." Saito said.

"You think something happened?" Ikusa asked his teammates quietly.

Misa shook her head. "I don't know about the Uchiha, but Naruto is probably just running late. You know how he likes to sleep…" This got chuckles from her teammates.

* * *

 **Down in the Arena**

"Where the heck is he?! First he leaves for a month, and then he is late for the exam-ttebane!" Narumi shouted in annoyance.

Menma shrugged. "Eh, give it a bit. It hasn't started yet, so he still isn't late. And even then, he isn't fighting first."

"But still!" The frown on Narumi's face grew as she looked around again. "Sasuke isn't here either!"

Menma looked at her with a quirked eyebrow. "And what were you expecting to happen when he was training with Kakashi-nii?"

Narumi thought about it before slumping. "You're right. I shouldn't have expected anything else..."

Her brother nodded and looked at the other present genin. A smirk worked its way onto his face. "I think we should count ourselves as lucky that Shikamaru even showed up." This elicited a sigh from the Nara.

"Troublesome. I would never hear the end of it if I didn't come."

"Whksh."

Shikamaru glared at Menma. "You and I both know how annoying Ino can be, not to mention my mom. I am justified to be this way without being whipped. Plus, you're the same with your own mother." His eyes turned to the entrance of the arena before nodding in that direction. "And stop arguing about Naruto, he's here." Narumi instantly whirled around while Menma blinked and turned.

"About time, Nii-chan! You were almost late!" Despite the glare she was trying to give, Narumi couldn't fully hold back her smile.

Naruto walked over to them with a sheepish smile. "Sorry about that. I lost track of time..."

Shikamaru shrugged. "Doesn't matter. You aren't late." He glanced to the kage booth. "But if you were just a minute later you probably would have been..." They turned in the direction of the booth when Minato stood up.

* * *

 **Back in the Stands**

"That was cutting it closer than I would have liked..." Kushina said as she slumped back into her seat.

Yūgao grinned at her. "You see? Nothing to worry about. I knew he would make it."

"But it looks like Kakashi and his student aren't going to be on time." Asuma said with an amused smirk.

Kushina scowled again. "I'll be sure to teach him why it is inappropriate to be late after the exam..."

* * *

 **In the Kage Booth**

Minato sighed internally in relief when he saw his oldest son walk into the arena. _'Thank kami. That was cutting it close.'_

"Looks like your brat cut it a little close, Minato." A said offhandedly.

"But he still made it on time, so no harm done." Minato smiled. "So, shall we start this thing off?" He asked the other two kage and got a pair of nods in return. Seeing the nods, Minato stood up and walked to the railing of the booth to address the crowd. Seeing the Hokage stand up and raise a hand was enough to garner silence.

After waiting a moment for the rest of the chatter to die down, Minato spoke up, his voice being carried throughout the stadium with the speakers spread out in various places. "Ladies and Gentlemen." Minato began. "I would like to welcome you all to the final stage of the chūnin exam!" The crowd cheered in approval. "Whether you hail from Konoha, Kumo, Suna, or even Tetsu, welcome!"

Minato gestured to the line of genin. "The genin you see before you have fought through multiple stages and trials to make it this far in the hopes of becoming chūnin. And today, they will show us why they are worthy of becoming one. They will fight in one on one bouts in a tournament bracket style. Raikage-dono, Kazekage-dono, and I will judge them during each fight to determine if they are ready for the promotion." Minato looked around with a bright grin. "Now, I'm sure you don't really want to hear any more talking, are you ready to get started?" The crowd roared in approval. "Alright then, I hand the stage off to you, Genma." A man **Body Flickered** into the center of the arena as Minato turned back to his fellow kage.

A raised an amused eyebrow. "You really know how to work a crowd, Minato. That sucked and they still cheered like a bunch of academy genin seeing shinobi spar."

Minato rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I think it was more to do with the fact that I kept it brief so the fights could start." He sat in his seat with a smile. "Now, I think we should also enjoy the show, don't you?"

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

The man who just appeared in the center the arena was wearing the standard Konoha jōnin outfit. The only modification made was that he wore a bandana style forehead protector. His brown hair reached his shoulders and he had brown eyes. In his mouth was a senbon.

He looked at the genin and nodded. "I'm Genma Shiranui. I will be the proctor of the final exam."

Menma blinked. "What happened to Hayate-san? I thought he was the proctor."

Genma was silent for a moment. "...Something happened a few weeks after the preliminaries. He is no longer able to be the proctor because of it." Not a lie, but not the entire truth.

' _So they planned to make it seem like Hayate-san died...'_ Naruto thought to himself.

"Now then. It is time for us to get started. Any of you have questions?"

"…What happens to those who are not yet here?" Shikamaru asked. Genma turned his attention to him.

"Those who are not here for their match are disqualified. They will automatically forfeit the match and the opponent will move on to the next round." Genma looked at the other genin. "Any other questions?" None were raised, prompting Genma to nod. "Alright. I now ask that everyone but those in the first match vacate the arena. You are able to go into the competitor box to view the fight."

Naruto and Narumi stuck around to speak with Menma. "Come to wish me luck? I appreciate it, but I've got this in the bag." Menma told them with a smirk.

"It amazes me that your head is able to get that big without popping." Narumi said as she rolled her eyes.

"What can I say? I'm a man of many talents. Some of them just happen to make me even more awesome. I'm only a jackass if I'm overconfident and then lose." Menma said.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at him. "So you are confident in your win then?" He asked.

Menma's smirk grew. "Yeah, I got this." His gaze shifted over to the blank face of Neji. "I think that a little humiliation will do him some good…" The smirk grew bit vicious.

"I ask once again that all non-competitors of the first match leave the arena."

Naruto nodded to Menma with a smirk. "Well then, as long as you know what you're doing. Be sure to show him why you don't mess with our friends." Narumi quickly nodded in agreement.

"Yeah! Kick his ass for Hinata!"

"Of course." He gave them a playful shooing motion. "Now get lost, people have come to see my awesomeness and you are putting it off." The two older siblings rolled their eyes before walking towards the stairs.

Once they were gone, Neji spoke up. "You are confident, but do you really think that you are going to defeat me?"

The smirk on Menma's face never wavered. "Oh, I don't think I will." He slid into a battle stance. "I know I'm about to kick your ass."

Neji scowled before scoffing. "You may present more of a challenge, but it still is your fate to lose." He slid into his own battle stance. "Allow me to show you why."

Seeing that the both of them were ready, Genma raised a hand. "Match one between Neji of Konoha and Menma of Konoha." The spectators were growing increasingly restless in anticipation. "Begin!" Genma swiftly lowered the hand and jumped back.

Menma and Neji just stood there staring at one another, willing the other to make the first move. "What's wrong? Too scared to come at me?" Menma taunted.

The scowl on Neji's face grew but he didn't take the bait. "I can say the same to you. Why do you not charge at me like your opponent in the preliminaries? Is that not your normal fighting style?"

"Hmm…" Menma tilted his head in thought. After a moment, a wide grin grew across his face. "You know what? You're right!" He immediately dashed forward, catching Neji a bit off guard.

* * *

 **With the Competitors**

"Is he seriously rushing in to have a hand to hand fight against a Hyūga?" Naruto asked dubiously.

"…Looks like it. Troublesome. He should know that's stupid." Shikamaru responded.

Naruto shifted his eyes to his sister, who had a wide grin on her face. "You look like you know something we don't. Want to share?"

Narumi looked at him before looking back to the match. "Just wait and see! I only know about this because I spent a lot of the last month with him. It's actually a good idea."

"…I'll take your word for it…" Naruto said before looking back to the match.

"It will never work." They turned to Tenten, who had a smirk on her face. "I have no clue what he is planning, but it will never work against Neji. He's too much of a genius."

Naruto considered her words before a small smirk appeared on his face, making her falter. "But there are times that even a genius can lose…"

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

' _What's he playing at? Rushing in close to engage in taijutsu is foolish…'_ Deciding that his opponent was dumber than he thought, Neji prepared himself to attack. Waiting for the right moment, Menma sent a swift strike to Neji. Seeing this coming, Neji deflected the attack before delivering a jab to Menma's chest. After the attack landed, Neji swiftly jumped back with a smirk.

That smirk soon fell when he saw that no damage was done.

"What? Is that it? I couldn't even feel anything there." Menma taunted. Neji scowled again before deciding to be the one to reengage. He rushed back in and sent another jab to Menma's sternum. This time, Menma moved out of the way and responded with a kick to the offending limb.

Neji saw the attack and caught the leg with his other hand, but underestimated the power behind it and was pushed back. Menma used the chance to follow up with another blow that managed to land on Neji's side.

Grunting in pain and surprise, Neji quickly recovered and sent multiple jabs to Menma. Only half of them were blocked while the others landed. Neji jumped away again with a smirk, but it quickly fell like the last when he saw that Menma remained unaffected. "What is this?" Neji growled. "How are you able to shrug off all of my attacks?" He demanded.

The smirk never left Menma's face as he shrugged. "Oh, I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually." Menma shrugged. "Or not. I may beat you down before you get a chance to figure it out."

Neji scowled even more. "I see that you will be more difficult to beat than I had anticipated." He slid into a battle stance. "I will have to take this more seriously." He closed his eyes for a moment before snapping them back open. This time, Menma saw that he had his Byakugan activated.

"Heh. Hey, maybe now with your 'all-seeing eyes' you will be able to figure out what I'm doing to make all your attacks useless." That taunt made Neji growl and rush back in.

Menma dodged and deflected the attacks that he could, but Neji was still pressing him hard. Eventually, Menma was in a position that made him realize he wasn't going to be able to dodge or deflect the next attack.

"I have you now!" Neji sent a strong strike to Menma's chest and Menma was unable to get out of the way in time. Deciding on his next course of action, Menma took the hit and used the chance to slug a shocked Neji in the face, throwing him back.

Neji tumbled for a few feet before quickly regaining his bearings and rolled on his feet. The shocked look never left his face. "You…" Neji began.

Menma sighed, but an amused smile was on his lips. "Aw, I guess you saw it then?"

The scowl came back to Neji immediately after. "You…are sending pulses of your chakra to the areas I'm going to strike in order to negate the chakra I send into your body when I attack…Making it as if I'm merely jabbing at you without any chakra."

A slow clap came from Menma. "You got it! The way I see it, you only have your Hyūga clan style to attack me with. But what happens if all of those attacks are useless? Then what would you do?" Menma's smirk turned vicious. "I'm guessing there's not much you could do, right?"

A growl escaped Neji's throat. "But to keep that up during a fight would drain you of all your chakra in minutes!"

Menma nodded in agreement. "You would normally be right. If not for two important facts…The first is that I'm only sending the chakra to the places that I know you are going to attack, so I don't have to keep it going over my entire body…I doubt I can keep such a steady control across my body anyways…The second is…do you really think I will run out of chakra any time soon? _Me_ of all people?"

It immediately dawned on Neji why that notion was implausible. Not only was Menma half Uzumaki, he also had half of the Kyūbi's chakra sealed in him. The scowl grew deeper on the older genin's face. "But how could you do this without practicing first? This kind of technique needs time to train."

Menma shrugged. "Who said I didn't practice? I know someone who was willing to help me when I asked her. She was really nice about it and even gave me some advice…"

Neji caught on quickly. "Hinata- _sama_ was the one to help you, wasn't she?"

"You got it!" Menma crouched. "Now then, I think we should continue this before people get bored, don't you?" Without waiting for a response, Menma rushed back in.

* * *

 **With the Competitors**

"Using a pulse of chakra to negate the chakra in the attack…That's pretty smart. But I imagine that not many people would be able to imitate it due to the chakra consumption it requires…" Naruto noted.

Narumi smiled with a nod. "It pretty much requires you to have more chakra than your opponent, especially because Menma is using it to coat an entire limb or area as opposed to the small bursts that Neji is using. Neji is older than us and more experienced, so most of the competitors here might not be able to do it. A half Uzumaki that also contains part of the Kyūbi, however…"

Naruto smirked as he watched Menma shrug off another blow before responding with his own combo. "Neji doesn't stand a chance."

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

Neji was starting to tire as he kept up his attacks. No matter what he tried or where he landed a hit, Menma was able to shrug it off and keep attacking. Neji grit his teeth as another wave of anger rushed through him. He would not lose so easily!

"You know…" Menma began, snapping Neji's attention back to him and out of the battle induced haze his mind was in. "…It's pretty obvious that you're going to lose…" The smirk on the redheads face grew. "Why don't you just give up now before I beat down even more?" The smirk turned into a sneer. "After all, it would be terrible for you to lose without landing a substantial hit on me. You would be one of the only people in the exam to lose a fight without doing so. _At least Hinata managed to hurt her opponent._ "

"Shut up! I will not lose like that weakling!" Neji rushed at him, hand poised to strike. Once he was within reach, he shot his hand forward straight at Menma's heart. Wham! Neji was sent flying back onto the ground by the fast punch to his face. He made to get up, but was stopped when a foot kicked him back more. "Gah!"

"No, you shut up." Menma's tone turned icy. "I don't know what your problem is and I honestly don't care. But I don't like how you've been talking about one of my friends."

Neji pushed himself to his feet. "Deny it all you want. It's true. She is weak." Wham! He was floored again when Menma suddenly appeared in front of him and kicked him back.

"Really? Then what are you? You seem pretty weak to me right now…" Neji got to his feet and sent another strike at Menma, but he was too tired to make it as fast as it could have been. Menma simply moved out of the way and countered with his own blow. "I mean, here you are, the supposed prodigy, and yet you are unable to land a single significant hit on me. That seems pretty weak to me…"

"I told you to shut up!" Another dodged strike.

"And I told you no." Another counter that landed. Neji struggled to his feet again, but froze when he felt the cold steel of a kunai pressed up against his throat. "You lose. And you want to know the really funny part? Like you said, Hinata was the one I got to help me develop this counter to your move set. We sparred a bunch over the last month. And in every single one of those spars…I got my ass kicked. She was always able to beat me, even with the counter." Neji's eyes grew wide. "And yet, here _you_ are, the prodigy. Not a single thing you did had any damage done. Think about _that_ when you wake up." Wham!

Before anything else could be said, Menma brought his other hand forward and punched Neji with all of his strength, knocking him out.

The arena was silent as they saw the conclusion of the battle. Genma raised a hand towards Menma. "Winner, Menma of Konoha." The stands immediately exploded into cheers at this.

Menma grinned widely and made a show of bowing and blowing kisses at the crowd before he made his way over to the stairs.

* * *

 **In the Stands**

"Ha! Nice one, Menma! You showed that jerk!" Kiba cheered. Saito was grinning from his spot next to him as he clapped.

"That was amazing! That guy didn't stand a chance against him at all!" Ino said as she clapped. She soon turned to Hinata who was sitting nearby. "Is what he said true, Hinata? Did you really help develop that counter?"

Hinata blushed before shyly ducking her head with a small nod. Kushina grinned at this and spoke up. "It's true. Menma sought her out a few weeks ago and got her to help him with making it."

Sakura leaned forward wide eyes as she spoke up. "And the part about never being able to beat her with it?"

"I-it's true…" Hinata said quietly.

"That's awesome, Hinata! You're able to beat a technique that Neji couldn't even make any headway against!" Kiba grinned widely.

This compliment made Hinata's face grow even redder as she ducked her head further.

Sitting nearby was a stunned looking Lee. "Neji-kun lost…" He said in slight disbelief. He turned his head when he felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder to see Gai.

"My young student, you will learn that there is always someone out there who is able to beat you. And there is always someone out there who is able to beat them. But there is no such thing as someone who is the strongest. With enough hard work, and some planning, then you may overcome any obstacles in your way."

Lee slowly nodded as a smile stretched across his face. If he wanted to beat Neji, Naruto, and now Menma, he needed to work even harder than he did before.

* * *

 **With the Competitors**

"No way…Neji actually lost…" Tenten said to herself quietly.

"Told you so." Naruto looked to Narumi. "You look like you enjoyed that…"

She grinned at him. "Heck yeah I did-ttebane! That jerk needed to be punched around like that after what he said about Hinata!"

Naruto nodded. "I'm right there with you. He needed a wakeup call to come around and punch him in the face." He looked towards the entrance as a widely grinning Menma walked in. "Nice one. You completely dominated that entire match." He complimented.

Menma puffed out his chest. "Of course. I'm just that awesome."

"And here comes the inflated ego again…" Narumi said playfully, prompting Menma to stick his tongue out at her.

"Let me enjoy this for a bit! I totally looked like a badass out there."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Right…" It was then he saw Samui making her way towards the exit. He turned towards the stairs. "Well, I guess I'm up next. See you guys afterwards." He waved them off.

"Good luck, Naruto."

"Kick some butt."

"Show them how awesome you are!"

* * *

 **In the Kage Booth**

"That last match was interesting…" The Kazekage mused. A shrugged in response.

"Your brat thought that out pretty well, Minato. And he played to his strengths using his large chakra reserves."

Minato nodded as he smiled in pride. "Yes, Menma went to a friend to get her help developing it. They thought of the entire thing together."

"Hm…But he still showed a few hotheaded and cocky traits…" A commented. "That's not something you want in a chūnin. And his opponent was pretty arrogant as well…He tired himself out by growing angry and not controlling himself."

The Hokage nodded in agreement. "We will need to see how Menma does in future matches to judge him further, but I do not think that I will promote Neji based off of what he just showed." He looked at Genma. "It looks like the next match is about to begin."

The Kazekage looked at Minato. "I admit that I have been looking forward to seeing your oldest son in action, Minato-dono. I heard he showed himself to be quite capable up until now…"

There was something in the tone that made Minato uneasy, but he put a smile on his face anyways. "I admit that I have been looking forward to seeing Naruto fight as well. He elected to train on his own over the past month, so I don't know what he had been working on."

A smirked. "Well, I still doubt that he will be able to beat Samui…"

B nodded his head. "Yeah, the winner of this will be Samui. She'll win in a snap, like one, two, three!" This terrible rap got sweat drops all around.

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

Naruto grinned from his spot across form his opponent. "Hey there, let's have a good match." He said.

Samui kept her stoic expression up as she stared at him. After a moment, a small smirk appeared on her face. "That would be cool. I want to have a kenjutsu battle with you." This made Naruto blink in surprise.

"A kenjutsu battle?"

His opponent nodded before she drew her blade and slid into a battle stance. "Yes. Use that weird sword that you used in the preliminaries."

Naruto frowned a bit and glanced around at the large number of people watching. He still felt a little uncomfortable using his keyblade in front of such a large number of people. After a moment of silent thought, he sighed. The fact of the matter was that he would probably need a sword for this fight and people have already seen him use it. Naruto raised a hand and willed his keyblade to appear. It did so in the normal flash of light and darkness. Whispers spread throughout the crowd at the sight of the strange blade.

Samui studied the blade from her spot. "That really is a cool blade. I haven't seen anything like it before…" She said.

Sliding into his own battle stance, Naruto replied with a smirk. "Thanks. I'm really fond of it. I haven't really used it much openly though…"

* * *

 **Back in the Stands**

"He's using that weird sword again…" Kiba said. It still was really weird to him that a sword would be designed to look like a giant key.

Saito frowned. "I looked into it over the last month. No matter who I asked or what book I looked in, I couldn't find anything on a blade that looks like that!" It wounded his pride as a weapons specialist that he never even heard of such a sword before.

Asuma took a drag of his cigarette. "I admit that I'm pretty curious as well about the sword." His gaze shifted to Kushina. "Did you ask him about it over the month, Kushina-sama?"

Kushina shook her head with a frown. "I never got the chance to. Naruto disappeared at the beginning of the month. This is the first time I've seen him since the day after the preliminaries."

This statement surprised the others who didn't know. "He disappeared for a month?" Kurenai asked.

Yūgao was the one to answer. "Yeah. I went to talk to him a couple times over the month but he was never home and no one knew where he was. I'm actually planning on talking to him after his match. I never got the chance to thank him…"

Kushina blinked in surprise at that. "Oh, that sounds like a good idea. You mind if I come?" She asked.

"Not at all. I'm sure you were worried about him over the past month."

* * *

 **In the Kage Booth**

"I must admit that I find myself extremely curious by such an unusual blade, Hokage-dono." The Kazekage said. "Care to share what exactly it is?"

Minato regarded the man for a moment. "I'm not sure what I can tell you. Naruto apparently obtained the blade at some point a while ago and kept it. He used to use a normal blade, but it was destroyed in the second stage, so he started to use this."

A frowned at the blade. "Is a blade that looks like that really an effective weapon? I'm sure it cuts, but why is it designed like that? Is there some benefit?" Minato shrugged in return.

"I don't know much else about it. I've seen him use it only once before. It works well enough, I can ensure that." He smiled a bit. "Why don't we just watch and see? The match is about to start."

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

Genma looked between the two fighters and raised a hand. "Match two between Samui of Kumo and Naruto of Konoha." A moment of tense silence passed. "Begin!" He brought his hand down and jumped back as Samui and Naruto rushed each other. Clang!

Their blades met in a shower of sparks. The two of them quickly brought their swords back again before attempting to land a hit on each other. Clang! Samui brought her sword back again, but Naruto saw the attack coming and deflected it while stepping around her. Samui was not deterred as she spun around and attempted to land another strike. Naruto stepped out of the way of this one as well and sent a slice at her back.

Samui quickly maneuvered her body out of the way before spinning back around and slashing at Naruto. The crimson blond was able to quickly bring his blade back using the momentum of his previous strike. Samui jumped over the low slash and sent a kick at her opponent while in the air. Naruto moved his head out of the way and swung his sword at Samui while she was still in the air. Clang! Samui got her sword in position in time to block the blow.

Landing on her feet, Samui caught Naruto's wrist as he swung his keyblade at her. This action surprised Naruto enough that he wasn't able to react quickly enough when she maneuvered under his guard and sent a sharp elbow jab into his gut.

"Gah!" Naruto winced. _'Wow, she's pretty good!'_ Naruto jerked his wrist out of her grasp as he sent a following kick at him and he jumped back to avoid it. Landing on his feet, Naruto immediately rushed back in to reengage. Samui sent a horizontal slash at him, but he ducked under it to get behind her and tried to cut into her back.

Knowing the danger she was in, Samui performed a backflip over Naruto and sent a strike to his head as she did so. Clang! Naruto blocked the strike and followed after her. The moment she landed, Naruto sent a thrust at her that she was barely able to deflect. Samui frowned as she had to jumped back to avoid the strike when Naruto suddenly changed the direction of his attack.

Naruto was quick to pursue her, but had to think quickly when Samui slashed at him. Naruto deflected her attack with his keyblade and attacked in the same movement. Samui's eyes widened she saw him run his sword along hers in order to deflect her blade while he attacked. She immediately performed a couple of backwards somersaults through the air to avoid the attack. This time, Naruto did not follow. The crowd was stunned into silence by the skill shown by the two of them.

The two of them simply stared at each other for a moment before Naruto smirked and broke the silence. "I didn't think I would fight a genin that was this good in kenjutsu. This is pretty fun."

A matching smirk came to Samui's face. "I am surprised as well. This has been a pretty cool fight so far."

It was then that the crowd regained its bearings and started to cheer madly for the two of them, wanting more. The cheering made Naruto grin. "I think they're enjoying it as well." He crouched in preparation. "Why don't we get back to it?" He rushed at her.

* * *

 **With the Competitors**

"No way. How is that guy managing to match Samui in a kenjutsu fight? She's the best out of the three of us!" Karui said in disbelief.

"That guy is pretty good as well. What do we do if Samui loses? And then we lose because we were so depressed about it and not able to focus. The Raikage will be so embarrassed that all three of us lost that he will demote us back to academy students. And then…"

"Gah! Shut up! That won't happen, you moron!"

"You don't know that, flat chest…"

"What was that?!"

Shikamaru sighed at the level of noise from the Kumo genin. "Troublesome…Why can't they just be quiet?"

Menma rolled his eyes but didn't look away from the fight. "Just block them out." He watched as Naruto and Samui clashed again. "That girl is really good. But she won't be able to win…" Narumi nodded in agreement.

"Yeah…Nii-chan seems to be enjoying himself. And he isn't even as going as fast as he did during his fight with Lee-san…"

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

Clang! Samui deflected a slash from Naruto and retaliated with a kick to his side. Naruto rolled out of the way, but was place right into the path of a low strike from Samui. Seeing the danger, Naruto immediately jumped above it. Samui was surprised by his reaction time and was unable to stop the slash made on her back. "Guh…" She grit her teeth in pain and spun around to swipe at him, but met nothing but air.

"Like I said, you're pretty good, but you can't keep up with me." Naruto said as he got into a battle stance across from her.

Samui frowned and got into her own stance. "Not cool…" She rushed back at him. Clang! Their blades met and they were locked into a power struggle, but Samui was soon over powered and forced to jump back or be cut down.

Not wanting to give her any more breathing room, Naruto was quick to follow after her. He was slowly starting to speed up as he went. Little by little, more and more cuts were made around Samui's body as she was unable to stop the entire onslaught that Naruto was raining down on her.

Clang! Clang! Sparks flew as their blades met again. Naruto smiled at her. "This has been fun, but I'm ending this now." Before anything more could be said, he stopped applying strength to his blade and ducked under Samui's sword. Not expecting such a move, Samui was thrown off balance and stumbled forward. She quickly spun around before she hit the ground, but was met with a kick to her side.

She was pushed back and nearly into the ground by the strike. Before she hit the ground though, she used the momentum of her fall to roll and get back to her feet. She spun around quickly to swipe at Naruto. Clang!

Shock filled Samui's face when she was immediately disarmed by the strange weapon that he had. She turned her head to see her sword embedded in the ground where it had fallen a dozen feet away. She slowly turned back to the smirking form of Naruto.

"Like I said, you're good. But you shouldn't have called me out to fight in a kenjutsu battle. I spar on a regular basis against someone that's way better than me in kenjutsu." He tilted his head. "So, do you give up? Or do you admit you lost in your own challenge?"

Samui stared at him for a moment longer before smirking and shaking her head. "No, it's cool." She looked to Genma. "I forfeit." She said simply.

Genma nodded and raised a hand towards Naruto. "Winner, Naruto of Konoha." The crowd erupted into cheers as Naruto willed away his keyblade.

"That was fun. Let's do that again sometime." Naruto grinned at her as he offered her a hand.

Samui smirked more before she accepted the hand in a shake. "Sure. That sounds cool to me." She turned and went to retrieve her blade before heading off to get her cuts dealt with.

* * *

 **In the Kage Booth**

Minato smirked over at the scowling Raikage. "I'm sorry, did you say something about Naruto losing?" He teased.

"Tch. Don't get cocky. It was just one win."

The smirk on Minato's face only grew when he heard this. "Well, more are going to join it soon."

A scoffed. "We'll see about that. I know that one of mine will win this thing." He turned a menacing look to his brother. "Right?"

B cowered a bit under the look. "Nothing to worry about, bro. I know we'll win this fo sho!" He sighed in relief when A turned away.

* * *

 **With the Competitors**

Naruto grinned at his friends when they congratulated him on his win. "Thanks. She was really good. I was surprised to see that there was another genin that was that skilled with a blade."

Narumi grinned at him. "But she still didn't stand a chance against you." This made him shrug.

"I wouldn't say she stood no chance, just that she shouldn't have challenged me to a straight sword fight."

Menma rolled his eyes. "Kami, Aniki. Brag a bit. You won and you did it with style."

Naruto made a noncommittal sound as he watched Tenten and Omoi get into battle stances in the arena. "Naruto." Blinking in surprise, Naruto turned to see Yūgao and Kushina standing in the entrance of the room. Naruto grinned.

"Hey sensei, been a while."

Yūgao grinned back. "I guess it has. You mind if we go somewhere to talk for a bit?" Naruto shrugged.

"Sure. That's fine with me."

* * *

 **Nearby Room**

Yūgao led him and Kushina to a nearby instrument storage room. Once they entered, Yūgao closed the door. "So, what did you want to talk about?" Naruto asked curiously.

"We wanted to thank you." Naruto blinked in surprise and turned to the owner of the voice. Standing in the corner of the room was a smiling Hayate. "This is the first chance that we have had the chance since you saved me."

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "It was nothing much. I'm just glad you're alright."

Hayate nodded. "It really was a close call. I definitely would have died if you didn't save me."

Yūgao took his hand a sent a bright grin at her student. "That's why we wanted to thank you." She then frowned a bit. "I wanted to do it sooner, but you were never around when I came by."

"Sorry about that. I was staying with someone I know. They helped me train over the past month." Naruto replied.

"Makes sense…" Yūgao paused as a new thought came to her. "But how did you do it? I didn't know you knew any medical techniques…"

"Well…I only learned it recently. And it isn't able to do a perfect job…And it takes a lot of energy for me to do…" What was he supposed to say? He knew magic and one of his spells healed Hayate?

Yūgao smiled and nodded. "I got it. If you ever need anything, don't hesitate to come to one of us. We really owe you for this."

Naruto blushed a bit. "Don't worry about it. I couldn't exactly leave Hayate-san there when I was able to do something to help, could I?" Naruto turned serious. "I'm guessing you managed to warn others of the invasion?" Naruto asked.

The other occupants in the room also turned serious at the subject. Hayate nodded. "Yes. I told Hokage-sama when I woke up in the hospital."

"So people are ready for the attack?"

"Yes. Have you kept quiet about it?"

"Of course. I know this isn't something I can go talk to people about."

"Good." Hayate nodded to him again. "Thank you again for what you've done." He and Yūgao turned and left Kushina and Naruto alone.

There was an awkward silence in the room as neither of them knew what exactly to say. After a minute, Naruto turned towards the door. "Well, I'm going to watch the rest of the match…" Before he could move anywhere, Kushina suddenly wrapped him in a hug. "Wha-?!"

"I was so worried-ttebane! You just stormed out of the house a month ago and disappeared!" Kushina said as she hugged him tightly.

Naruto grimaced and wormed his way out of her arms. "I apologize for doing that. I lost my temper and left in a rude manner." He said neutrally.

Kushina frowned a bit at him and shook her head. "No, that's fine. Jiraiya was an ass and said something he shouldn't have. I made sure to kick his ass." She grinned at him, but it soon turned into a frown. "But that doesn't excuse you for leaving for a month with no contact! What were you thinking young man?!"

Naruto frowned. "I was training with a friend, as I said. It was simpler to just stay there instead of leaving each day and returning."

"But you should have told us!"

"I did. I told you I had plans and not to worry about my training."

Kushina was now scowling. "That isn't telling us! You're twelve years old, and as my child you aren't allowed to just disappear for a month. And we needed to be there to make sure you are properly trained for the Akatsuki."

Naruto's frown turned into a scowl as well. "If the Akatsuki did attack, then we wouldn't even be allowed to fight back. You would just tell us to run, right?" No response. "And I don't see the problem with me leaving for a month to train."

"How can you not see a problem with that?!"

"Because I've been doing it for years!" This answer stunned Kushina into silence. "Nobody has ever cared before, so why do you now?! I've been wondering it for months now, what changed? Why do you suddenly care about me? You haven't been paying any attention to me for years now, but suddenly you do. I don't hate you, but why? What changed?"

Kushina was unable to offer a response as Naruto stared at her. After a minute of waiting, Naruto sighed and shook his head. "I just don't get why you would suddenly go from not caring to caring like that. I have been leaving to go and train with this friend for years now, but nobody has ever noticed until recently."

Eventually, Kushina was able to gather herself enough to respond. "I never stopped caring! How can you possibly think that?"

"Very easily." No hesitation was present. "I can very easily think that. I actually wonder if you do truly care now. It sure seems like Jiraiya, Kakashi, and Tsunade still don't. And you know what I realized over the years? If you don't care, then neither should I." He walked around her and out the door.

* * *

 **With the Competitors (Five Minutes Later)**

After leaving his shocked mother behind, Naruto left to find another room he could sit in and cool off. He was able to feel some encroachment from the darkness on the edge of his mind. It wasn't enough to impact his thoughts, but it still made him frown at how easily it came upon him. He spent the next few minutes calming himself down before he walked back to the competitor's booth.

"What I miss?" He asked the others.

"Nothing much." Yakumo asked as she watched an exhausted Tenten head towards the infirmary. "Tenten-san lost. It was close, but she wasn't able to keep up with her opponent. It ended with her getting electrocuted into submission."

"Huh, that's a shame…" He looked around. "Uchiha still hasn't shown up? If he doesn't hurry then he will be disqualified…"

Narumi frowned as well. "It isn't fair to him that he had Kakashi-nii training him. That was pretty much an instant disqualification…" She sighed. "It would be nice if we could find a way to stall for him…"

Menma shrugged. "I don't really care either way. He should have accounted for Kakashi-nii's compulsion to always be late." He looked at Naruto. "So where did you, kaa-chan, and Yūgao-sensei go?"

"Yūgao-sensei just took us to an instrument storage room to talk. She was curious about where I was for the last month."

Narumi blinked. "…Instrument storage room?" A wide grin crossed her face. "That's it-ttebane!" She whirled around on Naruto.

Naruto eyed her warily. "What?" A moment passed before his eyes widened. He frowned at her. "Why the hell should I? I see no point to me helping him."

"Please! Think of it as helping me!"

"And how does this help you?"

"He's Sakura's teammate. So she would want to help him. And I would want to help her. Which means that by helping Sasuke, you're helping me!" She grinned at him, but got a deadpan look in return.

"That's some stupid logic…"

"Whatever! So will you do it?"

Naruto frowned harder and had opened his mouth to deny the request, but froze when he saw the wide eyes she was giving him. The trembling lip didn't help either. A minute passed before Naruto sighed and slumped. "…Fine…"

"Yes!" She hugged him. "Thanks, Nii-chan!" She turned towards the stairs. "I'll tell tou-chan about it after my fight!" She skipped off.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…I can't believe you broke just like that."

"Shut up. You wouldn't do any better."

"…Shut up."

* * *

 **Down in the Arena**

Karui smirked at her opponent. "I'm going to enjoy wiping that stupid grin off your face."

Narumi shrugged. "You sure you can manage it? I like to think I'm too fast for someone as slow as you to hit…"

The other redhead's eyebrow started to twitch. "What was that?"

"Oh, are you hard of hearing as well? I said that you're too slow to hit me."

Karui was growling by this point. She slid her blade out of the sheathe and got into a battle stance. "Let's see you say that after I'm done pounding your face in."

Narumi grinned and got into her own battle stance. "Sure, sure. Of course you will." She taunted.

Sighing internally to himself at the simple ploy and how it was actually working, Genma raised a hand. "Match four between Narumi of Konoha and Karui of Kumo, begin!" He swiftly lowered his hand and jumped back Karui rushed forward.

"Take this!" Narumi easily side stepped the slash and countered with a well-aimed kick.

"Is that all you've got?" Narumi challenged with another raised eyebrow. Karui growled again before launching into a fast combo of slashes and swipes. Narumi carefully maneuvered her body out of the way by stepping to the correct place or simply bending her body. "Like I said, you're not fast enough." Narumi would then proceed to deliver a few blows whenever she saw an opening big enough for her to take.

* * *

 **With the Competitors**

"Narumi's got this…" Menma observed.

Naruto nodded in agreement. "That girl she is fighting has lost her cool completely. I can tell she has some skill with a blade, but she also has a huge temper. Narumi is using this against her."

"Do you think she is better or worse with a sword than the blond girl you fought?" Yakumo asked.

"I would say that Samui-san is better. Even more so while the girl Narumi is fighting is angry." Naruto watched as his sister danced around the blade and delivered more strikes to her opponent. "This fight won't last long."

The group turned when they heard a sigh. Omoi was standing nearby with a lollipop in his mouth. "I warned that flat chest about losing her temper. But did she listen? Of course not. One day she will lose her cool during a mission, then the enemy will find us and we will be forced to fight, but she won't be able to fight as well as she could because she is mad. And then…"

They sweat dropped when they heard the Kumo Nin begin to ramble.

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

"Why. Don't. You. Sit. Still?!" Karui was panting as another one of her attacks missed completely. She grunted at the returning strike to her abdomen.

"Why would I do that? It isn't my fault that you suck so much you can't even touch me." Narumi taunted.

"I. Don't. Suck!" Why couldn't she hit her?!

"The fact that you haven't hit me yet says otherwise." Narumi said with a shrug.

Karui growled and was about to lash out, but froze. After a moment, she scowled at her opponent. "You've been playing me this entire time."

Narumi grinned cheekily in return. "About time you figured it out." She then crouched low. "I think it's about time we ended this, don't you?" Before anything else could be said, Narumi rushed in at Karui.

Karui quickly tensed in preparation. When Narumi got close enough, she sent a punch forward. Karui smirked and sidestepped the punch, making Narumi's eyes go wide in surprise. "Dodge this one!" Karui brought her blade down on Narumi.

"Gah!" The blade connected with Narumi's chest, making Karui grin widely. Poof! That grin immediately turned into a gape when Narumi's body vanished into a cloud of smoke.

"What?" Wham! Karui was floored by the punch that came to the side of her face. Dazed, she looked up from her spot on the ground to see a grinning Narumi standing above her.

"Aren't **Shadow Clones** great?" Narumi asked before making a fist. Wham! Karui was promptly knocked out. Narumi stood up and dusted imaginary dirt off of her hands before grinning over to Genma. "So?"

Genma rolled his eyes before raising a hand in her direction. "Winner, Narumi of Konoha!" The crowd cheered in approval as Narumi grinned and waved.

"Now then…" She turned towards the Kage booth.

* * *

 **In the Kage Booth**

"Well, I do believe that's two of your genin defeated by my children, A." Minato grinned over at the scowling Raikage.

"Whatever. Omoi will still win this entire thing."

Minato's grin grew wider. "Not if Rasa-dono or I have anything to say about it." He turned to the silent Kazekage. "And what say you, Kazekage-dono? Who is your favorite to win?"

"Hm…I would think it would either be Gaara, your eldest, or the Uchiha…" He peered down at the arena. "But it looks like the Uchiha hasn't shown up yet…"

Minato frowned. "Yes, it seems that's true…" He sighed. Minato knew he would have to drag Kushina away from Kakashi's corpse for this. "Unfortunately, rules are rules. Sasuke is going to be disqualified for this."

The Kazekage looked at him. "Do you not think it would be better to give him some time? Perhaps push his match back a bit? There are many people here who have come to see what the last Uchiha is capable of…"

The blond shook his head and eyed the Kazekage. "That may be, but it would be unfair to the others to show favoritism like that. If Sasuke can't show up on time, then he doesn't deserve to be a chūnin."

"Nothing will change your mind?"

"I agree with Minato. If the Uchiha isn't here, then he is disqualified." A said.

"Even with the people who came here just for that?"

Minato was now frowning at the man. He opened his mouth to speak, but stopped when they felt a presence approaching them. "Tou-chan!" Minato blinked in surprise before turning to the entrance of the booth to see Narumi.

"Narumi? What are you doing here? You shouldn't be here…"

Narumi rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "Sorry about that. But I had an idea! I was talking to a couple of my friends in the stands a bit ago, and they told me that they really wanted to go to the bathroom and get snacks, but didn't want to miss the matches!" She grinned at him. "So…I was wondering if there can be a short intermission. I also want to get some stuff…"

Minato frowned at her. He opened his mouth to deny the request, but was interrupted. "That sounds good to me, Minato. I also want to go and see my genin in the infirmary for a minute. Plus I'm getting hungry…" A commented.

The Kazekage was soon nodding his head. "Yes, that sounds like a good idea. Why not give people a chance to get the things they would like to get?"

Minato looked between the two of them. "…I…guess…So we will just tell people that they have a short break? But doesn't this seem like we are playing favorites for Sasuke?" A frowned as he considered this.

Seeing that her request was going to get denied, Narumi grinned wider. "That's not a problem. Just say that this intermission was planned! You even have a performance scheduled for it-ttebane!"

"We do?" Minato asked in confusion.

"Yep! Just leave it to me! All you have to do is turn on the big screen!" And with that, Narumi turned and sped off.

"Alright…" Minato sent a confused look at the others in the booth. "I guess we have an intermission…" He then walked up to the edge of the booth and turned on his mic. "Ladies and gentlemen. I hope that you have been enjoying the exam so far?" He got a roar of approval in return, making him smile. "That's great. As we have now reached the halfway mark between the first round, we will be having a short intermission in order to give people the chance to get up and stretch their feet as needed. If you wish to get some snacks, now is the time to do so. We also have a performance scheduled for this intermission. Please enjoy." He turned off his mic and walked back to his seat as the crowd cheered again.

"You have no idea what's about to happen, do you?" A asked with some amusement.

"Not a clue." Minato responded as he turned the screen in the booth on.

* * *

 **In the Stands**

Sakura sighed in relief when she heard the announcement. "That was close…But if Sasuke-kun doesn't show up soon, then he is definitely going to be disqualified…"

Ino grinned at her, but it was obvious that she was worried as well. "Don't sweat it! I'm sure that Sasuke-kun is going to make it. He's probably going to make an awesome entrance too!"

Kiba snorted from his seat nearby. "Doubt it. The bastard is probably going to be late and will be disqualified…" He flinched when two angry glares were immediately turned on him.

The jōnins were having a similar discussion nearby. "Kakashi is really pushing it this time…" Asuma said with a frown.

Kurenai had a small scowl on his face. "I cannot believe that he is making his student late as well. That's too much, even for him."

"Well, maybe Sasuke has picked up on his habits like Lee did with Gai…" Yūgao said before she gave Kushina a concerned look. She placed a hand on her shoulder, gaining her attention. "Hey, you alright?"

The redhead blinked before sending a smile at Yūgao, but it was obvious that it was fake. "I'm fine-ttebane! Just thinking about something." She adopted a glare. "I can't believe Kakashi-kun is actually making his student late. I'm going to teach him why that's a mistake!" She growled.

Yūgao frowned a bit and traded a look with Kurenai before looking back to Kushina with a smirk. "Just be sure that we're there to see it."

"Of course."

"Oh look! It's Naruto-kun!" Sakura's voice cut through their conversation and made Kushina's head snap around to face the giant screen. The screen showed a live feed of the instrument storage room with multiple Naruto's stationed at various instruments. "He must be the performance!"

Ino blinked in surprise. "Naruto-kun can play instruments?" She asked.

Misa snorted from where her team was sitting a couple rows up. "Yeah, and he is actually decent too."

"I had no idea! How good is he?"

Ikusa grinned. "Just watch the screen. You're about to see." They turned to the screen to see the lead Naruto nod to his clones before starting to play.

 **RWBY – Time to Say Goodbye**

There's a point where it tips  
There's a point where it breaks  
There's a point where it bends  
And a point we just can't take  
Anymore

There's a line that we'll cross  
And there's no return  
There's a time and a place  
No bridges left to burn  
Anymore

We can't just wait with lives at stake  
Until they think we're ready  
Our enemies are gathering  
The storm is growing deadly

Now it's time to say goodbye  
To the things we loved  
And the innocence of youth  
How the time seemed to fly  
From our carefree lives  
And the solitude and peace we always knew

There's a day when we'll fight  
And we're not gonna fall  
There's a day when we'll stand  
And a day when we won't crawl  
Anymore

There's a moment in time  
And there's no going back  
When we're pushed too hard  
And we won't hold our attack  
Anymore

We can't just cling to childish things  
As evil just grows closer  
Humanity's in jeopardy  
This fight is far from over

Now it's time to say goodbye  
To the things we loved  
And the innocence of youth  
With a doubt in our minds  
Why we chose this life  
And at times we can't help wondering...

Were we born to fight and die?  
Sacrificed for one huge lie?  
Are we heroes keeping peace?  
Or are we weapons?  
Pointed at the enemy  
So someone else can claim a victory?

Now it's time to say goodbye  
To the things we loved  
And the innocence of youth  
How the time seemed to fly  
From our carefree lives  
And the solitude and peace we always knew

The stands erupted into cheers. "Holy crap! That was awesome!" Kiba yelled as he cheered with the others. Naruto and his clones smiled and bowed before the screen went dark.

"How did I not know he could do that?!" Ino asked in shock before she whirled around on Sakura. "And how did you know about that?!"

Sakura grinned in response. "I've seen him perform before. It when we completed the second exam."

"You've got to tell me about it!"

"Later." Sakura waved her off before looking down towards the competitors with a concerned look. _'I still don't see Sasuke-kun…'_

"I am always impressed by his performances." Yūgao said with a grin.

"That was really impressive." Kurenai said with some surprise.

"The kid's got talent." Asuma agreed as he grinned around his cigarette. Yūgao nodded in agreement before she turned to speak to Kushina, only to pause when she saw the sad smile that the redhead was giving the screen.

* * *

 **In the Kage Booth**

The kages were clapping with the rest as the screen cut out. Minato had a huge grin on his face. Although he has heard that Naruto knew how to play instruments and sing, this was the first time he has ever seen it for himself. He looked towards the competitor's area before his grin was replaced with a frown. "It looks like Sasuke still isn't here. He will have to be disqualified…"

A nodded in agreement. "I agree. It was already too much for him to have gotten that."

The Kazekage looked between them. "Would it not be acceptable for the match to be pushed back? Make it later?"

Minato frowned at the man and shook his head. "No. He won't be given any further leeway."

"I must insist. I have been looking forward to this match. He along with your eldest son have caught my attention and I have been looking forward to seeing what they can do."

Minato stared at the man with narrowed eyes. "You know, Kazekage-dono…You seem to have a large amount of interest in both Naruto and Sasuke…" Something in his tone made A prepare himself for whatever may happen.

"Is that not normal? Given who they are, I think I am justified."

"Perhaps. But did you know that there has been a recent intrusion in my village? A certain snake has shown a great amount of interest in them as well…enough to go out of his way to interact with them…" Minato prepared himself to react in an instant if needed. The guards in the room also tensed in preparation.

"Are you implying something, Hokage-dono?"

"…I wouldn't be too surprised if I was told that the same snake managed to disguise himself as a kage and watched the matches with us." Minato tilted his head. "Why don't you manipulate a little gold to prove who you are?"

Dead silence. Nobody in the booth moved an inch as they waited for someone else to act first.

BOOM!

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 26!**

 **What color is the Kazekage hat? Is it green, blue, or turquoise? It was blue when Orochimaru wore it, but green is what the wiki says. Plus, the Mizukage hat is blue...**

 **Sorry for the terrible fights. I feel that I've improved since I first started, but I still don't like writing them.**

 **I was split between using This Will Be the Day and Time to Say Goodbye. It was a hard decision for me.**

 **Rushed the ending there a bit. I really wanted to get this thing out but I have something else I still need to do today.**

 **It's starting!**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	27. Invasion: Stop Gaara

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 27!**

 **Sorry for the late update. I won't lie to you. I was lazy. That, and I got distracted by something else.**

 **Thanksgiving will forever be one of my favorite holidays. That and my birthday (Which should be a holiday!)**

 **The struggle of wanting to buy crap on black Friday/cyber Monday but** _ **still**_ **being too cheap to fork over the money…**

 **My laptop actually crashed today while I was writing this. Luckily, I am in the habit of saving every once in a while, so I only lost around 500 words.**

* * *

 **Razor Edge Gone: Thanks, I thought so too. Whenever I have him play I song, I try to have it relate to some part of the story.**

 **LordGhostStriker: I like the sword fight better as well. The fist fights aren't my thing.**

 **aphex97: He will at some point, yeah.**

 **speedking535: Soon? Probably not. I will start worrying about that stuff once I get into the KH storyline.**

 **Kairitrion Cerulean: Thanks for pointing that out. I went back and fixed it.**

 **Justaquestion12: No planned pairings right now. And RWBY is under heavy consideration for one of the worlds.**

 **Anonymous: I thought of that. I plan to touch upon it in the future. And in a perfect world, Kingdom Hearts 3 won't conflict with what I have in any way besides the things I have changed (You know, Naruto being a part of the universe, Hikari/Yami, and so on). If it comes down to it conflicting and it isn't much, I may go back and change around some stuff just so it fits. If it requires me having to revamp the entire story…well…**

 **Capturinggod200: Looking back at the chapter, I see that you have a good point. I probably could have done more for those fights, but I didn't. At this point, what can Neji really do? If you take away his chakra infused strikes, can he really do much? Did I make it too easy for Menma? Perhaps. Am I going to lose any sleep over it? Nope. The Narumi fight was just me being a bit lazy, I can admit that. As for the Naruto and Samui fight, I don't really see what you mean. Naruto had that thing from the start. He got hit because he was surprised for a moment. After that? He dominated. I even stated he wasn't going all out like he did with Lee.**

 **Jimmy Page: Hey reader, read the ANs or put two and two together. She calls herself that so she doesn't reveal she is the cat.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else. I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Diety Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Diety Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **In the Stands**

Boom!

The heads of everyone in the stands snapped to the kage booth as it suddenly exploded. Not wasting any time, the jōnin in the audience sprang to their feet and readied their weapons as the civilians screamed. Clang! They were just in time to block and avoid the surprise attacks that came from the enemies hidden through the stadium.

"What's going on?!" Kiba shouted as he saw the area around him just became a warzone. Konoha shinobi were suddenly fighting off attackers sporting Suna and Oto forehead protectors.

"Looks like we're under attack! Don't just sit there, fight back!" Misa responded as she and her team were the first genin team to realize what was happening.

Asuma used his chakra blades to slash at an Oto Nin that lunged at him before jumping back towards the genin. Without turning to them, he spoke up. "Suna has broken the alliance and teamed up with Oto to attack us!" He had to pause to kick away another enemy. "Stick close together and await further instructions. Do not run off on your own!" He leapt back into the fray.

"You heard the man! Let's take care of these idiots!" Ikusa jumped out of the way of an attacking Suna Nin before responding with an attack of his own.

"An invasion? Now?" Sakura asked weakly before she shook her head and glared. "I'm not going to just sit around doing nothing again!" She got to her feet and pulled out a kunai before helping out in the fight.

"This really isn't good..." Chōji mumbled quietly.

Ino glared at him. "We won't be the ones sitting around doing nothing while everyone else fights! We're helping too!" Although she said this, it was obvious that she was extremely nervous about the situation.

Unexpectedly, white feathers began to fall down throughout the arena. Kurenai was the first to notice the anomaly. "Genjutsu!" She called out before quickly forming a hand seal. " **Release**!" The feathers surrounding her dispersed in the immediate vicinity. The other jōnin immediately followed her example, with the genin soon doing the same. While the shinobi were able to dispel the genjutsu, the civilians in the audience were put to sleep.

"How un-youthful! Breaking an alliance in order to attack, I shall show you the error of your ways!" Gai shouted as he tore through the enemies foolish enough to get close to him. "Come! Allow me to show you the might of Konoha's sublime green beast!

" **Dance of the Crescent Moon**!" The small group of Oto shinobi in front of Yūgao stood no chance as they were quickly cut down. Yūgao jumped back so that she was back to back with Kushina. "Well, I'm glad we had some warning."

Kushina smirked as she shot a golden chain out and used it to fling an enemy into his comrades. "I think I have to agree with you there. Duck!" The two of them crouched low as a blade of wind shot over their heads. "That would have hurt-ttebane!" The Suna Nin stood no chance against the sudden onslaught of chains he was under.

Yūgao smirked while cutting down another attacker. "Nice one."

"Oh my. I hope I'm not late..."

"Gah!" A large group of enemy shinobi were blasted away from a serious looking Kakashi.

"Sorry, but a black cat crossed my path on the way here, so I had to take the long way around...You know how those kinds of things are, I just couldn't risk it."

Kushina glared at him while dodging other enemy. "We will be talking about this later, Kakashi-kun..."

Kakashi shivered as he cut down a lunging Oto Nin. "Of course..."

Yūgao shook her head in slight amusement. "Is Sasuke here too?"

The silver haired jōnin nodded. "I sent him to regroup with the genin in the competitor's booth. He is awaiting further instructors with them." He paused as something caught his eye. "Or he _should_ have been..." He said dangerously.

Yūgao and Kushina followed his gaze and spotted the trio of Suna genin dash out of the stadium with another form following. "That isn't good. Isn't the redhead their jinchuriki?"

Kushina frowned as well. "You're right. We can't leave that alone." She glanced back to the battle raging in the stands. "But we can't leave this area alone. There are too many VIPs that might be targeted..."

The frown on Yūgao's face deepened as she considered her options. After a moment, she had her solution. "We can't go, but some of the genin can."

"What?!"

"Kushina, we don't have a choice. The plan is for us to stick around here, you know that. It was agreed that the genin will stay on standby until one of the jōnin issues orders. They are facing other genin, not jōnin. I'm sure they will be fine."

"Tch..." Although she hated it, Kushina knew that Yūgao was right. And they were up against a jinchuriki, so the smartest option was to counter with one of their own. "Fine. I'll leave debriefing them to you."

Yūgao nodded in agreement before turning to the other jōnin who were still fighting. "Enemy jinchuriki on the move, I'm going to send pursuit!"

Asuma nodded without looking back. "Got it!" He ducked under a kick.

Yūgao nodded before sweeping her eyes over all the available genin. "Genin! On me!" The nearby genin immediately followed the order and grouped around her while still keeping an eye out for attacks. "You are to assist in the evacuation of civilians and VIPs in the stadium! Following this, you are to move into the village to assist in evacuation in other areas! Stick together and do not engage the enemy unless there is no other option. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am!"

Yūgao nodded in satisfaction. "Then get on it! Misa, stick with me." The genin immediately moved to follow their orders with Misa staying behind. "You're to lead a team of genin that will pursue the enemy jinchuriki. You're to lead because you have the most experience leading between all the present genin."

"Understood."

Kakashi nodded to Yūgao. "I'm going to send Pakkun with the genin." He nicked a thumb on a kunai to draw blood before flashing through some hand seals. " **Summoning Jutsu**!" In a puff of smoke, a small brown dog with a Konoha forehead protector appeared.

The dog quickly looked around. "I guess this isn't a time for pleasantries..." He said in a gruff voice.

Shaking his head, Kakashi responded. "You are to help guide a genin team that will be pursuing a Suna genin team. Just follow Sasuke's scent. He is already in pursuit." Pakkun nodded in return.

Yūgao nodded to the others before dashing over to the competitor's booth.

* * *

 **With the Competitors**

Boom!

"The hell was that-ttebasa?!" Menma shouted as the kage booth suddenly exploded.

"I don't know, but it can't be good!" Narumi responded. "Look, we're under attack!" She pointed towards the battles suddenly breaking out around the stadium.

Shikamaru adopted a serious expression and swept his eyes across the arena. "It looks like Suna has betrayed us and teamed up with Oto to attack us." He observed. Suddenly, his eyes widened before he spun around with a kunai in hand. "And that means..." The eyes of the others widened in realization before imitating him. The sight that was in front of them made their blood run cold.

Gaara stood on the other side of the room with a crazed smile on his face as sand slowly poured out of the gourd on his back. "It's time to provide mother with blood. I wonder how much I can make you bleed before you die..." He said darkly. Temari and Kankurō stood on either side of him with nervous expressions.

"You're the only one that's going to be bleeding." A voice said. A figure jumped in between them and slid into a battle stance across from the Suna team. Surprised looks swept through the Konoha genin as they saw it was Sasuke.

He was wearing a different outfit that consisted of a black one piece version of his usual outfit and multiple small belts on his left arm. There were also similar bands around both of his legs. His left arm was also encased in bandages.

Menma smirked at him. "About time you showed up, Sasuke. Were you just waiting to make a grand entrance?"

Sasuke smirked but didn't take his eyes off of the enemy. "Something like that. Although it was ruined by these idiots deciding it would be a good idea to attack us."

Kankurō glared at him. "I've been wanting to get a chance to show you your place, Uchiha. Now is as good a time as any." He started to reach for the item on his back."

"Kankurō, we have to stick to the plan!" Temari reprimanded him before sending a nervous look to Gaara. "Gaara, we have to go."

"You aren't going anywhere!" Sasuke rushed at them with a kunai in hand, intent on getting the fit hit in. Clang!

Surprising the present genin with his appearance, a Suna jōnin easily blocked Sasuke's attack before pushing him back towards the other Konoha genin. The man was wearing the standard Suna jōnin attire, along with a turban like head piece that had a cloth attacked which draped over the left side of his face. There were also two red markings on the right side of his face.

"Baki-sensei!" Temari said in surprise.

Without turning back to them, Baki addressed the Suna team. "Go! You know the plan! Stick to it!" Kankurō and Temari nodded but sent another look to the now frowning Gaara. "Gaara, think of the prey you will be able to kill by sticking to the plan. Do you think that the low amount here is enough?"

Gaara's frown deepened before he slowly nodded and recalled his sand. "Very well..." He glanced to the others. "Let's go." The three of them quickly sped away.

"No you don't!" Sasuke snarled and moved to follow.

"You won't get in the way, brat!" Baki lunged at Sasuke. Wham! "Argh!"

"Sorry, but as you are an enemy of Konoha, it is my duty to take you out." The collected voice of Genma said as he kicked Baki away and back into the arena. "I'm not about to let you do whatever you want." Genma sped after him.

The remaining Konoha genin traded nervous glances. "What do we do now?" Narumi asked worriedly.

"You follow my orders." The group spun around to see a serious looking Yūgao and Misa standing by the railing. She quickly looked around before frowning harder. "Naruto isn't here? And where's Shino?"

Narumi and Menma's eyes widened in realization before quickly glancing to each other and around the room. "No, Nii-chan hasn't come back yet. And we didn't even realize Shino was gone." Narumi responded.

"Damn. I wanted them to help with this..." Yūgao shook her head before looking at the present genin. "No matter. I have a mission for you. Misa, Menma, Narumi, and Shikamaru. You are to catch up to Sasuke and pursue the Suna genin team to take them out of the fight. Misa is the leader of this team. This is an A-rank mission. Be warned that you are up against another jinchuriki, so it would be best to finish the fight before he can become a bigger threat. Pakkun here will show the way as needed."

"Right."

"You got it!"

"Understood."

"...Troublesome..."

Yūgao nodded. "Then get going!" They immediately sprinted out of the arena to follow their orders. Yūgao then turned to Yakumo. "Your skill set isn't as effective on a jinchuriki, so you are to group up with the other Konoha genin and help with the evacuation of civilians. After that, move on to help with the evacuation in the village."

"Understood, sensei!" Yakumo said before rushing away.

Once she was gone, Yūgao turned to a serious looking Omoi and Samui. "What will you do? I don't think Kumo had anything to do with this, so you are technically neutral still."

Samui frowned. "We are going to group up with our teammate in the infirmary and await further orders. This attack isn't cool, but it isn't our place to jump in to help without being ordered to."

Yūgao nodded in understanding. "I understand. Be careful." She then turned and rushed off to rejoin the fight.

* * *

 **Stadium Hallways**

Boom!

Naruto stumbled a bit as the building shook. He had just finished putting all of the instruments away and was now heading back to the others. "The hell?" His eyes soon widened in realization. "The invasion!" Not wasting another moment, he dashed off.

The sight he was greeted with was one he was expecting, but still didn't want to see. Battles were raging throughout the stands as the invading shinobi attacked the Konoha forces. "Damn. There's more than I thought there would be..." He quickly looked around as he planned on where he should go. Eventually, he noticed that white feathers were falling from the sky. Knowing what it was, Naruto immediately formed the necessary hand seal. " **Release**!" The pulse of chakra pushed back the feathers around him. Seeing that he would be falling for the genjutsu, Naruto looked round again.

"Damn. Where do I go? I'm pretty sure standard procedure says I have to go to a jōnin to get my orders..." He paused his search when something caught his eye. The Suna genin were rushing out of the stadium and into the direction of the center of the village, Sasuke not far behind. "Well, I guess this is the chance I've been waiting for..." Naruto dashed after them.

* * *

 **Nearby Rooftop**

Boom!

A yellow flash appeared in the center of a rooftop as the kage booth exploded. From the flash appeared a grim Minato, a scowling Raidō, and a serious looking Darui. Darui nodded to the Hokage. "Thanks for the save, Hokage-sama." He said.

Minato nodded back as A and B landed nearby. "It was nothing."

A scowled at Minato. "Can I assume that explosion wasn't your idea, Minato?" He asked darkly.

Minato shook his head. "No, it wasn't. I do believe that it was the snake's idea along with Rasa's..." Another figure landed across from them. "Isn't that right, Orochimaru?"

Orochimaru smirked and got rid of the Kazekage outfit he had on. "Indeed. Although I'm not surprised that you managed to move fast enough to avoid the blast..."

"Hokage-sama!" Several ANBU jumped onto the roof, surrounding Orochimaru and getting between him and the others.

"Do not engage!" This order from Minato made them hesitate. "Your orders are to aid in the defense of the village! Leave this to me!"

Although it was obvious they were reluctant to just leave, the ANBU glanced at one another before **Body Flickering** away. _'I will handle this. The help would be appreciated, but repelling the enemy forces come first…'_ Minato's frown deepened. "It was foolish of you to come here. You will meet your end here and now." He took off his Hokage outfit to reveal his usual blue shinobi attire. Minato glanced to A. "I'm sorry about this."

A scoffed while he glared at Orochimaru. "While I think that you need better security, I won't hold this against you. Although don't expect us to just jump in to help."

Minato nodded before he shifted his gaze to the multiple battles raging in the arena and then to the various clouds of smoke rising throughout the village. Minato's expression turned glacial. "You will pay for this." He said quietly.

Orochimaru looked amused at the threat. "You sound extremely confident of that, Minato. How are you so sure?"

"I'm sure of it because I'm going to be the one to kill you." Minato took out one of his iconic kunai and slid into a battle stance. "You will die here and now."

The snake sannin chuckled. "I wouldn't be too sure..."

Minato glared at him. "You really think you are strong enough to take me out?"

Irritation briefly flashed across Orochimaru's face, but it was quickly covered by another smirk. "Perhaps you are correct. I may not be able to kill you in a one on one battle." The smirk grew, sending alarms blaring in Minato's head. "But who said this was a one on one battle?" He immediately started to flash through hand seals.

' _I have to stop him!'_ Minato rushed forward at the same moment he threw his kunai, intent on stopping whatever jutsu Orochimaru was attempting.

' _Too late!'_ Orochimaru slammed his hands down. " **Summoning: Impure World Reincarnation**!" Minato was forced to jump back as four coffins suddenly emerged from the roof they were standing on. His kunai embedded into one of the coffins.

' _Damn! I wasn't fast enough...And those coffins...'_ He eyed the three on the left, recognizing them. _'This isn't good...If he's about to do what I think he is, then this just got a lot tougher...'_ His gaze slid to the fourth coffin. _'But I don't recognize that one...'_

"Bro...That's..." Apparently B did. Minato glanced over to the Kumo natives and was surprised at what he saw. Darui was scowling and B was sporting a heavy frown as he glanced at A. The Raikage on the other hand seemed to be able to barely restraining himself from rushing in and ripping Orochimaru's head from his shoulders.

"You...How _dare_ you..."

The smirk on Orochimaru's face just kept growing. He opened his mouth to speak, but paused as something happened to the third coffin. It suddenly crumbled away into dust and ashes. "That's a pity...I was looking forward to making the old monkey do my bidding...no matter." He snapped his fingers, and the covers slid off, revealing the contents.

The first coffin held a tall man with tan skin and long black hair. He had on dark red armor that was worn over a simple black suit with sandals. The armor was made up of numerous metal plates, forming multiple protective guards along his body. He had on a Konoha forehead protector. He had multiple cracks and fractures across his skin.

The second coffin also held a man, this time with shaggy white hair. He was wearing blue armor and had cracks in his skin as well. On his face were three red markings, one under either eye with another on his chin. He had on blue armor with a white fur collar over a black suit. Like the other man's, his was also constructed of numerous black plates. His Konoha forehead protector was styled into a happuri.

The last coffin held a tall man with a muscular build. He had a head full of long white hair and a long beard. He also had pronounced cheekbones with tear troughs under his eyes, and a prominent crease across his forehead. On his right shoulder was the kanji for "lightning." He had on a Kumo flak jacket, dark blue pants, and a rope around his waist. He wore a black Kumo forehead protector in a bandana style. Like the other two men, this one had cracks across his body.

"As much as I hate to admit it, I am unable to say for certain that I would be able to defeat you." Orochimaru said as he gestured to the men. "So I thought I should bring a little help…I even brought along an extra so our dear Raikage will have something to do…"

Lightning was beginning to spark around A's body as he stared at the third man. "You would…dare defile my father's grave? You must be dumber than your reputation says if you think I will let you live for this!" He roared.

"Kukuku…Do you not appreciate the chance of a reunion?"

A was quickly reaching the limit of his patience. He looked over to Minato. "Change of plans, Minato. Kumo will aid you. We will stand by you and help repel the invaders." He turned his head towards B and Darui. "Your orders are to regroup with our genin and then assist Konoha! Leave this to us!"

B nodded. "You got it, Bro. Make the snake regret it though."

"Although this isn't dull, I wish it didn't come to this…" The two of them quickly sped off.

Minato looked over to Raidō. "Go help the others." Raidō hesitated for a moment before reluctantly nodding and rushing off.

Orochimaru waited for them to leave before speaking. "Now that the trash is out of the way…" He formed a hand seal. "We should continue." The eyes of the three men fluttered open, showing that they had black sclerae, before the three of them stepped out of the coffins. Once they were out, the coffins faded back into the ground.

The first man groaned and rolled his shoulders. "Wow, I feel stiff! What, was I lying in a box or something?" This made Minato sweat drop.

The second man stayed silent as he took in his surroundings before his eyes landed on Minato and paused. He then looked out towards the state the village was in and narrowed. Quickly concluding what was going on, he looked behind him. "I assume this is your doing?"

Orochimaru nodded in return with a chuckle. "Guilty as charged."

"What is this? How am I here?" The third man asked.

The second man glanced at him. "We have been revived to do this man's bidding. I can only assume that we are to fight those two…" That was when the other two men noticed Minato and A for the first time.

The third man blinked. "…A…Is that you?"

A nodded. "I never thought I would be forced to fight you, father…" He looked at the other two men. "The first and second Hokage along with the third Raikage. And a sannin to top it off. I'd say we have our work cut out for us, Minato."

Minato nodded in agreement. "It seems so…Although it is an honor to meet you, I must say I wish it was under better circumstances, Hashirama-sama, Tobirama-sama…"

Hashirama blinked. "Who the heck are you?" He asked bluntly, making Minato sweat drop again.

"My name is Minato Namikaze, the fourth Hokage." Hashirama instantly brightened.

"Are you now? That must mean the village is doing well! That's great news!"

Tobirama scowled at his brother. "I wouldn't say that given the fact that we are in the middle of an attack. Not only that, we are on the opposite side."

Hashirama waved him off. "Meh, you worry too much! I know Hiruzen would have chosen a good successor. I'm sure this guy will be able to fight us off."

"Tch. That's naïve." Tobirama turned back to Orochimaru. "So you are using my technique to do this?" He asked.

The smirk on Orochimaru's face grew. "As a basis, yes. But I've managed to improve it since you created it…"

The frown on Tobirama's face deepened. "How so?"

"By adding one of my areas of research into it…" He raised his arms. "Here, allow me to show you what I mean…" A purplish-black aura began to come off of his body. They all stared, transfixed at the strange sight. Suddenly, the aura pulsed before shooting into each of the three revived kage.

All three of them grunted upon contact, before they hunched over and their bodies began to convulse.

"What the hell are you doing to them?!" A roared.

"Kukuku…I'm simply adding the finishing touches…"

Minato scowled at the sight, but didn't dare charge in. Something about that strange aura set him on edge. _'That stuff looks like the things that the kids described after the second exam…The thing that those creatures were made up of…'_

"…Gah…Listen…I can feel my mind fading…You have to defeat us! Do…Whatever you must to protect the village!" Tobirama grunted out.

Even though his world was turning black, Hashirama still forced a smile onto his face. "I know you…can do it. I don't feel like I'm at my peak, so that's…a plus…"

"Do what you must, A. I…know you can handle this." The third Raikage said.

Minato nodded at them as A responded. "Don't worry about it, we'll handle this."

"Yes, I'll protect the village until my dying breath." Minato added.

"And now…it's complete!" The auras around their bodies flared, before dying down. It was still present, but now it was only a small coating around their bodies. "Kukuku. This is undoubtedly a success."

A growled. "I hope you're ready to die, snake."

"You don't really think you're going to win, do you?" Minato gestured towards the battle raging in the stadium. "While you have the three revived kage and the forces you managed to sneak in, you are still extremely outnumbered. It's only a matter of time before this entire thing ends."

Orochimaru frowned. "Yes…I'm aware of that. I'm also aware of the…higher quality shinobi you have under your command…" The smirk came back. "But I have one last resource to call upon." He raised his arms again. "I would like to introduce you to one of my recent findings." Pools of the purplish-black substance formed around the roof and creatures soon emerged.

"The heartless."

"The hell are those things?" A asked gruffly.

Minato's eyes narrowed at them. _'Those are definitely the things that were described…'_

"Kukuku… _These_ are the soldiers that will aid in your death and the destruction of the village!" He swept an arm out. "Go! Feast upon the hearts of my enemies!" The creatures submerged back into the ground.

"Like hell!" Minato wanted to go off and help his people fight off the threat, but knew he was needed here. He slid back into a battle stance. "I'll end you here and now, Orochimaru!"

A quickly got into his own battle stance as lightning danced around his body. "I'm through with all the talking! You're going to regret making me your enemy!"

Orochimaru prepared himself for battle. "Today marks the day that Konoha falls!"

* * *

 **In the Stadium**

"Yosh! That makes twenty four, my rival!" Gai shouted as he crushed the rib cage of another shinobi.

Kakashi sighed as he ducked under a lunge before returning with a strong kick to the spine, creating a sickening crack. "I don't see the point of having this contest, Gai…But I'm at twenty five." He added.

"Gah! It isn't over yet!" Gai crouched and scanned the immediate area for another target, but paused when he saw something strange. "What are these strange animals?" He asked.

Quirking an eyebrow, Kakashi glanced in the direction that Gai was looking in and tensed. "I don't think those are animals, Gai…" Numerous heartless were sprouting out of the surfaces around them. "I don't know what they are, but I'm not sure they're friendly…" A heartless jumped at him, forcing him to bend back to prevent his face from being clawed. "Nope, not friendly!"

"The heck are these things?!" Asuma shouted as he cut down a soldier heartless that had attacked him. "Some kind of summon animal?"

"These are…" Yūgao narrowed her eyes at them. "Aren't these the things that some of the genin described from the forest?"

Kushina cut a heartless down and watched as it dissolved into some strange substance. "I'm pretty sure they are. They even die in the way they described…"

Kakashi hummed thoughtfully as he ducked under a blade of wind sent at him. "Then that would mean that they are under the control of Orochimaru…" He paused for a moment as he killed a heartless. "…That makes twenty six, Gai."

"Yosh! I will not lose!" The other jōnin sighed at their behavior.

"Yo! You can't have a contest! At least not without the best!" Boom! A small explosion of lightning grabbed the attention of the jōnin. Standing in the middle of a collapsed group of Oto shinobi was Killer B. "I may be late, but Killer B is worth the wait!" He rushed at another shinobi.

"Well, it seems like Kumo has decided to aid Konoha. That's a plus in my book." Asuma commented.

* * *

 **In Another Part of the Stadium**

"Oh man, not these things again!" Ikusa ducked under a heartless that jumped at him. "I was hoping to never see these things ever again!"

"Just shut up and keep them away from the civilians! We're almost done with the evacuation!" Wataru shouted.

"What the heck are these things?! Some weird animals the enemy is using?" Kiba asked.

Yakumo rolled her eyes. "Do they really look like some kind of animal to you? These are the things that Orochimaru has under his control…" She frowned at the heartless. Yakumo wasn't sure that genjutsu would work against them, and she wasn't willing to risk finding out while in a hostile environment.

"They keep coming! How many of them are there?" Tenten cut down another one before whirling around and launching a kunai at one that was sneaking towards the civilians. "There doesn't seem to be an end!"

A roar preceded the death of multiple heartless as an ink lion attacked. "Given the sheer number of them around the stadium, I would say that there are many more of them compared to our encounter in the forest of death…" Sai commented.

"Enough chatter! Keep killing the things!" Wataru yelled.

* * *

 **With Naruto**

Naruto paused on a rooftop as he detected something. He frowned heavily as he looked around. "This feeling…" Suddenly, a pool of darkness opened under his feet, forcing him to jump away. Naruto scowled at what he saw. "I was right…Orochimaru has summoned the heartless to help in the invasion…" He grit his teeth. "This isn't good…This is a lot more than back in the forest…" Looking around, Naruto saw that he was surrounded by a ring of heartless.

Sighing in frustration, Naruto summoned his keyblade and slid into a battle stance. "I don't have time for this…" He rushed forwards towards the nearest heartless. "You guys are in my way!"

* * *

 **With the Pursuit Team**

"Contact! Unknown creatures, 11 o'clock!" The four genin were in pursuit of Sasuke and Gaara, with Pakkun leading. They had been able to avoid any enemy contact up until then, but it seemed that their luck had run out. "Dispatch and then resume the mission!" Misa shouted.

"These things again? What a pain…" Menma avoided a swipe from a soldier before retaliating with a thrust of his kunai.

Shikamaru dodged out of the way of an attack and watched the heartless with sharp eyes. "What are these things?" He asked.

"These are the things that Orochimaru has under his command. I have no clue what they are, but I'm pretty sure they aren't some kind of summon animal…" Narumi answered.

Shikamaru watched as a killed heartless dissolved into some strange aura. "And what are they made out of?" He asked.

"It doesn't matter! Just help get rid of them so we can keep moving!" Pakkun shouted.

Shikamaru sighed. "Troublesome…Combat isn't my thing…I'll help trap them."

* * *

 **With Sasuke**

Sasuke scowled as he cut down another heartless. "Tch. These things are annoying…"

"Uchiha!" He turned towards the voice and was only slightly surprised to see Naruto land next to him. Sasuke smirked.

"You come to get a piece of the action?"

Naruto frowned at him. "I wouldn't put it like that, but I've come to help, yeah…"

Sasuke shrugged in return. "I doubt I will need the help. I'm confident I can handle anything thrown at me."

"So you think you can handle taking on three enemy shinobi on your own? Along with these weird creatures that keep popping up? And any other enemy shinobi that pop up along the way?" Naruto's eyebrow kept climbing as he talked.

The smirk on Sasuke's face slowly fell into a scowl. "I can handle it."

Naruto shook his head. "Whatever. I'm still coming along."

"Hn. Just don't get in my way." This made Naruto roll his eyes as the two moved to continue their pursuit.

* * *

 **With the Pursuit Team**

Pakkun halted on a rooftop as he picked up a scent. The four genin were forced to stop and wait for him to identify who it was.

Menma frowned. "What's the hold up? Shouldn't we continue with catching up to Sasuke?"

The dog summon smirked as he finished identifying the scent. "Yeah, but it isn't just Sasuke. I'm picking up your brother's scent as well. It looks like he caught up to Sasuke and the two of them are now following."

Misa smirked. "That's great. Another ally never hurts. How far behind are we?"

"Based on the scent, we can catch up in the next few minutes. And the Suna trio are a little ahead of that."

The older genin nodded. "Good, that means we can catch up to the Suna genin a little bit before they reach the center of the village. Let's keep moving!"

* * *

 **With Naruto and Sasuke**

Naruto and Sasuke were still chasing after the Suna team. The only reason they still hadn't caught up was because they were attacked by the heartless every few minutes. The Uchiha growled as he killed another heartless. "These things just keep coming!"

"Nii-chan, Sasuke!" The two of them looked over and saw Narumi, Menma, Misa, Shikamaru, and some dog land nearby.

Menma grinned. "We finally caught up."

Naruto quirked an eyebrow at them. "You guys the reinforcements?" He asked. Misa nodded in return.

"Yeah, we are. Orders from Yūgao-sensei say that we are to catch up to the Suna trio and then take them out of the fight. Gaara is the biggest threat though." Naruto nodded.

"That goes nicely with what we had planned." He spun around and cut down the last heartless. "Shall we keep moving?"

Pakkun nodded. "We should be able to catch up in a couple minutes. They have been slowing down for some reason."

Naruto frowned when he heard this. "Why would they be doing that?"

"No clue. But we'll find out when we catch up. Let's get a move on, people!"

* * *

 **With the Sand Trio**

"Gah!" Gaara gripped his head as pain pulsed through it, forcing him to stop on a rooftop.

Kankurō and Temari could do nothing but watch with thinly disguised fear as Gaara seemed to have some mental struggle. Kankurō cleared his throat before speaking up. "G-Gaara…You alright?" He asked.

"Guh! Shut up!" The two older siblings flinched back at the command.

Kankurō leaned closer to Temari. "What do we do? He's gonna lose it any second now. We aren't in the specified location yet…" Temari could only shake her head to show she wasn't sure.

"M…Mother grows tired of waiting…Blood…She wants blood, now!" Gaara shouted.

Temari took a hesitant step closer to him. "Y-You can get all the…blood you want if you keep moving, Gaara. Just stick to the plan, there will be plenty of people for…you to kill."

"No! No more waiting! I will give mother blood now!" Sand was starting to seep out of the gourd on his back.

"Hey, insane guy with the blood fetish! You aren't going anywhere!" Kankurō and Temari whirled around as a group of Konoha genin landed in front of them.

Kankurō scowled as he reached for the object on his back. "This isn't good…" He looked at Temari and Gaara. "You two keep moving! I'll hold them off as long as I can!"

Temari glanced at him. "You really think you can hold off this many of them? On your own?"

"I don't have a choice, do I? Just get going!"

"You won't be going anywhere!" Misa stepped forward. "I'm giving you three one chance to surrender and give yourselves in. Refuse and you will be beaten into submission."

Temari opened her mouth, but was interrupted. "Uzumaki…Namikaze…I will give mother your blood…" She turned her nervous eyes to Gaara.

Menma quirked an eyebrow and glanced to his siblings. "Is he talking to me?" He pointed to Narumi. "Or to you?" His finger turned to Naruto. "Or to you?"

"Mother…Mother has been wanting your blood…Ever since our first encounter…And watching you fight has made her want it more…I shall give her your blood!" Sand gushed out of the gourd and shot at the group.

"Scatter!" The group separated to avoid the attack.

"You will not get away!" The sand changed directions and chased after Naruto.

' _Of course he is fixated on me…But I can use this…'_

"Gaara, we don't have time for this!"

"Shut up! I will kill him!"

Naruto smirked at Gaara. "You think so, huh?" He turned away. "Then you better get moving! I won't just sit still!" He shot off towards the nearby training ground. _'The edge of the village is too far. The best I can do is take him to a nearby training ground where it should be deserted.'_

"You will not get away!" Gaara rushed after him.

"Gaara! Damn!" Kankurō and Temari moved to follow after him, but were cut off by the rest of the Konoha genin.

"Not so fast. You still have us to get by." Misa said before glancing to the others. "Narumi, Menma, and Sasuke. You guys follow Naruto and back him up. Take Pakkun with you." She got into a battle stance. "Shikamaru and I got this." They nodded and rushed off.

"Dammit…" Kankurō grabbed the object on his back and quickly took off the bindings, revealing a puppet. It was a humanoid puppet with three eyes, four arms, jagged teeth, and spiky brown hair. It had on a tattered grey cloak. "The plan has gone to shit…"

"It was shit from the start." Misa slid into a battle stance before looking over to Shikamaru. "You ready for this, lazy ass?"

Shikamaru sighed. "Troublesome. This entire thing sucks…"

"Ha, it does, yeah." Misa prepared herself as she eyed Kankurō. "I wanna be the one to punch in makeup boy's face." Kankurō growled at the remark.

"If it is alright with you, Misa-san, I would like to be the one who fights him…" The four of them turned to the newcomer.

Misa quirked an eyebrow. "You do?"

Shino nodded. "Yes. As I was the one who was scheduled to fight him, I was disappointed that we were interrupted before it happened. I would like to use this chance to do so."

The older genin eyed him for a moment before standing up from her battle stance with a shrug. "Whatever, it doesn't matter in the end to me. But do be sure to give him a hit from me."

Shino nodded again. "Very well, you have my thanks."

Misa nodded and saluted the two Konoha genin. "Well, boys, I'm off to join the fight with the crazy jinchuriki. Have fun!" She spun around and dashed after the other group.

* * *

 **With the Others**

"You can run, but you will die like the prey you are!" Naruto ducked as another bullet of sand shot over his head.

' _This guy is completely nuts! I think he's becoming less stable by the minute!'_ Naruto chanced a glance behind him and was met with the crazed eyes of Gaara. _'And why is he so fixated on me?'_ Looking back at where he was going, Naruto noted his location. _'Almost there…'_ He could see the edge of the training grounds just ahead of him. _'Made it!'_ The moment he entered the wooded training ground, Naruto ducked behind a tree and out of sight.

Seeing that he lost sight of his prey, Gaara came to a stop in a clearing with a river running through it surrounded by trees. He growled as he looked around. "Hide all you want, it will only prolong the inevitable!"

' _Yeah, well, I think we will have to disagree there…'_ Naruto peaked around the tree he was hiding behind. _'Now then, how am I going to do this?'_

The choice was taken from him as multiple kunai and shuriken suddenly shot out of the foliage and straight at Gaara. The suna genin raised a hand to beckon a wall of sand to block it. While Gaara was blocking the sand, Sasuke appeared above him with his hands going through hand seals. " **Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Fire**!" Numerous fireballs shot at Gaara.

Seeing the attack coming and knowing that there were too many for him to effectively block, Gaara leapt out of the way and onto a nearby branch. " **Wind Style: Great Breakthrough**!" He was forced to jump back into the air to dodge the blast of wind that came rushing at him. He turned his back to Naruto as he did so.

' _Now!'_ Naruto jumped out from behind his cover and thrust his hand forward. " **Fira**!" Gaara turned his head around with wide eyes as the large fireball shot at him. Boom!

The explosion from the fireball impacted Gaara and pushed him into a nearby tree. The Konoha genin grouped together on a nearby branch as they waited to see the result. "Did we get him?" Menma asked.

Naruto shook his head and tried to see through the smoke. "Doubt it. That would be too easy."

"Die!" A large sand claw shot out of the smoke and at the group.

"Told you!" The four of them jumped out of the way as the claw destroyed the branch they were on. The claw soon retracted as the smoke started to clear. What they saw wasn't what they were expecting to see. Gaara was standing there, but he seemed to be deformed somehow.

Sand was covering part of his body one of his eyes turned black with a yellow pupil. Gaara's entire left arm was covered in it, forming the claw that had just attacked them and he even had a tail. He had a crazed look on his face as he snarled at them. Spotting something about the part of him that wasn't covered in sand, Naruto frowned.

"I think he has sand armor on." When he got confused looks in return, he pointed. "Look, you can see cracks in his skin with sand falling off of him. I think he has a layer of sand on him."

Getting a better look with his Sharingan, Sasuke nodded his head. "Yeah, I can see the layer of sand from here. His entire body is covered in it."

"I'll kill you! I'll kill you all!"

Naruto glanced at the others. "Any ideas?"

"How about me killing you?!"

"Move!" They scattered as Gaara rushed at him. "Don't get in close! Remember what he did to the guy caught in his sand back in the preliminaries!" Heeding his warning, they stuck to ranged attacks. The next few minutes were spent with them raining down attacks on Gaara with him either batting the attacks away or avoiding them entirely.

"It won't work!" Gaara simply batted away the hail of attacks before lunging at them.

' _He's right…These aren't strong enough…'_ Naruto glanced at the others before an idea came to him. "Narumi! Uchiha! We need more firepower!" They looked at each other and instantly caught on to what he wanted. Seeing that they understood, Naruto rushed at Gaara and jumped over him to avoid the swipe he made. "You're too slow-ttebayo!"

Gaara growled at him and turned towards him. " **Thunder**!" A bolt of lightning shot down from the sky and struck Gaara, but it didn't do any visible damage.

"Is that it? Is this the extent of your power? Mother is disappointed…"

Naruto smirked at him. "Well, maybe a small bolt of lightning can't do it, but I bet an inferno can."

" **Wind Style: Great Breakthrough**!"

" **Fire Style: Great Fireball**!"

Knowing that he couldn't move out of the way of the giant inferno speeding towards him, Gaara quickly summoned a cocoon of sand for protection. Boom! Gaara and his cocoon was sent flying.

' _That isn't going to be enough!'_ Naruto looked over to Menma. "Menma! I need some water!"

Menma smirked. "You got it!" He quickly flashed through some hand seals. " **Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet**!" A large amount of water rose out of the river and formed a dragon. Once he got the shape right, Menma launched the dragon at the spot where Gaara was.

Nodding his head, Naruto thrust his hand forward. " **Thundara**!" A larger bolt of lightning struck the water dragon, charging it with electricity. The thunder dragon rushed at Gaara. Boom!

The Konoha genin regrouped as they waited for the smoke to clear. "Did _that_ get him?" Menma asked. Nobody responded.

' _He's tough, sure, but he can't handle all of us at once. We will just keep on nailing him with heavy hitting attacks until he goes down…'_ Naruto thought to himself.

"Gah! It hurts! It hurts!"

"I guess it did…"

The smoke slowly cleared to show Gaara standing in a crater, but he wasn't paying any attention to him. He was focused entirely on the blood that was coating his palm. He was bleeding from his head with some blood dripping down his face. "It's my blood! You hurt me! I'll end you!" The sand around him was rising and spiraling around his body.

Naruto frowned as he felt something shift in Gaara. He quickly identified what it was and his eyes widened in alarm. _'Oh shi-'_

Boom! An explosion of darkness expelled from Gaara, making them brace themselves or else be pushed back from the force. "I'll kill you! I'll kill you! I'll. Kill. You!" A sphere of darkness formed around Gaara, shielding his entire body from view.

' _He's snapped! The darkness is going out of control!'_

"What the hell happened?!" They turned to see Misa landing on a branch next to them. She was giving the rampaging darkness an apprehensive look.

"The kid's gone off the deep end! I don't know what this stuff is, but it's clear that he isn't in control of it!" Pakkun yelled back over the wind.

They watched as the sphere of darkness slowly grew in size. As it grew, heartless started to appear in the surrounding area. The sphere kept on growing in size, destroying everything it made contact with. Entire trees were destroyed and swallowed up by the darkness as time went on. The sphere soon towered over the trees and they were forced to move away to keep their distance.

"What do we do?!" Narumi yelled.

"No idea!" Menma yelled back.

Feeling a sudden spike in the darkness, Naruto yelled to the others. "Get down!" Not questioning it, they dove to the ground. BOOM! The darkness exploded out, uprooting trees with the shockwave.

"What the hell?!"

 **Play Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD ReMix – Shrouding Dark Cloud**

"GRAH!" Standing in the center of where the sphere used to be was a giant purplish-black tanuki. It had a jagged, concave mouth with no tongue, and eyes that were entirely yellow. On its forehead was what Naruto recognized to be the heartless emblem.

"Is…Is that the one tailed bijū?" Narumi asked weakly. "Did he release it?"

"I don't know…Something about it feels…off…" Menma responded.

"It looks like those things we've been fighting…" Sasuke commented.

Naruto looked around and scowled. "Speaking of which, it looks like their attracted to this thing…" The others looked around and tensed when they saw the entire area was now crawling with heartless.

"Tch…This entire situation just went from bad to worse…" Misa said. "How are we supposed to fight that thing?" Menma and Narumi glanced at each other. After a moment they nodded and jumped away from the others. "What are you two doing?!"

"Best way to fight something that big is with something just as big-ttebane!" Narumi shouted. Before any further questions could be asked, they were both shrouded in a surge of red chakra.

Naruto instantly recognized the chakra, having seen it before. _'That's the Kyūbi's chakra! They can bring it out at will now?'_

The two younger siblings both bit their thumbs before flashing through hand seals and slamming their hands on the ground. " **Summoning Jutsu!** " Poof! Narumi and Menma were shrouded in two giant plumes of smoke that rivaled the one tailed heartless in size.

" **What have you called me for, brat? It better not be something stupid…** " A loud voice boomed from the smoke.

" **Don't be like that, Gamabunta-san. I'm sure that we were summoned for a good reason…** " A more timid sounding voice responded.

Misa swallowed nervously. "Holy crap…" Sasuke nodded numbly in agreement. As the smoke cleared, they were able to get a look at what Narumi and Menma summoned.

Narumi had summoned a giant, rusty red toad with a scar over his left eye that had on a blue happi vest. On his hip was a massive dosu blade. The toad was loftily holding a pipe as he took in his surroundings.

Menma was standing on a giant white slug that had three blue streaks that ran down the middle and side of her body.

The toad's eyes landed on Shikaku and he paused. He frowned in confusion. " **What the hell am I looking at? Some bastardized version of Shukaku?** " He asked. His eyes flickered up to Narumi. " **Brat, what have you pulled me into?** "

Narumi rubbed the back of her head sheepishly before she pointed at the one tail. "Hey, Gamabunta-san…I was kind of hoping that you would help me fight this guy…"

" **And why the hell would I do that?** "

This question made Narumi gape for a moment before she started gesturing wildly. "Why wouldn't you?! Please! I would really appreciate it-ttebane!"

Gamabunta shook his head, making Narumi stumble. " **I'm not hearing any reason why I should.** "

" **Gamabunta-san, why aren't you willing to help? It is obvious they could use a hand…** " The slug said, causing Gamabunta to wave her off.

" **You can do whatever you want, Katsuyu. But I don't see a reason to fight something that obviously has some kind of relationship to Shukaku.** "

" **Are you forgetting that Minato-san, Jiraiya-san, and Tsunade-sama requested us to assist however we can if we were called during the invasion?** " Gamabunta froze. " **I'm sure that this is what they were talking about…at least to some extent.** "

Gamabunta scowled. " **I still don't see why I-** " Boom! Without any warning, the one tail shot at Gamabunta, forcing the giant toad to jump back to avoid the strike. The giant claw of sand caused tremors in the ground as it missed and impacted the surrounding area. Gamabunta slowly looked down to his coat and saw that it was partially torn. " **…Alright, you'll pay for that. You have yourself an ally, brat. I hope you can hang on!** " Gamabunta slowly drew his sword as he prepared himself for battle. Narumi sighed in relief.

The one tail growled at him and crouched low in preparation for attack. Just as it was about to pounce, a shout was heard. " **Please don't forget about me!** " The bijū had to jump out of the way to avoid the acid spray that Katsuyu shot at it.

The bijū growled at the two of them as it decided on its next move. An explosion heard in the distance drew its attention back to the village briefly. After a moment, it was shrouded in a cloud of darkness. " **What the hell?!** " Gamabunta shouted.

Naruto frowned. _'What the hell is it doing?'_

The cloud of darkness split into three parts, each as big as the original. When it cleared, they were shocked to see that there were now two additional bijū present. There was the original purplish-black one, but it had created two pitch black clones.

"It can clone itself?" Misa asked.

" **Well, I guess this means it's going to be a one on one fight, eh?** " Gamabunta crouched. " **Well then, let's do it!** " He lunged at the nearest clone.

Menma looked down at Katsuyu. "You think you can handle one of the other ones?"

Katsuyu nodded. " **I believe so…but what about the last?** " She got a smirk in return.

"Leave it to the others, I'm sure they can figure something out. And please try to keep the fight away from the rest of the village, if you can. We're in one of the bigger training grounds, but it will still be hard to keep something like this contained."

" **Right…** " The closer clone lunged at them. " **Please hold on!** "

"Grah…" Seeing that the two summoning animals were busy with its clones, the bijū turned back towards where it detected a large amount of hearts gathered.

Naruto's eyes widened in alarm. "It's heading for the village! We can't let it get close!"

Sasuke scowled at him. "And how do you propose we do that?"

Misa growled. "We aren't just giving up! We're going to hit it with everything we've got!" She quickly took out a kunai that had an explosive tag attached and threw it at the one tail. Boom! Seeing that the bijū didn't even seem to halt its movement for a moment made her dread grow. "I hope 'everything' is enough…"

"I'll make it enough!" Sasuke rushed at towards the nearest tree and ran up it. Once he was at the top, he flashed through some hand seals. " **Fire Style: Great Fireball**!" He launched a massive fireball at the bijū.

Detecting the oncoming attack, the one tail turned and raised a hand to block it. "Grah!" It retaliated by making a swipe at the tree that Sasuke was in.

Eyes widening in alarm, Sasuke leapt out of the tree. Once he was back on the ground, he turned his head towards the others with a smirk. "See? It wouldn't have blocked that if it wouldn't have done any damage. We just need to keep hitting it with big attacks."

"Well, that's a better plan than nothing…" Naruto summoned his keyblade. "I guess that's all we can do!" He leapt in the air. " **Fira**! **Thundara**!" Although the fireball was blocked, the second spell made contact. The bijū roared in agitation and turned its attention to Naruto. "Come on! Over here!"

Using the distraction, Misa sped around until she was behind the bijū. "You seem to think that one was nothing…How do you deal with a bunch?" She took out multiple explosive kunai and launched them at the bijū.

"GRAH!"

"Oh shit!" Misa dove out of the tree she was in as it was crushed.

"Hey jackass, I'm still here!" As soon as the bijū had looked away, Naruto had jumped onto its back and ran up towards its head. "I wonder if you can get headaches? **Shadowbreaker**!" Naruto attacked the head of the bijū once he was close enough. This injured and angered the bijū enough to start shaking its head back and forth violently in an attempt to get rid of him.

"They aren't the only ones here! **Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Fire**!" Naruto immediately jumped off the bijū. Boom!

"Grah!" The bijū stumbled as Sasuke's attack landed. Once it regained its balance, it roared again before raising its arms above its head. An orb of darkness started to form in the gap between its claws.

"What's it doing now?!"

"I don't know, but I don't want it to hit me!"

The one tail thrust the orb forward, and the darkness exploded out into numerous blasts. "Move out of the way!" Boom! The three of them leapt out of the way of the shots, but they had to move again to keep avoiding the blasts.

Naruto jumped into a tree to avoid one of the blasts, but he quickly had to leap out of the way as another homed in on his location. _'How many are there?!'_

"Argh!" Naruto's head snapped around at the cry of pain.

"Uchiha!" Sasuke had been hit as a blast hit him from behind, leaving him open for another. "Shit!" Naruto rushed at Sasuke, and barely managed to get in between him and the oncoming attack. _'No time to grab him and move! This better work!'_

"Naruto! Uchiha!" Naruto ignored Misa quickly brought his keyblade forward to meet the oncoming attack head on.

"Gah!" Naruto was forced back a couple feet as his keyblade collided with the darkness blast, but he didn't relent. "Try your own attack!" Taking careful aim, Naruto swung his keyblade and launched the attack back at the bijū. Boom!

"Grah!" It did the trick and interrupted the bijū from its continuous barrage of darkness blasts.

Naruto sighed in relief before glancing back to Sasuke. "You alright?" Sasuke clutched his shoulder and stiffly nodded. "Good, because this thing is still good to go…" The one tail was quickly recovering from the attack and was gearing up to continue.

Misa landed next to them. "This isn't working quickly enough. We are doing damage, but not enough. We're going to tire out before it's finished." She glanced at the two of them. "Any ideas?" Naruto frowned.

"I _think_ I did more damage to it when I attacked its head. I think that's our best bet."

Sasuke scowled again. "And how are we supposed to get up there? It takes too long to run up the body, and even then it will shake us off right away…"

Naruto's frown deepened as he considered his options. "I have an idea…" He said slowly. He would have liked to hold off on this a little longer, but desperate times call for desperate measures. "I'll summon some help." This declaration made the other two blink.

Misa smirked. "You have signed a summoning contract? That's pretty useful." She crouched low. "Then get to it!" She and Sasuke shot back into battle.

"Right!" Naruto jumped back onto a branch. "Well, I guess it's time for a field test." He reached towards the container he had on his leg and opened it. From it, he withdrew a card. Naruto closed his eyes and concentrated. A twilight aura slowly appeared around him.

* * *

 **Flashback: Station of Awakening (During the Month)**

"Do you understand how it works?"

"Yeah, I think I've got it…" Naruto was staring at the card he held in his hand. "So, they are made from my heart?" He asked.

Yami sighed and rolled her eyes. "These cards are synthesized using your heart as a catalyst. This means that only you can use them. All you need to do is pour some twilight into them and you're good to go."

"Right…And they look like this because…?"

"That's just how it is! Now are you gonna try it out or not?!"

"I got it, I got it…Just give me a second…" Naruto closed his eyes. A twilight aura slowly built over his body. Feeling he was ready, he snapped his eyes back open.

* * *

 **End Flashback**

Naruto opened his eyes and held the card out. " **Summon: Ryu Dragon**!" There was a bright flash, forcing Naruto to close his eyes. When he opened them again, he smiled at the creature in front of him.

Flying in front of him was a quadruped dragon that was as bigger than he was. Its feet were tipped into claws and it had a beak for a mouth. Its tail had flame-like protrusions coming off of it and it had two horns on its head. The majority of the dragon was green, but there was also red, yellow, and purple on it.

"Kyu…" It rumbled.

Naruto grinned at it. "Hey, Ryu. I hope you're ready for a fight." The dragon nodded excitedly. "Great, now here we go!" Naruto jumped onto the back of the dragon. Whoosh! The dream eater shot off towards the bijū. "I need to get in close to the head!" Nodding in affirmation, the dragon directed its course to the head of the bijū.

"Grah!" The bijū seemed to notice their approach, because it stopped trying to hit Sasuke and Misa and turned towards Naruto. A claw made a swipe at them.

"Dodge it!" Ryu did a barrel roll to avoid the attack, never slowing down. "Nice one, now fireball!" Ryu opened its beak and fire shot out of it. The bijū roared as the attack landed. "Keep it up!" Once they were close enough, Naruto leapt off the bijū. " **Ars Arcanum**!" Naruto gripped his keyblade tightly with both hands and flew into a flurry of rapid strikes.

"Grah!" The bijū roared again and before slashing its claw at Naruto, making his eyes widen.

' _Oh crap. Can't move out of the way!'_ Whoosh! Ryu grabbed him and flew out of the way at the last moment. Naruto grinned at the dragon. "Thanks for the save!" He paused when he saw the one tail open its jaw and begin to gather darkness. A sense of panic rose in him as he detected how much darkness is being gathered. _'Is it trying to blow up the entire village?!'_ That much darkness was easily enough to kill everyone in the village!

"Ryu, get in there, now! We have to stop it!"

"Kyu!" Ryu dove back in towards the bijū. As they dove, Naruto tensed in preparation. "Here we go! We take this thing down here and now!" Once they were close enough, Naruto jumped off the back of Ryu. " **Decussation**!"

Naruto and Ryu both disappeared, only to reappear on either side of the bijū. They both attacked before disappearing again. They reappeared in different locations, only to attack and disappear again.

On a nearby tree branch, Misa and Sasuke could only stare in shock. "Whoa…They're moving so fast that I can't even keep up…" Misa said quietly.

Sasuke frowned with his sharingan active. "That isn't speed. They're actually managing to teleport repeatedly to attack…"

"Grah!" The one tail stopped gathering darkness in the face of the immediate threat, but no matter how much it tried to hit the attackers, it wasn't able to.

Suddenly, Naruto and Ryu appeared in front of the bijū. Naruto was standing on the back of the dragon with his keyblade pointed at the bijū. "One last attack!" The twilight aura appeared around him again as he channeled the power to the top of his keyblade. " **Twilight Blast**!" Boom! The blast of twilight shot out of his keyblade and landed a direct hit on the bijū.

"GRAH!" They were forced to cover their eyes from the explosion. When the light died down, they were greeted with the sight of the one tail fading away.

 **End Music**

" **Hey, what gives? Is that all you've got?** " Naruto turned and saw that the two clones were fading away as well. He turned back to the original and narrowed his eyes.

' _Where is he? Was he completely swallowed?'_ Naruto raked his eyes over the fading bijū. Eventually, he spotted what he was looking for. _'There!'_ In the center of the bijū was Gaara. He looked to be unconscious. Just as Naruto spotted him, the rest of the bijū faded, making the redhead fall. "Catch him, Ryu!" Ryu shot toward the falling redhead and was able to catch him before he hit the ground. The dragon flew down and set him on the ground..

Naruto looked over in the direction of Misa and Sasuke. _'If I'm gonna do this, now's the time!'_ "Get me above him a bit." The dragon complied and started to gain a few feet of altitude. Once he was high enough, Naruto pointed his keyblade down at Gaara. _'Just picture a lock with the bijū behind it…'_ The tip of his keyblade flashed before a light shot out of it and hit Gaara. Naruto thought he heard the sound of something locking as the light faded. He sighed in relief. _'Glad that's over with…'_

"Naruto!" He turned towards the voice and was greeted with the sight of Misa, Sasuke, and Pakkun rushing into the clearing.

Naruto smirked at them as Ryu landed. "Hey guys. I guess we survived, huh?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and Misa snorted. "I guess we got lucky." She eyed the dragon he was riding. "Who's your friend?" Naruto grinned and pet the dragon on the head.

"This is Ryu." Misa opened her mouth, but was interrupted.

"You guys!" The three of them turned to see Narumi and Menma approaching. Narumi had a huge grin on her face. "We did it-ttebane! We won and protected the village an-is that a dragon?" Menma could only gape at the Dream Eater.

Naruto smirked again. "Yep, this is Ryu."

"Kyu!"

"That's awesome-ttebane!" Narumi ran forward to ogle the dragon. "He's so cute!"

"You see a dragon and you think cute?" Menma asked quietly. Narumi spun around to face him.

"Of course! Just look at him-ttebane! He's adorable!"

Naruto sweat dropped. "Right…" He shook his head. "Anyways, we finished our mission."

Narumi gasped. "That's right! We had an A-rank mission! And we completed it!" She looked around. "Where's the guy we were fighting?"

"Right over there."

Misa nodded. "Good. Let's grab him and bring him in. There's still an invasion going on, we aren't done yet!"

"Right!" Menma moved to grab Gaara.

Boom! Out of nowhere, the ground started to shake violently.

"What the hell?!" They looked around for the source, but were unable to find anything. Feeling something above them, Naruto's head snapped up. What he saw made his blood run cold.

High in the air was a giant orb of darkness. It was as big as one of the faces of the Hokage monument. It was pulsating and growing increasingly unstable by the second.

' _Oh no…'_ He was so stupid to think that all that darkness would just disappear without any consequences!

"What the hell is that thing-ttebasa?!"

"I don't know, but there's no way it is good news!" The orb condensed. "Get down!"

BOOM!

An earsplitting explosion rang out through the village. Following the explosion, particles of darkness were spread far and wide throughout the village and past its borders. Looking around, Naruto saw that his fears were confirmed.

The darkness was attracting heartless.

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 27!**

 **Who would win in a fight between Minato and Orochimaru? I want to say Minato, but I don't know off the top of my head what I could back that claim up with.**

 **I didn't bother to put of the barrier that Orochimaru used when he fought Sarutobi in canon. My reasoning was that what would the point be when Minato would just be able to use the Flying Thunder God to get out? And I didn't forget about the sound four.**

 **Did Orochimaru revive Hashirama in a weakened state? Cuz I can't see Sarutobi fighting him equally when he was at full power. I'm planning this based on the assumption that he was weakened.**

 **I will call the Fourth Raikage "A" and the Third Raikage "the Third Raikage."**

 **Fair warning to you, I don't really plan to go over all the fights. I'm only sticking to the ones Naruto is in or personally sees. You may hate me for it, but that's how I've been doing it. I may provide some scenes from the fights, or do the entire thing if it is really important, but other than that? Nope.**

 **I kept Kingdom Hearts boss fights in my mind as I wrote that last fight.**

 **Yes, people! Naruto can summon Dream Eaters! Props to the people who guessed it correctly. Gigantic thanks to Coral the Leviathan for letting me use his summoning idea. The thing about using cards to summon Dream Eaters comes from his Second Chance as a Pirate series. Go check it out!**

 **It isn't over yet!**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**

* * *

" _He…He really went in for the kill…"_

" _Where the heck am I? And why is the moon broken?!"_

" _Does that lady have dog ears?"_

" _Get out! We don't serve animals here!"_

" _Dust? How can dust do anything?"_

" _Don't mind if I do…"_

" _Whoa, you are one ugly dog."_

" _You have some…interesting abilities…"_

" _Do you not have anywhere to go? Would you like to come with me?"_


	28. Just a Question

**Bet you were excited for half a second that there was another chapter out so soon, huh? Sorry, not happening!**

 **Reading the reviews got me thinking. Would you guys like me to start the Kingdom Hearts storyline now? I wasn't planning on going into it until later, but I can try to start it now. It would require some re-planning, but I could probably do it.**

 **I realize that I am already over 200k words in and still haven't started the Kingdom Hearts storyline. Like I said, I can absolutely do it now, but I would need to change a few things. I wanted to ask you guys before I start the next chapter.**

 **This** _ **would**_ **give me the chance to do some other stuff that I had in mind though.**

 **This AN will be replaced by the next chapter when it gets uploaded.**

 **I would like to get some input on this. Tell me what you think! There's a poll on my profile. You are also welcome to leave a review to give me reasons!**

 **And that last bit was absolutely about a plot bunny I got stuck in my head recently. It's a new story I'm planning.**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	29. Invasion: Stop The Heartless

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 28!**

 **Never really understood why people would leave the ANs in the story and not replace them with the chapters. Now I get it. I'm re-uploading this chapter as 29 so everyone can review.**

 **First off, thank you to everybody who gave me their opinions! And it's nice to know a lot of you are cool with me doing this how I want. I had the poll up for a couple days before closing it. I wanted to have it go up to at least 50 votes, but when I saw that the result wouldn't have been changed even if the rest of the voters went for yes, I just closed it. So in the end, I will be sticking with the original plan. If you do not like this, I'm sorry but that's how it is.**

 **I'm glad you guys liked the dream eaters as summons thing.**

 **Finals are kicking my ass…**

 **Did you guys get emails or something when I took Chapter 28 (The AN) down? It was weird to me that activity suddenly spiked.**

 **Be sure to check out under the ending AN for a special announcement!**

* * *

 **JKLO: There are so many people out there that can kill heartless. Hell, Tarzan's spear could do it. I don't see a problem with letting super-powered shinobi be able to do it.**

 **prototype gear: Absolutely, I 100% feel better writing things that aren't fist fights. I feel like there isn't much to say in those. About the bijū fight, I guess I can see what you mean. The environment is something I never really considered. Unfortunately, by the time I remembered this review, the chapter was already done and I wanted to get it out, but I will try to add some more in the future.**

 **Dark Natsu Dragneel: I haven't addressed this in your other reviews, but I'm not planning to use a Darkside just yet. That one will come later.**

 **Kairitrion Cerulean: Thanks for the info. I definitely didn't know the thing about the emblem heartless.**

 **redlox2: I'm going to say yes to your question, but I reserve the right to take it back in case I think of something I want to do.**

 **Xandarius:** _ **Well,**_ **I haven't worked out all the details yet (I never work stuff out until I need to use it) but I was thinking something along the lines of realizing they had been manipulated.**

 **rinsegaku: Thanks! This means nothing of course, but I don't plan on going on hiatus. And the dream stuff is something I am** _ **extremely**_ **excited to try. The only problems are working out all the details and I am unable to do it as I want yet (But I am a lot closer than I was when I first alluded to it). He is twelve now, and I plan to have him be either twelve or thirteen when the Kingdom Hearts Story starts. And he will be joining from Kingom Hearts 1.**

 **whitecloud22: Right here.**

 **God Emperor Terra Bornstellar: Chapter 28 was originally an AN. Now that the actual chapter is done, I took it down so I could put this up.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else. I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Deity Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Deity Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

BOOM!

The group shielded their heads and rode out the shockwave as the echoing explosion nearly deafened them. As the winds died down, Naruto got up, took stock of his surroundings, and immediately noticed the darkness falling from the sky. His eyes roved the area for any further abnormalities, hoping that he was expecting wouldn't come true.

Suddenly, a pool of darkness opened in the ground nearby, giving way for a soldier heartless to materialize. _'No.'_ Turning his head in the other direction, Naruto spotted an armored knight heartless emerge. _'No…No.'_ Naruto snapped his head around into the trees, only to spot a hook bat appearing. _'No! This is really bad!'_ He whirled around towards the others, who were just gaining their bearings. "Guys, you have to get up! We have company-ttebayo!" He took his keyblade out and got into a battle stance. Ryu was growling next to him.

Misa was the first of the others to grasp the situation. She quickly got into her own battle stance. "He's right! Everyone up! We're getting out of here, now!" She ordered. The others were soon following her and Naruto's lead and got ready for a fight.

"There are so many of them…" Narumi said quietly.

"The other ones were weak. There may be more of them in a wider variety, but they stand no chance." Sasuke responded.

' _Even if the ones here now are weak, it will only get tougher as they keep coming…And then lead heartless will follow the foot soldiers…'_ Naruto grit his teeth. With this amount of darkness, the heartless will definitely start taking notice of the world!

"So…What's the plan?" Menma asked as he eyed a circling heartless.

Misa frowned and took another look around. "We need to get out of here. We accomplished our mission, we should report back and help however we can in the invasion. These things are here because of Orochimaru. Continue considering them as part of the enemy forces."

"So we fight our way out?" Sasuke asked with a smirk. "I can get behind that."

Nodding, Naruto looked over to the nearby form of Gaara. "Ryu, can you carry Gaara?" The dream eater nodded and went over to the unconscious redhead. After Naruto placed it on the dragon's back, he spoke up. "Alright, please keep him out of danger, okay?"

"Kyu!" The dream eater nodded before taking flight.

Misa eyed the heartless. "I think that they're getting tired of waiting…" While the group had been talking, the surrounding heartless continued to steadily increase in numbers and inch closer. Many of them were becoming increasingly twitchy as they neared the prey.

"I hope you guys are ready…" Naruto said. The closest batch of heartless crouched. "Here they come!"

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

Clang! Asuma parried a sword with his chakra blades and sliced into the chest of the enemy before kicking them back and into the wall. The force of the blow knocked them out. Not letting his guard down, Asuma looked around. "They're starting to slow down! Just keep it up for a little while longer!" He called. They had been fighting off the attacking shinobi for a while now, and although they had yet to have a significant amount of casualties dealt, there were still losses here and there.

Taking out another enemy with a chain, Kushina glanced around. The jōnin were still fighting in the arena while the genin had been sent off and into the village already to aid at evacuation points. She sent a worried look in the direction that she knew the group fighting Gaara had been in. "It looks like they took care of the jinchuriki…" She said quietly before looking away again.

Yūgao nodded from her spot. "That looked like a big battle. Three versions of the one tail, the toad boss, _and_ the slug boss? I'm surprised things got that bad…"

"Yosh! But it seems that our youthful genin prevailed and fought off our foes! That deserves praise!"

"Hm. They did accomplish the mission given to them…" Kakashi whirled around and sent the sneaking Oto shinobi flying. "But I had no idea that the one tail had the ability to clone itself."

Kushina frowned. "Didn't it look weird to you? It looked a lot like these things." She made her point as she killed another heartless.

Kurenai nodded as her eyes swept over the area. "I can't say I have ever seen the one tailed bijū before, but I don't think it should have looked like that."

"We can worry about it later. It was taken down, so we should focus on the immediate threat." Asuma commented. Although much of the fight was still going on, many of the Suna shinobi had been ordered to retreat when they saw that their jinchuriki was defeated. Suna was starting to lose confidence without its biggest weapon.

Boom! The heads of all the fighting shinobi snapped around to the source of the explosion.

"The hell was that?" Kushina muttered.

"Something bad…" A serious Gai returned. His eyes scanned the area. "And it appears that the situation has just escalated." The other's followed his line of sight and saw what he was referring to.

Yūgao gripped her sword tighter when she saw the number of heartless popping up. "Well, it looks like we still have our work cut out for us." An armored knight jumped in front of her. "There are more types now?"

Kakashi nodded. "Whatever caused that explosion must have attracted more of them." He crouched in preparation. "Get ready, we can't relax yet!"

"Hey, you mind if I join in?"

"Gah!" An Oto shinobi was sent rocketing into his allies after getting hit with the surprise attack. The group of shinobi glanced to the owner of the voice and were greeted with the sight of a stranger.

She was a dark skinned woman with a slender build, golden eyes and long purple hair that was done in a ponytail. She had on an orange over-shirt that had two white straps on each shoulder and a beige sash around her waist. Under this, it was possible to spot a black, long sleeved shirt. She also had on black stretch pants with a pair of brown shoes.

The woman smirked at them. "You guys seem to be having a party. I felt a little left out." She turned and kicked an attacking enemy with enough force to send him through the nearby wall. Gai's massive eyebrows shot up in surprise and interest.

Kushina eyed the woman with a frown. "Who are…" She began before getting cut off.

"We should hold off on pleasantries. I don't think they will wait for us." The dark skinned woman grinned. Although they didn't like it, the Konoha shinobi nodded and focused on the invaders. They didn't trust the woman, but were willing to accept the help. "Great! Now let's get to it!"

* * *

 **With Minato and A**

Minato carefully controlled his breathing as he sped around the battlefield. His thoughts were racing just as quickly as his body was as he attempted to come up with a plan. _'If it was just Orochimaru, this could have been finished by now. But these reanimated kage get up every time we_ do _manage to land a hit on them…'_ Whoosh! Minato ducked as a lightning coated third Raikage appeared in front of him with a strike aimed at his head. Minato thrust his hand forward as an orb of chakra formed in it. " **Rasengan**!" The attack connected and sent the third Raikage back several feet, giving Minato the chance to jump back and regroup with A.

The fourth Raikage was slightly winded from the high level battle, but he only had minor scrapes on his body. Like his father, he too had lightning crackling around him. A glanced at Minato before returning his eyes to the enemy. "What was the point of that? You know that it won't work." Even as he said this, the third Raikage got back up without a scratch on his body.

Minato nodded. "I know. It was more to push him back a bit." He tracked the movement of the first and second Hokages as they went and grouped up with the third Raikage. "I don't suppose you have any ideas?"

"Tch. If I had an idea, I would have used it by now." A responded. "My father is as hard to beat as I remember he was. We haven't made a single scratch on him."

"Yes, and Hashirama-sama and Tobirama-sama are pretty tough as well…Not to mention we have Orochimaru slithering about." He glanced back for a moment. "But it looks like the one tail has been taken care of."

"Kukuku." They looked over to see Orochimaru walking over to his reanimated servants. He was also slightly winded, but not majorly hurt. "No matter. Even without the one tailed bijū, it is only a matter of time before Konoha falls." He gestured to the undead kage. "You cannot defeat them. No matter how many times they fall, they will only get back up again to continue the battle."

Minato and A scowled, but couldn't refute the point. _'This really isn't good.'_ Minato thought to himself. _'At this rate…I will need to resort to using the_ _ **Reaper Death Seal**_ _.'_ If he had known that he was going to be fighting undead opponents, he would have prepared the necessary seals to detain them. If it came down to it, he would sacrifice his life to stop them, but that was a last resort.

"Talk all you like, snake!" A shouted. "You will die here!"

This amused Orochimaru greatly. "Baseless claims. There is no possible way for you to come out of this as the victor."

Minato crouched lower into his battle stance. "We'll find a way. You'll never win. Many of your allies have already decided to leave." He tensed his muscles in preparation to launch forward.

Boom! They all snapped their eyes to the source of the sound to see a large amount of darkness descending upon the entire area.

Minato immediately turned back to Orochimaru with a fierce glare. "What have you done?" He demanded.

Orochimaru had a small frown on his face as he observed the anomaly. He held a hand out to catch one of the dark particles. _'What is this? This is a large amount of darkness…'_ He looked around the village. What he saw made a smirk creep onto his face. "Well, this is interesting."

They watched for a moment as a large amount of heartless started to appear around the village.

"What is this? You called for more of these things to show up?" A growled.

A small frown flash across the sannin's face. _'I do not even think I am yet able to call upon this many heartless at once. Or such a large variety of them…'_ The frown was quickly replaced by a smirk."As much as I would love to take claim for this turn of events, I am unfortunately unable to." Orochimaru responded, his smirk growing as he spoke. "But I will gladly take advantage of it!" He raised his arms as darkness started to shroud his body.

As if answering a silent call, heartless started to appear around him. With a manic grin, Orochimaru pointed at Minato and A. "Let's see how you fare now!" The heartless lunged at them, with the revived kage soon following.

"This is going to be difficult…" Minato muttered. He drew out a tri-pronged kunai and prepared himself for the battle. "The creatures should be fairly easy. The problem with them is the amount of them."

A nodded. "It doesn't matter. We'll wipe them all out!" They rushed to meet the enemy.

* * *

 **With Naruto and the Others**

"Above!" Naruto immediately reacted to Misa's warning and aimed his attack at the swooping wyvern.

" **Fire**!" The fireball impacted the heartless, killing it. "We need to keep moving! We're almost out of the training ground!" He shouted. They had been fighting off the heartless and making a steady pace back to the main part of the village. The group would have made it by now, but they were under constant siege by the heartless.

" **Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Fire**!" Boom! "They just keep coming!" Sasuke growled.

Narumi nodded as her hands sped through hand seals. " **Wind Style: Air Bullets**!" Blasts of wind shot out of mouth and destroyed a few more heartless. "Where are they all coming from?"

Misa slashed down another heartless. "No clue, but it is really annoying!" She gauged their location. "Almost there! One last push!" The others nodded.

Menma was scowling at the amount of heartless that kept showing up. "Why. Won't. You. Get. Out. Of. The. Way-ttebasa?!" He took out multiple kunai with paper bombs attached. "Take this!" Boom! A path was cleared for them and they used the chance to rush out of the forest.

"Overkill much?" Narumi asked with an eye roll.

"Hey, it got the job done…didn't…it…" Menma trailed off as he and the others saw what was happening in the village. "Oh no…" The others were staring in similar states of horror and disbelief at what they saw.

There were hundreds of heartless spread out throughout the village. While there were many of them before, it was now impossible to look in any direction and not spot a heartless.

' _This is really bad…'_ Looking around, Naruto saw that the invasion was still in progress. He noticed something that made his eyes widen in surprise. "Look, the creatures are attacking both sides now!"

It was true. While the heartless had initially been brought in to help attack Konoha, they were now attacking indiscriminately. Whether it be someone from Konoha, Suna, or Oto, the heartless attacked them. The battle had effectively become a three-sided war, although Suna was starting to pull out somewhat.

"I thought they were on the same side?" Narumi asked in confusion.

Misa shook her head. "I don't think that those things care too much about who they attack…at least, not anymore."

' _Damn! That just means they are growing out of control!'_ Naruto looked around again.

"You guys are back…" They turned to see a dirtied Shikamaru land nearby. Shino landed beside him a moment later. The two of them were scanning their surroundings for more attacks.

"Yeah, we took care of the problem." Menma responded.

Shikamaru snorted. "We noticed. Kind of hard not to."

Naruto glanced behind the two of them and frowned. "I see you made some new friends…" He commented. That was when the rest of the group saw that Temari and Kankurō were standing nearby with nervous and worried looks.

Shino nodded. "Yes. They had surrendered when it became apparent that their brother had lost. Seeing that many other Suna shinobi have dropped hostilities, we decided to leave them." He looked around at the large number of heartless. "I believe that there is a bigger threat."

Temari swallowed nervously and looked around. "Where…Where's Gaara?" She asked hesitantly before a fearful look crossed her face and she looked back towards the heartless infested training ground. "You didn't leave him in there, did you?" Kankurō paled at the question.

Seeing that the two of them were extremely worried for their brother, Naruto whistled shrilly. Ryu instantly followed the order and descended towards the group. "Don't worry, we have him here." He nodded towards the dream eater and its passenger. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at the dream eater.

Choosing to ignore the strange creature for now, Tamari and Kankurō focused on the person on its back. "Gaara!" Temari shouted. She and Kankurō rushed over to him.

"He is fine, only unconscious." Naruto said. They nodded and carefully lifted Gaara up to carry him.

Kankurō turned his head towards the Konoha group. "Um…thanks for not leaving him."

Narumi rolled her eyes. "Like we could do that to someone! He would have been eaten within seconds-ttebane!"

"…Um, do these things even eat people?" Narumi just glared at her younger brother, who shrugged at the look. "What? Just asking."

Choosing to ignore his siblings for the moment, Naruto spoke to Temari and Kankurō. "It's fine. Just be careful as you leave the village. These things are probably in the entire surrounding area." They nodded before jumping off.

Sasuke watched them go with a frown. "Why are we letting them go? Shouldn't we detain them?"

Misa frowned at the question, but not for what he said. She was thinking about the situation and their options. "No. While that was the original plan, our priority should be ensuring the safety of the villagers and driving off the active threats." The Uchiha nodded in understanding. Misa turned to face the others. "Alright, people. We have a new mission. We're going to head to key locations and help the evacuations!"

Shino nodded. "Which areas are we going to aid?"

The elder genin considered the question for a moment. "We are splitting up into two groups. One to head to the academy and the other will go to the other main shelter. The hospital should be well defended, especially with Tsunade-sama there." They nodded. "Group one will be myself, Naruto, and Sasuke. We will head to the academy. Group two will be Shikamaru, Narumi, Menma, Sasuke, and Shino. Shikamaru will lead. We have a smaller group because there should be more allies already stationed near our target."

"Troublesome." Although he said this, Shikamaru had a serious expression on his face.

"Any questions?" None were raised. "Good, then let's get moving!" She, Naruto, and Sasuke turned towards the direction the academy was in and sped off as the other group turned and did the same in the other direction.

* * *

 **With Minato and A**

" **Hidden Shadow Snake Hands**!" A group of snakes shot out of Orochimaru's sleeves and shot at Minato at the same time a group of heartless lunged at him, only for the Hokage to disappear in a yellow flash.

" **Rasengan**!" Boom!

Minato reappeared behind Orochimaru using the seal he had planted on the ground earlier in the fight. The snake sannin was sent flying towards the awaiting Raikage. " **Lariat**!" Bam! A launched Orochimaru flying as his attack connected. Not wasting a moment, he spun around and dodged the punch sent to him by his father and countered with a kick to the side, sending the third Raikage away.

Orochimaru struggled to get back to his feet. After a moment, he froze as if something hit him and he slowly opened his mouth. From his throat emerged a pale hand. Orochimaru opened his mouth further and the hand was revealed to be attached to an entire body. The body was covered in slime and was an exact copy of the sannin. After a few more moments, the entire thing was thrown up and Orochimaru collapsed onto the floor, only for the new body to stand up.

He had a fierce scowl on his face as he looked at his opponents. Orochimaru was extremely fast, but he was up against the two shinobi who were praised as the fastest. He couldn't get out of the way of many of their attacks quickly enough, forcing him to take the damage. He could heal from virtually anything, but it took up a large amount of chakra.

' _Damn it! I can't keep this up for much longer!'_ Minato and A were up against three kage, Orochimaru, and the heartless, but they were still extremely strong. Not only that, but Orochimaru had revived the kage in weakened states to ensure that he would be able to control them.

Minato jumped out of the way of an attacking wood pillar and threw a tri-pronged kunai at the first Hokage. Seeing the chance, Tobirama flashed through hand seals. " **Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet**." Water was pulled out of the air and formed a dragon made of water. The second Hokage was so quick in forming the jutsu, there was practically no delay between the hand seals and the jutsu.

Seeing the oncoming danger, Minato disappeared in a yellow flash. He reappeared behind the first Hokage and hit him with a chakra infused kick that sent him right at Tobirama. Minato chanced a glance at the state of the invasion before looking back to Orochimaru. "You won't last much longer Orochimaru. Your forces are dwindling and you are starting to run out of steam." He glared with a light sheen of sweat on his skin. "It's over."

Orochimaru glared back. "This…isn't over." He panted out. Darkness started to gather around him again, and with it, more heartless. "I haven't lost yet." He looked at the battle waging in the village. Although he spoke confidently, he still felt some doubt cloud him. _'I may not win this. They are stronger and more resilient than I had expected…'_ He scowled. _'At this rate, I will lose within minutes.'_

He turned back to his opponents and pointed while instructing the heartless. "Attack!" Minato tensed in preparation, ready to defend himself, but nothing happened. The heartless remained where they were as if Orochimaru never gave an order. "I said attack!" Instead of leaping at Minato, the heartless turned to Orochimaru. "What is this? How dare you ignore my order?!"

Suddenly, the closest soldier heartless lunged at Orochimaru, but missed when the pale sannin moved out of the way. "What?!" The group of heartless were turning their backs on the designated targets and were instead attacking Orochimaru. "You stupid creatures! I am the one in control of you! I will destroy you for this!" The heartless ignored the threats and continued to attack him. Orochimaru was forced to jump out of the way when an armored knight lunged at him with its sword and an attacking wyvern was destroyed the moment it got close.

Minato simply watched the turn of events in confusion. _'What's going on? Why are they attacking him?'_ His eyes widened in alarm as his instincts screamed for him to duck. He was barely able to avoid a three fingered jab from the third Raikage.

" **Hidden Shadow Snake Hands**!" A group of heartless was destroyed as snakes bit into them, but another group immediately replaced it. "Damn!" _'They are all ignoring the enemy and attacking me instead! And I don't have the chakra to keep fighting on this level for much longer…'_ Rage built in Orochimaru as he was forced to make a decision. After cutting down another heartless, he turned to Minato and A. "This isn't the end. I will be back. And then you and Konoha will fall." He spat.

The fourth Hokage glared back. "You aren't getting away!" He launched a tri-pronged kunai at him, but the third Raikage appeared to intercept it.

Orochimaru smirked. At least that was still working properly. "Don't worry, I'll leave my friends here to keep you entertained." He turned and fled the area. Many of the heartless were still attacking him as he ran.

"No!" A roared in rage and made to follow, but was cut off by a wall of wood appearing in his path. "Damn it!"

Minato glared after Orochimaru for a moment before getting forced to return his attention to his opponent. _'Damn it! He's getting away. And we still haven't found a way to take these guys out of the fight!'_ He jumped back towards A when a wooden dragon attempted to get to him. The two of them were now standing back to back.

A glanced back to him. "Any ideas?" Minato sighed.

"Only one…And I think I have no other choice…" He was silent for a moment. "Please tell my family I'm sorry. And I love them." This request instantly made A's eyes snap to his.

The two of them stared at each other for a moment, but A eventually nodded slowly. "Very well. I will tell them."

Minato smiled gratefully. "Thank you." He wished from the bottom of his heart that it didn't come to this, but he saw no other option. However, he wasn't going to run away from it. This was something he was proud to do. He lived a happy and full life, blessed with friends and family who he loved with his entire being. It was the knowledge that they would be safe that drove him.

But…If he had one regret, it would be that he failed at being a good father for Naruto.

With a deep sigh, Minato collected himself. A determined look appeared on his face and he formed a hand seal. " **Shadow Clone Jutsu**." Two clones popped up on either side of him. "I'm going to seal them away. I would have done so before now, but I was hoping to use this seal as a last resort."

A nodded. He didn't need to ask any questions as the way Minato was speaking and his request said everything he needed to know. "It has been an honor fighting with you, Minato."

Minato smiled sadly at him. "The same to you, A." He turned back to the undead. "Now then, here I go!" He and his clones crouched and prepared to rush at the undead.

"Now just wait a minute! There is no need to go that far!" Before he could do anything, Minato was interrupted. " **Bakudō 99: Full Prohibition**!" Out of nowhere, a white fabric shot out of the ground and wrapped around the three previous kage, who were unable to break free. " **Prologue-Halting Wraps**!" The moment the fabric was wrapping them completely, metal bolts formed in the air and impaled them. " **Refrain-Serial Hundred Bolts**!" The three undead were now completely encased in fabric and bolts. "Well, I don't think the final step is quite necessary…" A voice said behind them. A and Minato whirled around to find the speaker.

Standing there was a tall man with a lean frame and light blond hair. He also had some chin stubble. His hair was messy and strands framed the sides of his face. The man was wearing a dark coat that had a white diamond pattern along the bottom half, and dark green shirt and pants combo. On his feet were traditional geta sandals. He hid the bottom half of his face behind a paper fan he was holding. On his head was a green hat with white stripes.

The man smiled at them as he fanned himself with the fan he was holding. "Hello, gentlemen. I thought you could use a hand before things escalated too far." The look in his eyes abruptly hardened and his tone was farm more serious. "Whatever technique you were thinking about using just now had to be a nasty one." The previous smile was nowhere in sight.

Minato, his clones, and A slid into battle stances. "Who are you?" Minato demanded.

Like a switch, the man's entire demeanor shifted again. "Oh, I'm just a passing candy store owner, don't mind me." This answer stunned them into silence.

A soon regained himself and growled. "What was that? Take this seriously!"

Minato nodded in agreement. "You just waltzed in and -within a minute- did what the two of us couldn't for the entire course of the battle."

The man shrugged. "Well, you know how it is. Some people are just luckier than others." They looked like they were going to argue some more, but the man spoke up before they could. "I'm sure you have dozens of questions and possibly some pointy things you would like to throw at me, but I must be on my way." He snapped his fingers. Suddenly, doorways opened up in midair behind each of the three sealed kage and swallowed them. The doorways disappeared as quickly as they had appeared. "Don't worry about these three, I'll be sure to take care of it." He waved at them with a grin. "Goodbye."

"No you don't!" A rushed at him with an arm raised. With his speed, the Raikage was able to cross the distance within a second and throw his punch. Bam! The man was sent flying when the lightning coated fist hit him. Poof! A growled when he saw the man suddenly exploded.

A note fluttered down to the ground and Minato walked up to the note and picked it up. "'How do you like my invention? It's called the portable Gigai. Pretty convincing replacement, right?'" He read. A was nearly popping a vein at this point.

Minato frowned. _'Who was that man?'_ Shaking his head, he looked to his fellow kage. "We will worry about that later. For now, we should help finish getting rid of the rest of them." Although he was infuriated, A nodded before the two of them sped off.

* * *

 **With Naruto and the Others**

"The academy is just up ahead." Sasuke said. The three of them had made good progress towards the academy, but they had been forced to fight off heartless the entire way.

Misa glanced at it and scowled. "Looks like they haven't been able to evacuate it yet. I guess the enemy had sent shinobi in with specific orders to target it." Even from where they were, they could see multiple chūnin fighting off Oto shinobi and students in a few of the windows.

"Then we should help them out!" Naruto said.

"Of course. Be careful not to endanger any of the students." Misa instructed. They nodded and rushed in to join the battle.

As they got closer, Naruto was able to identify Iruka as he fought against an Oto shinobi. The scarred chūnin was putting up a great fight, but it was obvious that he was starting to get tired. The Oto shinobi was slowly pushing him back with his katana, and Iruka was having trouble deflecting all the attacks while he was only armed with a kunai. When Iruka stumbled back for a moment, the Oto shinobi grinned and brought his sword down.

Clang! The enemy grunted in surprise when a strange sword shaped like a key appeared and blocked the blow. "The hell?" He asked.

Iruka's eyes widened in shock. "Naruto?"

Naruto glanced back to Iruka and flashed a grin. "Hey, Iruka-sensei. I thought you could use a little help." He turned back and glared at the enemy. "Take a breather, we've got this." Naruto used his keyblade to deflect the sword up towards the air. Raising a hand, Naruto shouted. " **Fire**!"

"Gah!" The enemy was blown back as the fireball hit him in the center of the chest.

Iruka was speechless for a few moments. "Wha…What are you doing here?"

"We had completed our mission and moved on to help out with defending and evacuating people. We thought it would be a good idea to check in at some key locations." Naruto responded. While he was talking, he was scanning the area for another enemy who would attack. "I'd say we got here at a good time."

"Yeah…Thanks for that." Iruka pushed himself to his feet.

Naruto grinned at him. "No problem." His face turned serious again as a group of Oto shinobi started to approach them. "I think we should take care of these guys…" He paused when he saw more heartless show up. _'Damn. They are still popping up…'_ "And it looks like another annoyance has appeared."

Iruka frowned at the heartless. "They have been popping up for a while now. At first they were helping the attackers, but they started to attack them as well a while back." He slid into a battle stance as the heartless crept closer.

"Yeah, I think that they stopped caring about sides…" A soldier heartless crouched before lunging at him. Naruto prepared to defend himself, but he didn't need to. Boom! A fireball shot out of the sky and killed the heartless. Naruto grinned up at the circling dream eater. "Thanks!"

"Kyu!"

"…Is that a dragon?" Iruka asked, but he shook his head immediately after. "Never mind. I'll assume it is your summon or something. Let's focus on these guys."

"Right." Naruto crouched lower and got ready for the fight.

An approaching Oto kunoichi smirked at him. "Oh, the brat thinks he's tough, does he? You're in way over your head, kid. Just give it up."

Naruto smirked in return. "You really think so? I'm pretty sure you won't be so tough to beat down. You're just cannon fodder, right?"

The woman snarled at him. "What was that?! I'll kill you!" She lunged at him. Naruto simply ducked out of the way cut into her back.

"You see? Cannon fodder." He looked back at the other enemies. "I would rather this goes by quickly so I can help out the others, so I'm sorry if I'm in a hurry." He pulled on some twilight and the wind started to blow around him before he crouched low. "This won't even take a minute. **Sonic Blade**!" He blurred as his body shot at the group of shinobi and heartless.

"Gah!"

"Argh!"

Although they tried, none of them proved to be fast enough to be able to stop the onslaught of strikes coming from Naruto. Finishing his combo with a horizontal slash on the chest of another shinobi, Naruto jumped high into the air and gripped his keyblade. His body started to give off a bright glow. "This is the end. **Meteor Crash**!" He flew back at the ground and struck it with his keyblade. Boom!

As his keyblade hit the ground, miniature flaming meteors appeared in the air and struck the remainder of the nearby shinobi. Naruto panted slightly as his attack finished. While he would normally hold back somewhat and not reveal so many of his abilities, this was a serious situation with lives on the line. Holding back would result in not being fast enough to help out his comrades, so he used some more of his attacks freely.

Iruka gaped at the carnage for a moment before turning his attention to Naruto. "Naruto…That was…"

Naruto shook his head. "We can talk about it later." He looked around. "We should make sure the danger is gone first." The chūnin nodded in response before scanning the area as well.

"Naruto! Iruka-sensei!" The two of them turned to see Misa and Sasuke running over to them. The other chūnin were now finishing the evacuation of the students. Misa looked around warily as she got close. "You two good over here?"

Iruka nodded. "Yes, there weren't that many over here. We just finished up. Good work, you three." He smiled. "You have all become fantastic shinobi." He praised. Misa smiled back while Sasuke just smirked.

"Thanks."

"It was expected."

"…" They blinked and turned to Naruto when he didn't say anything. Naruto was simply looking around the deserted battlefield with a frown.

Misa frowned at him. "Naruto, what's wrong?" She glanced around but didn't spot anything of worry.

The others did the same. "…There aren't any more enemies." Naruto said after a moment. They blinked. Iruka immediately caught on and started to scan the area as well.

"So? That means we won." Sasuke said.

Naruto shook his head in response. "But there are _no_ enemies. I can see that all of the enemy shinobi finally decided to retreat…but what about the creatures? Where did they all go?" Misa and Sasuke's eyes widened in realization and joined the search. Just as he said, there were no heartless in sight. _'I know that they weren't all killed off, so where did they go?'_ He couldn't understand why all of the heartless would decide to leave. _'The heartless wouldn't have left just like that. I can see if they stopped appearing and we killed the rest, but to_ leave _? It's as if they were…ordered…to…'_ Naruto's eyes widened as he sensed something appear above them. _'Oh shit.'_

His head snapped up and he slid into a battle stance. "They left because something else was coming! Get ready! This isn't going to be another small fry!" The other's heads shot up to see what he was looking at. Something large was falling towards them. Boom!

 **Play Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD ReMIX – The Deep End**

Several large objects fell out of the sky and landed in front of them. The objects immediately began to float towards one another after they landed. Once they were arranged, Naruto saw that the objects were actually floating body parts of a large heartless. The heartless was divided into six pieces -a body, a head, two arms, and two legs- and none of them made contact with each other as they floated in the air.

The torso was similar to an hourglass in shape and was colored a dark purple. There was a diamond pattern going around its waist and the heartless emblem was in the center of the chest. Its head was violet, spherical in shape, and sported three silver spikes along with a faceplate. Both of the arms were violet as well, had large wrists, and claws. The legs of the heartless were short, violet, and had hammer-like feet.

A slightly nervous look crossed Misa's face. "That's a big one…" She shook her head and glared at it. "It must be the leader of these things, besides Orochimaru."

"Kyah!" Their eyes snapped to the nearby children who were still getting evacuated. The guard armor noticed the kids and turned to them. The nearby chūnin jumped in front of the kids, but it was obvious they were injured and tired. Iruka was one of the few who were only lightly injured.

"No!" Naruto quickly turned to Iruka. "Iruka-sensei, you go help with the evacuation. Leave this to us!"

Iruka gaped at him for a moment. "No way! There is no way I'm letting you guys go up against that thing on your own!"

Naruto quickly looked back to the giant heartless before looking at Iruka. "Trust us. We've got this. Make sure the students get out of here!" He turned towards the heartless and got into a battle stance. Iruka made to argue again, but was cut off.

"Sensei, please leave this to us. We can do this."

"Hn. It isn't a problem." Misa and Sasuke were quick to get into their own stances. Iruka looked as if he was going to argue again, but relented.

"Fine, but you three better be right!" He sped off to the students.

Seeing he was going, Naruto looked at the other two. "You guys ready for this?" He got two nods in return. "Great." He turned back to the heartless. "Then let's go!"

The three of them rushed at the giant heartless. Sensing the oncoming hearts, the heartless turned towards them. It raised its hands at them and fired the limbs. "Move!" The three of them dove out of the way as the hands rushed by them. "Get in close while it doesn't have arms!" Misa instructed.

"Right!" They sped at the body of the heartless and went in close to get some attacks in. Naruto jumped up to get shot at the torso and flew into a small combo. Wham! He was only able to get a few strikes in before one of the feet shot up and kicked him away. Flipping and landing on his feet, Naruto looked at the heartless in surprise. "Don't let the other limbs out of your sight! It can attack with any of them!" He rushed back in.

Sasuke had been occupied when one of the arms shot back around and started to attack him. " **Fire Style: Great Fireball**!" The arm veered out of the way of the fireball, making the Uchiha growl. "These things are annoying to hit…"

While this was going on, Misa had been defending herself from the other arm. She had to roll out of the way as it swooped in on her. Before it could turn around and try again, she launched a swift kick at it, followed by a complimenting punch. She went in for another attack, but the arm flew away and back towards the main body.

Once it had its limbs back, the heartless brought its arms up before quickly bringing them back down on Naruto. The crimson blond dove forward and in between the heartless' legs. He rolled back to his feet on the other side of the heartless and brought his keyblade forward to get some attacks in. But before he could do anything, the arms of the heartless started to spin around the body at high speeds and the torso spun around like a top. Wham! Naruto was blown back by the force of the attack.

Scowling at being hit twice, Naruto raise his keyblade and pointed it at the heartless. " **Fira**!" The large fireball sped towards the heartless, only for it to break into pieces as each body part detached. The arms flew at Naruto while the feet attacked Sasuke. Misa was forced to deal with the torso.

"Ryu, fireball!" The dragon complied with a large fireball, but the arms moved out of the way and retaliated by clasping together and coming down on the dragon.

"Kyu!" The dream eater slammed into the ground.

"Ryu!" Naruto rushed over to the fallen dream eater. "You alright?" Ryu weakly whimpered. "Alright, thanks for everything. I'll take it from here." The dragon nodded before it glowed. In a flash of twilight, it disappeared and a card took its place. Naruto put the card away and looked back to the floating hands. "You're gonna pay for that one." He leapt at the hands. " **Ars Arcanum**!" The attacks came too quickly for the arms to move out of the way. In twin explosions of darkness, the arms were destroyed. Naruto blinked at that before a grin formed on his face. "Hey, guys! Take out the limbs first! They aren't that durable!" Hearing the shout, the other two nodded.

As Misa was keeping the torso busy, Sasuke fought the legs. A smirk appeared on his face. "The flying arms were able to move out of the way, but how about the grounded legs?" He jumped into the air and flashed through hand seals. " **Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Fire**!" The legs were unable to move out of the way in time to avoid the attack and were destroyed.

Seeing that she was the only one still fighting, Misa smirked. "Well, I can't be the only one to not beat my part, can I?" She waited for the heartless to stop its spin attack before leaping at it. Using her chakra, she clung to the upper torso. "I'm pretty sure I saw that you were hollow…" She looked down the collar of the torso and saw that there was nothing inside. "Perfect." She winked at the head. "Enjoy the bomb!" She dropped several paper bombs inside before jumping off.

Boom! The heartless couldn't do anything to prevent the explosion. The three of them grouped up again and watched as the heartless dissolved into darkness and a large heart was released.

 **End Music**

Misa looked around to see the invasion was pretty much over before she smirked at the two of them. "Well…that was a thing."

Naruto just rolled his eyes.

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 28!**

 **This came up again recently, so I will ask again. Would you guys like me to drop "-ttebayo" and the like? I have it now as something they say when they are excited or yelling, but should I drop it completely? I don't care whichever way.**

 **There are so many types of heartless…I don't really want to describe every single one of them…You guys can look them up if you want to…Or do you want me to add descriptions to them?**

 **Ok, so Sarutobi was able to fight Hashirama, Tobirama, and Orochimaru at the same time. I figure that Minato is stronger than Sarutobi (At the very least due to Sarutobi's age). Add in A, and give Orochimaru the third Raikage, I still see things going well for Minato and A.**

 **The heartless follow the orders of those who control darkness, but if they detect hesitation, doubt, or any type of weakness, they will turn on you. Orochimaru doubted himself for a bit there and was extremely fatigued.**

 **Fun fact: the fight against the undead kage didn't end how I had originally planned. I had been planning on Naruto getting involved at some point, but decided against it in the end.**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**

* * *

 **Shameless self-advertising!**

 ** _Stranded in an unfamiliar world with no clue how to get back, Naruto has no choice but to adapt, and quickly. As he comes to terms with his new situation, Naruto is forced to endure through rampant racism, creatures bent on destruction, and questionable friendships._**

 **Embers of a Shinobi is a go! This is my second story! It's a crossover between Naruto and RWBY.**

 **Summary sucks ass, I know. I'm working on it!**


	30. Invasion: Fallout

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 29!**

 **Winter break! Hell yes!**

 **If you haven't noticed, I reposted the AN as chapter 28 and moved the actual chapter 28 to 29.**

 **You guys are way different from the people who read Embers of a Shinobi. For the most part, they were all for trashing "-ttebayo."**

 **Ugh, I have another plot bunny stuck in my head, but I refuse to act on it. I want to focus on Twilight Key and Embers of a Shinobi.**

* * *

 **Kairitrion Cerulean:** _ **Well…**_ **I wouldn't say "couldn't…" And that's what I was thinking, but I couldn't incorporate the Naruto involvement as well as I wanted to, so I scrapped it. I like what I have, though.**

 **DarkLord98: I chose Guard Armor because it is the first boss you fight in Kingdom Hearts 1 after the prologue. With this in mind, I chose to model it after that fight, where it didn't do much.**

 **rinsegaku: Sorry about that. I have PMs turned off because of something that happened a while back. As for the moves, you're using game logic. I'm not. I'm thinking of them as moves that anyone could come up with. And I stated a while ago that Hikari and Yami didn't know that much when it came to swords. It was the whole reason I introduced Urahara. He didn't get those skills from them. You should read this chapter. And thank you for the songs! I have a playlist of OSTs and other music on both Spotify and Youtube, but finding songs that fit can still be annoying.**

 **redlox2: I've avoided answering this question in the past, but fuck it. I** _ **do**_ **have something planned pertaining to that, yes.**

 **Guest: I consider them to be kage level. They are two incredibly powerful people, so I think it's fair. As for the overpowered…well, I can see that. I tried justifying it in this chapter.**

 **The Sith'ari: I am afraid to say I never tried that series. I considered it, but just never got around to it…But it is definitely something I think I would like. As for the light based heartless, I don't remember who brought it up in the past, but it has been mentioned in a review. I** _ **am**_ **considering doing something with it, but not right now.**

 **prototype gear: If I give him that ability, it will most likely be splitting it. And the FF universe is so freaking** _ **big**_ **. I still have to decide who is making an appearance.**

 **YuNaru19: I can see that, yeah. It's actually something I've thought about in the past. I actually** _ **do**_ **plan on fixing that a bit in the future.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else. I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Deity Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Deity Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **Hokage Tower (After the Invasion)**

"Status report. First tell me of our losses." Minato looked over the assortment of people in front of him from behind his desk. The invasion had ended and it was time for a war council to be held where the shinobi would report the losses sustained and other critical information. Minato had not even had the chance to make sure that his kids were unhurt before starting the meeting. In the large room were the those who held leadership positions in the village, advisors, and some jōnin.

Tsunade stepped forward. "Nothing too bad. It definitely could have been worse. Although we have some injured, we have few deaths. As expected, the hospital was targeted, but invaders were repelled." She stepped back.

Nodding, Minato turned to the ANBU commander. "Were there any other attacks held while the main attack acted as a distraction?"

The masked man nodded. "Yes." As always, his voice was monotone. "There was an attempt to break into the Hokage tower, but it was prevented."

"Good. What of the enemies we captured?"

This time, Ibiki stepped forward. "A total of nineteen enemy shinobi were subdued and apprehended during the invasion. Twelve from Oto and seven from Suna. All of them are currently being held under constant surveillance. We are awaiting your permission to begin interrogation."

Minato considered it for a moment. "I will come to a decision regarding them after I have all the facts." Ibiki nodded. "What is the extent of damage done to the village?"

Tsume stepped forward. "Superficial damage done to the interior with the exception of a training ground and the stadium. The eastern wall of the village has taken the most damage after getting attacked by giant snake summons." She stepped back when Minato nodded.

"Is there any other critical information that should be brought to my attention before we begin the general debriefing?" Nothing was said. "Good, then let's begin. I will be starting the debriefing with my account of the events before asking for others to report what happened on their side if they think it is important." His eyes roved over the small crowd again. "As you know, a few weeks ago we received a warning that Suna and Oto were going to join together to attack during the chūnin exams. Not only that, but Orochimaru would be involved. It was decided that it would be best to pretend to be oblivious to the danger and act normally as to not alert the enemy. At the same time, other preparations would be made to minimize losses and eliminate the enemy." There were nods throughout the room.

"The jōnin, ANBU, and other necessary figures were told of the situation and were instructed to also prepare themselves. On the day of the final exam, I was waiting in the kage booth for both A and Rasa to arrive. Once they had arrived, the exam began. It is important to note that genin Sasuke Uchiha as well as genin Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze were the last of the competitors to show up, although Naruto did make an appearance shortly before the matches began. Once half of the matches were completed, a short intermission was decided to be held.

"Throughout the course of the matches, I was sure to keep my guard up around Rasa and to be prepared for anything. I was also observant of his body language and attitude, taking special note of things that seemed to catch his attention. There was one thing that struck me as odd throughout the matches. He kept attempting to have me postpone the match between Sasuke and Gaara. It escalated to the point of reluctance to disqualify Sasuke when he still failed to show up after the intermission, which caught my attention even more. At this point, I was becoming increasingly suspicious of his motives, so I decided to act on a hunch I had…I decided to call him out as an imposter. This worked."

Genma chose this time to speak up. "That was when the explosion happened…" Although it sounded like a request for confirmation, it was more of a statement.

Minato nodded. "Yes. Orochimaru had been disguised as Rasa from the beginning. When he knew that I had caught on, he attempted to blow up the occupants of the kage booth. I was able to transport myself, Raidō, and Kumo's Darui-san to safety on a nearby rooftop, with A and B-san quickly following behind. After sending away the ANBU who had arrived, Raidō, B-san, and Darui-san, Orochimaru summoned four coffins." An angry look flashed across his face before settling back to a blank expression. "The coffins held the first, second, and third Hokage as well as the third Raikage." Soft curses and expressions swept through the room. Tsunade looked like she was only a second away from throwing a small fit of rage.

"Orochimaru had used a modified version of the second Hokage's forbidden reanimation technique to revive the four of them to fight A and myself, although he failed to revive the third Hokage. I speculate that this is due to the fact that the third had used the **Reaper Death Seal** to seal away the Kyūbi, meaning that his soul was inaccessible. It was at this point that A decided to have those of Kumo present in the village at the time aid us. This was due to seeing that Orochimaru revived his father to fight. With me so far?" Soft murmurs of confirmation and nods were given in response. Many of those in the room had disgusted looks on their faces.

Nodding again, Minato continued. "It soon became apparent that Orochimaru still had other resources in mind, because he also summoned these strange creatures he referred to as 'The Heartless.' I'm sure many of you know what I am referring to…" Most of the people nodded. "After he sent the creatures off to fight in the invasion, A and I started to fight with Orochimaru and those he revived. The fight seemed to be an impossible one as the revived kage were able to heal any wounds we managed to inflict on them and Orochimaru was able to shed his body to get a new one whenever he was hurt. While we fought, I was vaguely aware of other fights and explosions throughout the village. I also saw what appeared to be the one tailed bijū fighting the toad and slug summons…" He glanced to Tsunade for confirmation.

Knowing what he was asking, Tsunade nodded. "Yes, Katsuyu told me that she and Gamabunta were summoned by Narumi-chan and Menma-chan to fight the one tail, although they wound up facing clones of the bijū instead."

Minato frowned minutely when he heard this. "I was not aware that bijū had the ability to clone themselves…Nevertheless, A and I continued to fight for a while, with no progress being made besides the fatigue wearing away at Orochimaru. Partway through the fight, the one tailed bijū was defeated and a large explosion of unknown origin resounded throughout the village…" He paused as a thought came to him. "A large amount of heartless seemed to appear as a result of the explosion, as if they were attracted by it…Orochimaru used this as a chance to get more of the heartless to help him.

"We continued the fight, but there was still no progress being made when in terms of defeated those who were revived." He allowed a small smirk to appear. "It was at this point that the heartless turned on Orochimaru and began to attack him." Surprise rippled through the room when he said this. "Due to a combination of fatigue, the invasion failing, and the heartless turning on him, Orochimaru chose to flee from the village to make his escape." Many of the people in the room were now smirking by this point.

"A and I were unable to pursue him as the revived kage wouldn't give us a chance to…I was starting to get desperate." He admitted. The smirks in the room were immediately wiped away. "There were three powerful undead shinobi in the village that wouldn't stay down no matter what we did…It was getting to the point that I was going to resort to using the **Reaper Death Seal** to seal them away." He could practically _feel_ the sense of panic rise in Kushina when he admitted this.

"But you didn't." It was Raidō who had spoken. His eyes were sharp as he stared at Minato. "You found a way to seal them away without resorting to that technique."

Minato nodded. "Yes, but not on my own…An ally chose that moment to jump in and do it." He wasn't going to tell the entire room that some unknown person with enough skill to catch them all of guard and act quickly enough to trap three kage had appeared to seal them away. That information would be limited a small group of people who needed to know.

"Who was it." All eyes turned to Danzō. "Who was this 'ally' that was able to do what two kage were unable to?" He asked.

Minato had a small flashback to a near identical situation twelve years ago on the day after the Kyūbi attack. "An ally. That is all I will be saying on the matter." The order was clear.

Do not pursue this topic.

The old war hawk nodded in response. Seeing that Danzō had relented, Minato continued. "Following this, A and I left to go help finish whatever left over fights remained." He looked to the group of jōnin sensei in the room. "Now, what happened in the stadium during the invasion?"

Asuma responded. "The stadium was under siege the moment the explosion occurred. It had been suspected that there were enemies hidden throughout the crowd, and it turned out to be true. The Konoha shinobi in the crowd quickly reacted and started to repel the attacking forces. Kakashi soon arrived to help us, as well as B-san. When we saw the Suna jinchuriki leave the stadium with Sasuke soon following, it was decided that we would send a team of genin to follow." Minato nodded.

"The team consisted of Misa, Narumi, Menma, and Shikamaru, correct? And they were to catch up with Sasuke, right?" He got a nod in return, but Yūgao was the one to speak up.

"Yes. I first ordered the present Konoha genin in the stadium to help in the evacuation of the civilians and VIPs before I went to order the specified genin of their mission. Following this, I returned to the fight. The…heartless soon joined the fight, but we were eventually able to defeat all of the enemies." She concluded, but she then remembered something. "But we did have some help." This remark made the other jōnin that were there nod in agreement.

The Hokage raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by 'help?'" He asked.

A small frown came to Yūgao as she thought back to the woman who showed up. "Partway through the fight, an unknown woman suddenly appeared and assisted us with eliminating the rest of the enemies. None of us present at the time recognized her."

"What did she look like?" This woman might be connected to the man who sealed the kage…

"She had dark skin, purple hair in a ponytail, and golden cat-like eyes. Her outfit was predominately orange and black and she seemed almost…casual despite the situation. Her abilities seemed to revolve around taijutsu at high speeds. She disappeared immediately after the fight ended."

"And none of you recognized her?" Minato clarified.

"No, sir. It is possible that she is someone from Kumo, given her skin tone, but we didn't see her later with the other Kumo shinobi."

Minato absorbed all of the information given to him as he tried to paint a picture in his head of what happened in the village during the invasion. "We will return to this topic at a later time. Do we know what happened with the genin team during their mission?"

Kakashi stepped forward. "I had sent Pakkun with the team to aid them. Would you like me to summon him?" He got a smile in return.

"Please do so."

After nodding, Kakashi made a small cut in his thumb with a kunai and flashed through some hand seals before slamming his palm on the ground. " **Summoning Jutsu**!" A small puff of smoke gave way to the requested ninken.

Pakkun looked at the room and noticed the serious atmosphere. "This still a bad time for pleasantries?"

Kakashi nodded. "Can you please recount what happened after the team of genin left the arena?"

"Sure. The mission was to catch up with the Uchiha boy and continue in the pursuit of the three kids from Suna. Along the way, we were repeatedly attacked by some weird creatures. They weren't any kind of summon animal, so they must have been someone's jutsu." He got nods in return.

"Eventually, we stopped when I picked up another scent traveling with Uchiha. It belonged to Naruto."

Kushina spoke up with a surprised tone. "Naruto was there? He caught up with Sasuke and travelled with him?"

"That would explain why he wasn't there when I want to the competitor's booth…He must have seen Sasuke leave and decided to aid him." Yūgao mused.

Pakkun nodded. "Yes, that is what happened. We were soon able to catch up to the two of them before we all caught up to the sand trio and confronted them after they stopped on a rooftop." The dog paused with a grimace.

Kakashi was the first to notice the expression. "What's wrong?" He asked.

"The redhead jinchuriki…Something was wrong with that kid…He definitely wasn't stable."

Minato's eyes sharpened when he heard this. An unbalanced jinchuriki is _never_ a good thing. "Elaborate."

"He…The blond and the makeup wearing kid were trying to convince him to keep moving, but he seemed unwilling to listen. He had an unnatural fixation on Naruto…" Kushina, Minato, and Yūgao all tensed. "The plan seemed to be to head to a designated location and let loose, but he abandoned the mission so he could attempt to kill Naruto."

"But he didn't…" Kushina said in reassurance, but it seemed like she was trying to reassure herself.

Pakkun shook his head. "No, he didn't. Naruto noticed that the jinchuriki was fixated on him, so he decided to lure him away from any populated areas and into a training ground."

"That was a good idea." Shikaku mused. Kushina immediately glared at the Nara head. "Lead the threat from any areas where any major damage could be done before taking it out. That was sound thinking." Kushina was scowling by the time he finished speaking, but didn't argue with what he said.

"Following this, that Misa girl ordered for everyone but her and Shikamaru to follow Naruto and provide him with back up while the two of them fought the other two Suna genin. We did so and soon caught up to Naruto and the jinchuriki. When we got there, Naruto was nowhere in sight and the jinchuriki was attempting to find him. The Konoha genin used this chance to launch a surprise attack, but it didn't work. We regrouped with Naruto and proceeded to fight the jinchuriki. You should probably know that the jinchuriki was becoming increasingly unstable as the battle continued. Eventually, an attack landed…but that's when things got really bad."

Minato nodded. "I assume that is when he resorted to using his bijū form? Or did he completely unseal the one tail?"

Pakkun sighed. "I have no idea, to be honest. After he was hurt, he was suddenly shrouded in that dark stuff that the creatures seemed to be made of. It was at this point that Misa showed up. The next thing we know, he was replaced by a dark version of the one tailed bijū. Menma and Narumi resorted to summoning the toad and slug bosses, but the one tail responded with cloning itself."

"Right." That fit with everything else they knew. "There were two clones and the original, right? I'm pretty sure that the clones were fought off with the summon bosses, but what about the third?"

Pakkun smirked. "The rest of the kids fought and beat the thing."

"They did?"

"Yes. Although a lot of the damage done was due to Naruto and his summon." _That_ made Minato, Kushina, and Yūgao all freeze.

"N…Naruto has a summon?" Yūgao asked.

The ninken raised an eyebrow. "Yes, he does. He summoned some sort of strange dragon and used it to move around quickly. He was even able to do some kind of collaboration attack with it before he finished off the bijū." Whispers broke throughout the room. He tilted his head. "You're his sensei, didn't you know?"

Yūgao shook her head and sighed. "Recently, I'm learning that Naruto may have some secret abilities and techniques that he likes to keep as a hidden trump card…"

"Hm…Well, anyways. We finished the bijū and the clones disappeared. It seemed like everything was going well, but we were caught off guard when a huge amount of that dark stuff gathered in the sky before creating a large explosion."

Minato thought about it. "That must be the explosion that everyone else heard."

"I guess so." Pakkun agreed. "Soon after, a lot more of those weird creatures started to pop up around us, so we decided to leave the area. I only stuck around long enough for them to group up with Shikamaru and -for some reason- Shino before dispelling myself after the other two Suna genin left with the jinchuriki."

Danzō spoke up. "They allowed a known enemy to leave without any comment?" He asked.

Pakkun eyed the old man. "Misa allowed it after it was determined that they were no longer a threat. She said that it was better to focus on the still active threat in the village." He shrugged again. "Not much I can tell you after that besides the genin deciding to split up to help in different areas."

"I understand. Thank you for the help." He had partly expected it after seeing the symbol on the one tail's forehead, but now they knew for certain that the defeat of the bijū led to the sudden increase in the number of heartless. Pakkun saluted Minato before nodding to Kakashi and dispelling. "That shed some light on things. I expect that the Suna trio decided to cut their losses after Gaara was defeated and other Suna shinobi started to retreat." He looked to Tsume. "What happened around the village perimeter?"

"We faintly heard the first explosion from the stadium before we were under attack from Suna and Oto. We had little difficulty fighting them off thanks to the prior warning, but we began to have some difficulties when snake summons were added and the…heartless joined. But it became less of a problem when Jiraiya-sama entered the fight. After the loud explosion, many of the Suna shinobi began to retreat. There isn't much else to say. We pursued them until we received orders to desist."

Minato nodded. "Thank you." He looked around the room. "Did I miss anything?" No one responded. "Good. Now, we need to decide how to proceed."

Danzō was the first to speak up. "This was obviously a declaration of war by Suna and Oto. We need to respond in kind and strike back." He declared. Many of the people in the room nodded in agreement with frowns on their faces. Minato frowned, but knew what he said was true. This was an act of war.

"Now hold on there. I think you may want to reconsider that proposal for a moment." Everyone turned their eyes to the door of the room where a serious looking Jiraiya was standing. "I just received some information that you will want to hear."

"What information could you possibly have that will make us reconsider going to war?" Homura challenged. "The Kazekage allied himself with Orochimaru to break our alliance and invade the village."

Jiraiya looked him in the eye with a frown. "How about the fact that the Kazekage was killed by Orochimaru weeks ago?" This instantly silenced everyone in the room.

Minato leaned forward. "What do you mean, sensei?"

"Rasa was killed weeks ago by Orochimaru. I am unsure if he was killed for refusing to work with Orochimaru or because it was convenient for the snake, but he's dead. Suna has been acting on false orders."

"But as you said, Suna may have been working with Orochimaru, only to be betrayed." Koharu pointed out. "They still broke the treaty."

Minato was silent for a moment as he considered the information he was just given. "What is the situation with Suna, sensei?"

"Suna has retreated and is on their way back to their village. I also confirmed that they have surrendered. It seems that they were unaware that they had been acting on the orders of another."

"…We will respond to their surrender soon. I want you to be the one to take care of negotiations." Jiraiya nodded. Minato turned to Ibiki. "This means that you cannot torture the captured Suna shinobi. I'm giving you the go ahead to interrogate them, but hold off on anything extreme. You do however, have free rein over the Oto shinobi." The cruel smirk that appeared on the scarred man's face made some in the room shiver.

"You can't be serious, Minato." Homura protested. "They are enemies now!" Koharu nodded in agreement.

Minato shook his head. "While it may be true that they had been intending to betray us, they were still betrayed first. Instead of going to war and increasing our losses, I would like to use this surrender to turn things into our favor. It will throw Konoha into a bad light if we torture war prisoners after the enemy surrendered." He looked the advisors in the eyes. "Do you have a problem with that?" He asked. They wisely kept quiet.

Jiraiya smirked. "Just leave it to me. I'll take care of it."

His student smiled in thanks. "Good." His smile was replaced by a frown when a thought came to him. "Were we able to capture any of the heartless?" He looked over to Ibiki for the answer, but was given a shake of the head.

"No. Any and all attempts to capture the creatures known as the heartless were met with failure. While they are not particularly hard to subdue, they have the ability to phase into the ground or warp out to escape capture. It is currently unknown if it is possible to render them unconscious."

"I understand…Have they all been purged from the village?"

Hiashi nodded. "Yes. There are no longer any traces of heartless within the vicinity of the village…" Before anything else could be said, Tsume spoke up.

"Hokage-sama, if I may?" She received a nod. "While the heartless have been removed from the village, I am unsure if it will remain this way." She said, immediately catching all attention in the room.

Minato focused on the Inuzuka head. "What do you mean?"

"While we were pursuing the enemy shinobi, we noticed the presence of heartless scattered throughout the area. These groups of heartless attacked both us and the shinobi we were pursuing. I believe that they have stopped appearing only when Orochimaru calls for them and started to appear on their own…" That wasn't good.

"I have to agree with her, Minato." Jiraiya commented. "I have received information from multiple contacts that were able to tell me quickly that a few heartless have been spotted in their areas. While it seems it is mostly around Konoha, I think that they will soon spread. Like I said, this is just from the nearby contacts, so I will get to my more distant ones when I can…"

Minato sighed. "That would be a great help, thank you." If the heartless started to appear on a mass scale throughout the elemental nations, then things will get really ugly." He glanced around. "Is there anything else?" Nothing was mentioned. "Very well. We will now move onto other topics. First, the repairs…"

* * *

 **Urahara Shop (Later)**

Naruto stumbled into the shop later in that day. After the invasion ended, he and the other genin were deployed to various places as a village-wide lockdown was initiated. The lockdown was eventually recalled, but the village was still on high alert. By this time, Naruto was dead tired. Between the chūnin exam, the invasion, and running around the village, he was nearing the point of complete exhaustion.

The sound of a door opening made him look up. Soifon was standing in the doorway leading deeper into the building with a concerned look on her face. She quickly made her way over to Naruto and looked him over. "Hey, how you holding up?" She asked.

He just blinked at her in surprise for a moment before smiling tiredly. "I'm fine, just tired."

She nodded with a smile and gestured towards the door. "I understand, but you will need to hold off on that nap for a little longer. Kisuke and I would like to hear about your side of the day." Naruto groaned internally, but didn't argue. He figured it would be a good idea to do this now.

"Lead the way." Soifon grinned at him before turning and walking through the door. The two of them soon entered the tea room and found Urahara sitting there with a frown as he looked over some notes he had. He looked up when they entered the room.

"Naruto, good to see you in one piece." He greeted.

With a sigh, Naruto sat down as Soifon did the same. "Thanks, the same to you." He looked between them. "So, I tell you about my day and you do the same?" He asked with a small smirk.

Urahara grinned. "That sounds good."

With a nod, Naruto began speaking. "I'll just skip to the invasion and mention the important parts. I was separated from the others when the invasion began, so I didn't receive any orders. I took this chance to go after Gaara when I saw him and the other two Suna genin leaving the stadium. While on the move, I was attacked by heartless repeatedly. I caught up with Uchiha, who was also following them, before another team of genin caught up to us." They nodded. "When we managed to reach the Suna team, Gaara was…losing control."

The candy shop owner frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that he was starting to grow increasingly unstable. I was worried he would self-destruct at any second. The moment he saw me, he lost himself to the bloodlust and attacked me. I used the chance to lead him to an empty training ground. Some of the others caught up and we were able to harm him after a while. That's when things got really bad…"

Soifon nodded. "I assume that was when he turned into a giant heartless bijū hybrid?"

"Yeah…The toad and slug summons were called to help, but they had their hands full. The original bijū was fought off by Misa, Uchiha, and myself. I had to resort to summoning a dream eater."

"Oh, is that right? Well, I guess it's a good thing I reminded you to take it then, huh?"

Naruto sent a light glare at the smirking Soifon. "Moving on. The bijū was defeated, the clones dispelled, and I finally got a chance at Gaara with my keyblade." He sighed again. "But then things got bad again."

Urahara nodded. "I'm guessing that was when the heartless started to show up in greater number?"

"Yeah. I should have seen it coming, but I didn't. All of that darkness released by the bijū heartless thing resulted in a massive explosion that spread darkness particles throughout the area." A worried look formed on Naruto's face. "I'm pretty sure of what that means." He looked to Urahara in confirmation and received a tired sigh in return.

"I conducted some preliminary searches of the area. It is as we feared, the heartless are now spreading throughout the elemental nations…" Naruto scowled. He already figured that would be the case, but he was still hoping that wouldn't be true! "I'll monitor their behavior as best I can. If they start to converge on one location, then we can conclude that something important is there."

"Like the keyhole…"

"Like the keyhole, yes. But we have to act quickly. There is no telling how much time we have until they find it."

Naruto nodded. "It could be days, it could be months…Heck, Hikari and Yami told me that some worlds even have years after the heartless begin to show up…" He shook his head. "We will talk about that later. After the heartless started showing up, we decided to regroup with the others. The Suna trio left at this point because we decided to focus on the active threat." He glanced at the other two in the room. "Misa made the decision and I thought it was a good idea…what do you think about it?"

Soifon smirked and Urahara grinned. "That was a wise decision. At this point, I'm pretty sure Suna was starting to retreat. It was more important to make sure the heartless were repelled." Urahara said.

"Right. Anyways, we soon split up into two groups. My group went to the academy where we found it under attack. We got rid of the attackers, only to be confronted by a heartless leader. _That_ was a whole thing." Soifon grinned.

"But hey, you survived, didn't you?"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Apparently." He shrugged. "There isn't much else to say. We got rid of it before moving on to help around the village. I just got released from duty for the day."

Urahara nodded with a grin. "Well, that sounds like a fun day." Like always, he acted oblivious to the glare sent his way. "How far were you pushed?" He asked.

"Well…" Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "I used some magic, but I've been doing this for a while. I used my keyblade, but people saw that already. The biggest reveals had to be the dream eater and a couple new moves…"

The two adults simultaneously quirked eyebrows. "Which moves? Spells?" Soifon asked.

Naruto shook his head. "No. They are the moves you two helped me make and refine. **Ars Arcanum** , **Sonic Blade** , and **Meteor Crash**." He grinned widely. "All three were massive successes. Especially the third."

Urahara puffed out his chest with a massive grin. "Of course! Who do you think you're talking about? Such a thing like creating new moves is nothing for someone as great as Urahara-sama!" Naruto allowed him his moment. It was Urahara's idea to incorporate his magic and twilight abilities in the way he did to create some of his attacks. Naruto was sure he would never have been able to create something like **Meteor Crash** as quickly as Urahara did. All it required was a little studying of his magic and twilight before he started to rapidly write up theories and ideas. According to Urahara, it was a little like kido in some areas.

Shaking his head, Naruto cleared his throat. "I told you about my end, what about you two?"

Soifon smirked. "Nothing too exciting with me. I showed up partway through the invasion to help out around the arena before leaving so they couldn't ask me any questions." She looked over to the other occupant of the room. "I think Kisuke has a much more interesting story…" Said man grinned again and fanned himself.

"Well, I don't know about that. I didn't do any fighting…"

Naruto quirked an eyebrow. "Then what did you do?"

"Oh, nothing much. Just rushed in at the last moment to stop your father from sacrificing himself to seal away three undead kage by sealing away the same kage."

Dead silence.

Naruto gaped slightly at the man. "…You…what?"

"Oh, did you not understand me?" Naruto couldn't even bring himself to respond to that. "Well, I guess it will be easier if I show you, eh?" He promptly stood up and pointed his fan towards the door. "Follow me!" He left the room, Soifon a step behind him. Naruto just stared after them.

"… _What_?"

* * *

 **Urahara's Training Ground**

Naruto closed his eyes and rubbed the bridged of his nose as he tried to process what he just heard. In front of him were three figures completely wrapped in white fabric with numerous rods sticking out of them. Eventually, he gained control of his thought process. " _How_ did you do this?" He hissed. "If two kage couldn't manage it, then how did you do it in under a minute?"

Urahara smirked. "It was easier than you would think once I completely hid my presence from their senses."

"You hid your presence." Naruto got a nod in return.

"Yep!" Why was this bastard acting as if hiding his presence from five kage level shinobi was no big deal? "I don't know if I've told you this, but I used to be a part of the stealth force back in my world, so I know how to sneak around if I need to. Sure you guys are shinobi, but it gets a lot harder to keep track of your surroundings while under fire from your enemies."

"But…How could they not sense you preparing your seal?"

"I think you're forgetting one key thing, Naruto-kun." The grin on his face grew. "I'm not from this world!"

And just like that, it all clicked. "You were able to get so close because you don't have chakra and were able to be completely silent. No one was able to detect your technique approaching them from beneath their feet for the same reason…"

"Exactly. They were caught completely off guard by my kido spell." He shook his head. "But anyways, I went in, sealed the kage, moved them away, and got out. Just like that. I've been studying them ever since."

Naruto nodded in understanding. "And? What did you find?"

The playful expression was instantly wiped from Urahara's face. "I found that this is one of the most twisted and vile techniques I've ever come across." He looked at the bound figures and the others followed his gaze. "The souls of these three were forcibly ripped from the afterlife and stuffed into false bodies where they were then subjected to the will of another. To add to this, darkness was pumped into them to 'improve' the technique." He looked almost angry at what he was saying.

The crimson blond grimaced. "Why haven't you undone it yet?"

"Because I haven't had the means to."

Naruto froze. "What? You can't undo it?"

Urahara sighed. "Only the caster of the technique can just will it away. I don't see Orochimaru doing so willingly."

"So they are going to stay like this?" Urahara shook his head.

"I didn't say that."

Naruto's eyes snapped to his. "But you said you can't undo it."

Urahara nodded as he locked eyes with Naruto. "You're right. _I_ can't undo it. But _you_ can." Naruto blinked in surprise.

"And how the hell do I do that?"

Soifon rolled her eyes with a soft smile. "Weren't you listening to what he said? How did Orochimaru 'improve' the technique?"

"He…" Naruto's eyes widened in surprise. "He added darkness to it." He quickly looked from them to the three figures. "You don't think…"

Urahara smirked. "Orochimaru infused darkness with the technique to the point that it became a fundamental aspect of it. And like any other technique, if you disrupt the base, then the entire thing falls apart. I don't think adding more darkness will help, but adding the opposite to it…"

"Adding light should unbalance the technique to the point that the entire thing just self-destructs." He smirked. "Leave it to me-ttebayo!" Urahara nodded.

"Good! Soifon and I will give you some room to work. Start whenever. The entire training ground is protected by a barrier, so don't worry about anything bad happening!"

"Right." Naruto waited for them to gain some distance before forming a hand seal. " **Shadow Clone Jutsu**!" Poof! Two identical clones appeared on either side of him. They glanced to each other before each one of them walked up to a figure and place a hand on them. Instantly, Naruto felt the current of darkness running through it. He couldn't believe how much Orochimaru pumped into the bodies!

He took a deep breath. "Well, here goes nothing." He closed his eyes and focused on his light aura. Just like all the other times, it instantly answered his call. With extreme care, he began to channel it down his arm. When he felt that he had enough, he opened his eyes again before nodding to both of his clones. "Well, here we go. On three. One. Two." He tensed. "Three!"

Whoosh! At the same moment, all three of them began to channel light into the three kage. Naruto grinned when he felt the flow of darkness get disrupted by the injection of light. Whoosh!

 **Play Final Fantasy X Music - Hurry**

"Whoa!" He did _not_ expect the darkness to push back! Wind was starting to pick up around them. Gritting his teeth for a moment as he braced himself, Naruto spoke up. "Push harder! Don't let up for a second!" He had to shout because the wind was growing stronger by the second.

"Right!"

"You got it!"

Soifon frowned at the scene before them. She was starting to lose sight of Naruto because the wind was created a cloud of dirt and dust. She glanced to Urahara. "Did you expect that to happen?" She asked.

Urahara didn't even look her way as he responded. His eyes were fixed solely on the source of the wind. "I can't say I did…" He frowned.

' _Damn it! It just won't give in!'_ Naruto's clothes and hair were flapping in the wind as he and his clones continued trying to dispel the darkness. Whoosh! "Crap!" Another pulse of darkness pushed back at him, nearly making him lose his balance and stumble back. He grit his teeth and closed his eyes. "Like hell!"

The three bound figures were now coated in an aura of darkness while Naruto and his clones were bathed in light. The two auras were mixed together with the light and darkness split down the middle. Naruto was attempting to push his light to take over the darkness, but was met with heavy resistance the entire way.

Suddenly, Naruto's eyes snapped back open when he felt something begin to encroach on his light. He immediately looked down to his hand, and saw that some darkness was beginning to seep onto it. The entirety of his hand was bathed in a feeling of ice. _'Oh, like hell!'_ "It's trying to reverse the process! Don't let it!" Closing his eyes again, Naruto dug deeper. Gathering as much light as he could, he pushed back against the darkness.

Slowly, the darkness began to retreat from his hand and warmth returned to it. _'Just keep pushing…'_ Sweat was beginning to gather on his forehead and the winds were still picking up. Soon, Naruto felt that he had repelled all the foreign darkness from his body. When he was sure he was in the clear, he began to push more light in.

' _Almost there…'_ Naruto eventually felt the darkness begin to weaken from the force of the light. Thin wisps of darkness were starting to come off the body after a minute. "Come on…" Naruto muttered. He wasn't sure how much longer he could keep this up. After a few more moments, he felt the darkness lash out again. "Guh…Oh no you don't…One more push!" He took a deep breath. "Now!" Boom!

"Gah!" Naruto and his clones were blasted back as a large pulse of darkness expelled from the three bound kage. His clones dispelled, but Naruto landed on the ground a few feet away.

"Naruto!" Immediately, Soifon was by his side. "You alright?" She asked.

Naruto weakly nodded while gasping for breath. "Yeah…I'm fine…" He struggled to get to his feet, but had to have Soifon help him. "What happened?"

"An unexpected reaction…" Hearing Urahara's voice in front of him, Naruto looked up. He was shocked at what he saw. The three kage were still completely bound, but a large whirlwind of light and darkness was surrounding them. "I did not anticipate such a reaction…" Urahara muttered.

The three of them watched the whirlwind pick up speed, but it soon began to change shape. The two auras began to spiral into a condensed sphere that rose into the air. Naruto noticed that the three undead kage were left behind and seemed to be breaking down into dust and ashes. Looking at the sphere, he saw that it was condensing more and more, becoming increasingly small in size.

Deciding to voice his question, Naruto spoke up. "What's going on-ttebayo?!" He had to shout in order to be heard over the wind.

"The light and darkness are fighting each other! You adding the light unbalanced the darkness as expected, but instead of dissipating like we wanted, they are fusing!" Urahara responded.

"Fusing into what?! Twilight?!"

"I don't think so! It looks like the properties of the darkness makes it create something new! But I don't think the end product will be an aura like twilight! It seems physical!" He pointed. "It's about finished!"

The three of them watched as the sphere condensed even more. Boom! A large blast of energy exploded out, forcing them to shield their eyes from the flash and harsh winds.

 **End Music**

When they looked back, they were surprised at what they saw. In the place of the sphere was a small cube. It was hard to tell if it had one color as the base and another on top of it because it was an even a mixture of purplish-black and silvery-white. Arcs of electricity was coursing over the cube for a moment before it died down. The cube soon fell onto the ground.

Urahara was the first to gather himself and walk over to the cube. After looking it over for a moment, he muttered something. The moment he finished, an orange cube of light appeared and encased the smaller cube. Once it was completely formed, Urahara picked it up. It was at this point that Soifon and Naruto reached him.

"What is that?" Naruto asked.

"I'm not sure…It was obviously made from the mixture of light and darkness, but I can't tell anything more than that without conducting some tests…" He pocketed it and looked over to where the three kage were and grinned. "Regardless, you managed to undo the technique. Good job."

Naruto blinked in surprise and followed his gaze. A small smirk appeared on his face. "Well, at least _something_ …went…right…" He trailed off as the fatigue he accumulated throughout the day finally caught up with him.

Knowing what was about to happen, Soifon immediately reached out and caught him when his eyes drifted shut and his body stopped supporting itself. She had a small smile on her face. "I'm not surprised."

Urahara shook his head in amusement. "Neither am I. He was already on his last legs when he got here."

She shrugged. "I saw." She glanced down at Naruto. "I guess I'll put him in his room…"

"Sounds good. I think I'll be busy for a while…"

Soifon smirked at him. "You just can't wait to play with your new toy, can you?"

"I have nothing to be ashamed of."

* * *

"Damn him! Damn those cowards!" Crash!

"Sir…"

"Silence!"

"…"

"How did Namikaze live? How did he undo the jutsu?! It was impossible for him to undo it without resorting to the **Reaper Death Seal**!" Crash!

"…"

"Next time I will be sure to watch the light leave his eyes! And then the heartless! Forcing me to flee and suppress my darkness to near non-existence!" Boom!

"…"

"What do you have to report?"

"The Hokage claimed that an anonymous ally arrived to seal the revived kage."

"No indication as to who?"

"None, milord."

"…Very well. I will find them and make them pay for this at a later time. And what about the boy?"

"According to your agent, he left after the invasion began to go fight the one tail jinchuriki. He helped in defeating him, showing a strange summon…"

"I'll go over that later. Anything of interest?"

"Yes. Once Gaara was defeated and he thought no one was nearby, the boy pointed his strange weapon at Gaara and shot a beam of light at him. The light did something, but I'm not sure as to what. It was reported however, that the sound of a lock echoed through the immediate area. It may have something to do with the fact that the weapon is shaped like a-"

"Key...Anything else?"

"Nothing more than fighting some heartless and the appearance of one of the larger ones. The boy never noticed he was being watched when he did whatever he did."

"Good. It won't do for him to suspect something…Leave, I have some research to do."

"Of course, Orochimaru-sama."

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 29!**

 **I am pretty sure I am breaking some rules, but I'm doing it anyways. It isn't hard to guess what that cube was. I have an explanation as to why this resulted in the way it did, but won't be going into that until later. So don't get too mad, please. At least not yet.**

 **I can't claim that there is a lot of actual** _ **progress**_ **in this chapter, but there is still progress to be made!**

 **Getting closer to the time skip! I am** _ **so**_ **looking forward to this.**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	31. Nothing Will Ever Be The Same

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 30! Merry Christmas!**

 **Holy crap. I love the new Star Wars movie.**

 **This was the first time I had a huge amount of writer's block. It sucks. A lot. I even trashed what I had on my phone at first to start over. I'll talk a bit more about why this took a while in the ending AN.**

* * *

 **redlox2: That's just about what I had in mind, yeah. I haven't indicated that people think that Naruto is weaker, have I? Well, even if I have, they don't anymore. And you got it exactly, that's basically their attitude right now. More of indifference.**

 **Kairitrion Cerulean: I kind of get what you're saying. For me, I hate seeing people spell it as "Ay." I like what I have, though.**

 **megaslayer: I named it as Kabuto?**

 **Drakon45: They are currently convinced that Menma and Narumi are the ones indicated in the prophecy, so they don't think about it. Their minds have been set to think that for years, so why bother thinking of it. I liken it to how, when you're young, you get told these innocent lies by your parents that you believe until something specifically brings it up and makes you think about it when you're older.**

 **The Eternal FrostbiteLeo: I have that planned out. Sorry, but not just yet. :P**

 **Guest: Soon-ish. And I brought it up a few chapters ago. It was decided I would just do what I want.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else. I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Deity Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Deity Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **Station of Awakening**

"Ugh…" Blue and violet eyes cracked open as the owner returned to awareness. Sitting up, Naruto took a moment to stretch and yawn widely. After the yawn died down, he glanced around to see that he was lying on the platform in the Station of Awakening. A small frown slowly formed on his face when he realized he was unable to remember going to sleep. Naruto's frown deepened when he closed his eyes and tried to recall the later events of the previous day.

' _The invasion ended and all the genin received their orders…I worked for the rest of the day…I went to Urahara's place…We talked for a bit…'_ Naruto's eyes snapped back open when he finally remembered. _'The undead kage! We got rid of them, but then the remaining light and darkness started acting up.'_ He couldn't remember much after that, but he was pretty sure everything turned out alright. Deciding he wouldn't figure anything further out by just sitting there, Naruto stood up and looked around. "Hikari? Yami?"

"Right here." He turned his head and saw Hikari and Yami standing nearby. Hikari had a small smile on her face while Yami had her usual smirk. "Did you have a nice rest?" Hikari asked.

Naruto shrugged. "I can't complain. I mean, it would have been nice to not have passed out from exhaustion, but it still got the job done." He blinked. "How long have I been asleep?"

"It's nearly morning." Yami responded. "We decided to leave you alone and let your mind rest in addition to your body, so we waited until now to pull you in here." He smiled.

"I understand, thanks." They nodded. Naruto's smile faded and was replaced by a serious look. "I don't know how much you two know about what happened yesterday, but I'll go over the important parts. The invasion started, the heartless got involved, Gaara was nearly consumed by the darkness, I finally got a chance at him with my keyblade…" He sighed. "The heartless started to grow in number, we fought and defeated a higher class heartless, the invasion ended. Later in the day I helped Urahara dispel the jutsu that Orochimaru used on three undead kage, the light and darkness started acting up, and I passed out." He glanced in between them. "Did I say anything you didn't know? Anything you want to add?"

Hikari hummed in thought. "We know a great deal of what happened yesterday, especially when it pertained to something that involved light and darkness…"

Naruto nodded. "Great. The can you answer a few of my questions?" He got two nods in return. "Is the Gaara situation taken care of now? I used my keyblade to lock away the bijū and its darkness."

"You did." Yami agreed. "But as we said, all this did was give him a similar setup to your own seal. This means that if Gaara was ever mentally weakened enough, then the one tail would be able to try to influence him using its hatred as a medium."

"Right…Almost forgot about that possibility." Naruto sighed. "But given what Gaara has already been through, I don't see that as a big risk. He should be adept in staying at least somewhat stable with the bijū locked away as it is, especially after bearing it as he had been for so long."

Hikari nodded. "Exactly. So do not worry about that. Unless something huge happens, Gaara is safe from falling into darkness due to his bijū."

"Great. Next question. Do either of you have any way to stop the heartless from spreading in the world? I don't mean stop them completely, but maybe a way to slow them down so we have time to find the keyhole." He had a slightly hopeful look on his face, but it was wiped away when he got two negative shakes of the head in answer.

"No, we do not. Especially not with the current state that things are in." Hikari said, making Naruto frown slightly.

"What do you mean by that?"

"She's talking about how they were attracted and what they are attracted to." Yami said. "Remember that huge blast of darkness that was created after you defeated the bijū heartless hybrid?" A nod. "Such a concentration of darkness without any long term buildup is _not_ common. That thing was enough to catch the attention of a huge number of heartless. That isn't even mentioning the damage it caused. Add on top of that the fact that there is a large amount of hatred on this world, you can bet that the heartless are interested in this place." She shrugged. "Before now, the only saving grace was that this world is relatively out of the way. This meant that it stayed off the radar of just about everyone."

"But not anymore..." Naruto muttered, getting nods of agreement from the two.

"Not anymore. Now that the heartless have started to take notice of this world, we can't stop them from coming. Maybe we could have slowed them down, sure, but not after how many took notice yesterday." Hikari finished.

The three of them stood in silence for a minute. Eventually, Naruto spoke up. "I definitely need to make finding the keyhole a priority. Urahara said that he would keep an eye out for any potential locations, but we still need to hurry." Naruto paused when a thought came to him. "Wait…Do you two know where the keyhole is?" He asked.

Yami snorted. "Don't you think that we would tell you if we knew?" She shook her head. "Sorry, it isn't that simple."

Naruto sighed. Of course it wouldn't be that easy. "Alright, last question. Do you have any idea what happened yesterday? I mean when I dispelled Orochimaru's jutsu. What was all that with the light and darkness?" This question made them frown.

"We have an idea of what happened and what caused it…" Hikari began.

"But we can't be certain until you get close to the thing that was made and feel it out. If we're right, then it's nothing to worry about." Yami smirked. "It may even prove to be the answer to one of your problems."

The crimson blond quirked an eyebrow and crossed his arms. "Which problem would that be?" Hikari opened her mouth to respond, but it was quickly covered by Yami's hand. Irritation flashed through him when the smirk on Yami's face grew.

"We'll tell you after we're certain of what it is."

"And why can't you just tell me now?"

"Because I don't want to." The simple and childish answer made Hikari roll her eyes and Naruto scowl a bit. With her other hand, Yami started to make shooing motions. "Now go. I'm sure you want to talk to Urahara. Go on, get lost."

"Tch, whatever. See you guys later." Naruto closed his eyes and focused on leaving the station. His body was soon shrouded in a soft glow before it flashed and disappeared.

Seeing that he was gone, Yami retracted her hand. It was at this point that she noticed the dry look that Hikari was giving her. "What?"

"You are so immature sometimes."

"Meh. I can live with that burden."

* * *

 **Urahara Shop**

As he normally did when he went looking for the occupants of the shop, Naruto walked straight to the tea room. "Thanks for putting me in…the…bed…" He began while he walked in, but trailed off when he saw that unlike most times, there was nobody in the room. "Alright then…" He turned around and walked towards the shop area, but quickly saw that there wasn't anyone there either. _'Where are they?'_ After thinking on it for a moment, a conclusion soon came to him. _'Oh, right…'_ He turned and walked back the way he came.

Naruto soon came to the door that led to Urahara's lab. He reached hand out to open it, but paused when a wave of trepidation hit him. _'Please don't have anything blow up in my face…'_ Closing his eyes and bracing himself for whatever may happen, Naruto opened the door. When he didn't immediately feel something blast him back or impact him, he cracked an eye open before releasing a sigh of relief. "Thank Kami…" Taking a quick glance around the room, Naruto spotted Urahara and Soifon standing in front of a large monitor. On the command console was the cube from yesterday, but it was in a glass container.

Soifon glanced towards him as he approached and smirked while Urahara didn't turn away from the data he was reading. "Well, nice to see you up." Soifon greeted.

"Thanks for putting me in the bed." She nodded back to him. "What's going on?" Soifon turned back to the monitor, which prompted Naruto to do the same. It was at that point that he saw an image of the cube that was created on the screen along with a bunch of numbers and symbols. "Figure anything out?"

"Somewhat…" Urahara answered, still not looking away. "I've been analyzing the cube ever since we got it…I've made some progress in learning what it is, but I'm still missing something…Some information that will let me fully understand what it…"

"What have you managed to learn?"

Urahara glanced at him before looking back. "You've explained to us how there are different worlds out there and how they were originally one world, but they are now separated and unable to interact with each other. After you told us this, I grew curious about it and started to do a little research. One of the tests I performed was comparing the 'presence,' for lack of a better term, of each person."

Naruto blinked. "What?"

"What I mean is that every living being in existence gives off a 'presence' of where it comes from. Kind of like a finger print, but not specific to each person. Everyone who is born in a specific world has the same 'presence,' no matter who you are. But people from another world have a different one…For now, I will just call it an aura print. With me so far?"

"Yeah, I think so." Naruto could understand what he was being told, but what did it have to do with the cube? "How did you analyze the aura prints of people?"

Urahara frowned minutely. "I say people, but anyone or anything that has any form of light and darkness has an aura print…That's how I analyzed it. I just compared the light and darkness of people from different worlds. As Soifon and myself are the only known people here to have come from another world, I used my own. I don't need a lot, just enough to analyze. The other half came from various people who came in the shop. I only needed to set up a device that could read the auras people have as they walked through the door."

"And looking closer to each local aura, you realized that they all had the same aura print, right?" Naruto guessed. Urahara smirked.

"Exactly. After that discovery, he compared his aura to my own, and saw that we had an identical aura print, but it was different from everyone in this world." Soifon said.

Urahara sighed and shook his head. "I wish I had some people from a third world to gather more data from, but that is not currently an option. But do you see where I'm going with this?"

Naruto thought about it. "You can determine who and what comes from another world by comparing the aura prints. If you gathered enough samples, you could even begin to identify the worlds that people come from." He looked to Urahara and saw that he had a grin on his face. "Right?"

"You got it. That is what occurred to me after making this learning this. Unfortunately, such a thing will have to wait for the chance to meet people from other worlds to come by. Anyways, there is a reason I brought this up. Like I said, anything thing that has some form of light and darkness has an aura print." He looked back to the screen. "Such as the mysterious cube that was created as a byproduct of your light and the darkness present in the technique merging."

Realization came to Naruto. "So you analyzed the aura print of the cube." A small frown of confusion formed on his face. "So? It was created by my light and the darkness from Orochimaru's technique. While that is two different auras mixing together, wouldn't it result in the same aura print? Orochimaru and I are from the same world."

"You would think so." Soifon said. "But you'd be surprised." Urahara nodded.

"I admit that I really didn't expect anything new when I tested it. It was more out of curiosity than anything else." Urahara pressed a few keys. "But take a look at this." A large portion of the data on the monitor disappeared and the image of the cube moved to the center and was enlarged. Following this, three boxes cropped up around it. In each of the boxes was some type of graph in the form of waves. It was similar to seismometer readings or that of a heart monitor. Urahara pointed to two of the graphs. "Those two are the aura prints of Orochimaru and yourself. Can you spot a difference?"

Naruto frowned and looked closer. The aura prints were still moving as the machine continued to read them, but they were in perfect sync with each other. "No, they're identical. We're from the same world, so we they should be." Urahara nodded.

"Correct. They are identical, as expected. But the third one…" He moved the image to the cube and Orochimaru's print off to the side and brought Naruto's and the unidentified aura print to the center. "This third one was also detected in the composition of the cube. That alone is unexpected, but compare it to your aura print."

Doing so, it took Naruto a minute to spot it. "My aura print is moving at a faster rate, but only a bit. With Orochimaru, they were an exact match." His frown deepened. "But how? They should be the same. And where did this aura print even come from? It should be just Orochimaru and myself, right?"

"That's what stumps me." The cube and third aura print were brought back into focus. "They _should_ be identical, and yet they aren't. I believe that the third aura came from the undead kage. That would explain why there is a third one."

Naruto shook his head. "That doesn't make sense. If it came from them, then wouldn't it still be an exact match? They are from this world."

"I agree with you. That is why I believe there is something I'm missing. I don't know why it is any different…"

Soifon chose that moment to speak back up. "Do you think you can figure anything out?" Naruto blinked and looked over to her. "Out of the three of us, you are the one who is the most in tune with light and darkness. Kisuke can analyze them and gather data, but you are the one who can best sense and interact with them. So do you think that you would be able to figure something out?"

"Maybe…" His eyes widened a bit. "I almost forgot. Hikari and Yami said they might know what the cube is." That statement surprised them slightly.

"They do?"

Shrugging, Naruto answered. "Maybe. They told me to get a feel of it to be certain. I don't know if what you just told me would be enough, but I would like to get a closer look at it."

Urahara nodded. "Sure, that's not a problem." He turned back to the controls and presses a few buttons. The glass encasing the cube immediately retracted. "Knock yourself out. It's safe to touch."

"Got it." Naruto stepped up to the cube and gently picked it up. He blinked in surprise at the texture.

"Surprisingly rubber like and elastic, isn't it?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I didn't think it would feel like this…" He could even squeeze it and make it deform, but it quickly went back to its original shape. After his curiosity was satisfied, Naruto closed his eyes and extended his senses. Because he was holding it, he immediately found what he was looking for.

The aura the block was emitting gave off a calm feeling. The light and darkness balanced each other out and were now coexisting perfectly in the cube. Taking a closer look, Naruto could vaguely detect three different auras in the cube. One he felt originated from him, another from Orochimaru, and the third he remembered feeling from the three undead kage.

Getting what he needed, Naruto opened his eyes and put the cube back. "Didn't really learn anything new, but I can confirm for you that the third aura is definitely from the undead kage."

"As expected…" Urahara nodded. "But why is it a different aura print?"

"No idea, but I'm going to go back and talk to Hikari and Yami." Naruto took a quick glance around and spotted a chair nearby. Sitting down in it, he closed his eyes. "I'll be back in a bit."

* * *

 **Station of Awakening**

Opening his eyes, Naruto immediately saw Hikari and Yami standing in front of him. Yami quirked an eyebrow. "So? What did you find out?"

"Urahara told me that everyone and everything that has any light or darkness has some kind of indication that is unique to them and their world."

Hikari frowned minutely. "That is not the full explanation, but that is technically correct." When she saw the curious expression on Naruto's face she waved a hand. "Don't mind me, it isn't important for now. Please continue."

"Alright…Urahara analyzed the aura of the cube and saw that there are three different aura mixed into it. Mine, Orochimaru's, and those of the undead kage. Looking closer, it was discovered that while Orochimaru and I have the same aura print, the third aura doesn't. It was close, but there was still a bit of a difference. That's what we don't get. Those were undead kage from my world, so shouldn't they have an identical aura print?"

Yami smirked. "That man is good to have even realized that much. There have been people who researched light and darkness in the past, but as far as we know, not many of them discover the aura prints."

Naruto frowned at her. "You told me that you might know what the cube is, but needed me to take a closer look first. There wasn't much for me to do besides confirm what Urahara told me. Do you know what it is? And how does it solve a problem I have?"

"Hearing what you said, we are able to confirm that the block is most likely what we believed it to be." Hikari said. "You are of course aware that the worlds are separated from one another. The space in between the worlds is known as the Ocean Between." A nod. "The things that make sure the worlds don't interact are barriers that act as a guard from outside interference. As long as the barrier of a world stands, that world is separated from the others. It is also what prevents a large amount of heartless from appearing on the world."

"Okay, so as long as the barrier is there, then the world is relatively safe…" Naruto's eyes widened. "You said that the barrier is what stops the heartless from showing up all over the place, but they are now. What happened to this world's barrier? Why didn't it stop them?"

"The barrier was doing its job just fine until yesterday." Yami told him. "It was making sure that the amount of heartless were relatively controlled, but it all came to a stop after your fight with Gaara."

Naruto caught onto what she was saying. "That explosion of darkness. It destroyed the barrier, didn't it?"

"It certainly didn't strengthen it. The barrier was heavily damaged from it, enough for the heartless who suddenly started to travel here to start breaking it completely. This world's barrier will soon collapse fully." Yami gave him a moment to think about it. "When a world's barrier is destroyed, it leaves behind physical remnants. These remnants are special for the reason that because they were a part of something that was between the worlds and the Ocean Between, they are capable of protecting those who travel between worlds."

Hikari took over. "These remnants have had multiple names in the past, but today they are commonly known as gummi blocks."

"Gummi blocks…" Given the texture and shape, he wasn't going to argue about the name. "Wait…you said that they are the remnants of the barriers that shielded the worlds. If that's true, how was one created when I dispelled Orochimaru's jutsu?"

"The gummi block you made is unique. A normal gummi block has trace amounts of light and darkness in it because it has a direct connection to the world and its heart. At the same time, it has a connection to other worlds because it is also a buffer that holds them back." Yami explained. "This means that gummi blocks are often composed from one world's aura, but is accepting of others."

"But that's not what happened here." Naruto said. "This gummi block isn't from a barrier. It was made because of the auras of people who are from this world. There was never the presence of another world to help form it."

Hikari smiled gently. "I'm afraid you're incorrect."

That brought Naruto up short. "…What? How? When did another world get involved?"

Yami smirked at him. "Before even you did. Another world was involved right from the beginning."

"Huh?"

"You said the aura prints of the undead kage were extremely similar to your aura, to the point that it was _almost_ a match. This implies that while there was some kind of connection between them, they are still different. Now explain to me what the purpose of Orochimaru's jutsu was."

"It was…" Naruto frowned. "It brought people back from the dead and made them do his bidding…" He got two nods in return.

"Right." Hikari said. "Do you have any idea where he pulled the souls from?"

Naruto's eyes widened. "You don't mean…The afterlife is a _whole other world_?"

"And he finally gets it!" Yami grinned. "That's _exactly_ what we're saying. In some worlds, the afterlife and the living realm are connected and inhabit the same world, but not this time. The afterlife of this world is a whole different world. It's connected to this one, but still not accessible. Got it?"

He slowly nodded. "I understand…The fact that it was a different world would have normally made the creation of the gummi block impossible, but because it was essentially a sister world to this one, it was compatible. The end result of the auras mixing was the gummi block we have…" He frowned when he remembered what Yami had previously told him. "But how does this help me?"

Yami rolled her eyes. "You weren't listening. I told you that gummi blocks can protect people who travel between worlds." His eyes widened. "Oh, good. You're catching on. When a large amount of gummi blocks are gathered, they can be formed into vessels known as gummi ships."

"So I don't have to risk travelling using the Corridor of Darkness…" A sense of relief washed through Naruto. "I was worried about relying on that. I'm still not good enough with corridors and it tires me out too much. Traveling long distances with them is hard."

"You just suck at it."

Naruto glared at Yami for the comment, but he didn't react to it. "So I should start gathering more gummi blocks."

"That would be a good choice, yes." Hikari said. "You may find gummi blocks as you travel. Keep in mind that there are special gummi blocks that you need if you wish to actually get anywhere. The basic ones are good for structure, but not for navigation and weaponry." While Naruto had been nodding along, he froze at the last word.

"Wait. Weaponry? Why would I need weapons on my gummi ship in the Ocean Between?"

Yami snickered. "Do you really think that there are no dangers out there? No way. There are heartless in the Ocean Between. They even have their own ships."

"…You're kidding."

Hikari smiled apologetically at him. "I'm afraid not."

"Hm…I'll talk to Urahara about it…" He smiled at the two of them. "Thanks for the information. I'll head back now."

"Fine."

"Until next time."

* * *

 **Urahara Shop**

Naruto came back to awareness and saw that Urahara and Soifon had gone back to performing tests on the gummi block. He stood up and walked over to them. "Find out anything new?" He asked, but was rewarded with two negative responses.

"Not a thing." Urahara glanced back to him. "What about you? Did Hikari and Yami tell you about it?"

"Yeah. It's called a gummi block…"

* * *

 **One Retelling Later**

"Interesting. Very interesting…" Urahara muttered while looking over the data again. "That would explain quite a bit…"

Soifon had an interested look on her face. She and Naruto were standing a few feet behind Urahara. "So this world's afterlife is a whole different world? I just assumed that none of you had the ability to detect its presence…"

Naruto gave her a confused look. "What? Why would we be able to do that?"

"Back in our world, the afterlife was a part of the same world as the realm of the living." Urahara explained without looking away from the screen.

"It was?" The surprise was obvious in Naruto's tone.

"Yes. Going by the standard that one barrier holds one world, it can be argued that our world was split into five or six smaller worlds." The shop owner said. "The realm of the living and the afterlife were two of them. While most living humans are unaware of the afterlife, it is still possible for some to interact with it…But that isn't the case in this world…"

"Which is why I was surprised." Soifon smiled. "It is kind of weird to know that the afterlife of this world is a whole different world."

Urahara hummed in thought. "It is interesting, but it really isn't that different. In our world, it was meant to be that way…It basically was for most people." He pressed a few keys. "Anyways, you said that gummi blocks can help you travel between worlds?"

Naruto walked up to the spot next to him. "Yeah. If I can get enough of them, then I can make a gummi ship." He frowned. "I'm still not completely sure how it works, but there are special gummi blocks out there that I need to travel to worlds. I'm going to have to start looking out for them."

"Sounds like a good idea." Soifon said. "We can make the ship, but it won't do you any good if you can't get anywhere with it."

"My thoughts exactly." Naruto turned to Urahara. He didn't like asking the man for favors, but he didn't exactly have anyone to ask for help. "Do you think you would be able to figure out how to make a ship if I bring you the necessary gummi blocks?" He asked.

In a flash, Urahara had whirled around and had his fan out. The usual annoying smile was back in place, as if it was there the entire time. "Of course! Who do you think I am, Naruto-kun? Something like this is child's play for a person as great as me!"

Naruto's eyebrow started twitching, but he tried to remain calm. "Right, thank you."

"It isn't a problem. I'll be sure to build you the best gummi ship any world has ever seen!" Urahara quickly whirled back to the computer. "In fact, I might be able to get started sooner, rather than later…Just get me one of those gummi blocks needed to navigate and I will have the ship done in no time!"

A dubious look crossed Naruto's face. "And how will you do that? We only have a one gummi block…"

"Oh, ye of little faith. Just leave it to me! I bet I can even get this done in a week or two!"

Naruto opened his mouth to question him further, but stopped when he decided it wasn't worth it. "Whatever…" He glanced at the clock. "I'm going to take a quick shower, grab a bite to eat, and then head out to meet my team."

"Sounds good."

"Sure, sure. Have fun!" Naruto instantly realized that Urahara would soon be completely engrossed in the task presented to him. With a sigh, he turned and walked towards the door. It would be best to leave before things started smoking and exploding.

Urahara was undeniably a genius…but he was still a pain in the ass.

* * *

 **Training Ground 12**

"Morning, Naruto."

"Hello."

"Hey guys." Naruto smiled at his teammates as he walked into the training ground. Looking around, he confirmed what he had expected. "Yūgao-sensei isn't here yet." It was more of an observation than a question, but Yakumo still shook her head.

"No, she isn't. But that isn't really a surprise given how busy she must be." She gained a downcast look when she said this.

Sai nodded. "Yes, it would make sense for the jōnin of the village to have a busy schedule following the invasion."

"Exactly. I'm willing to bet that a lot of them didn't even get a chance to go home last night." Naruto said.

"You would win that bet." The three of them turned to see Yūgao appearing a few feet away in a swirl of leaves. "In fact, I'm one of those people. I've been out all night patrolling the nearby area."

Yakumo gave her a concerned look. "Are you alright, sensei?"

Yūgao smiled back at her. "Yes, I'm fine. Don't worry about me, I'm not a jōnin for nothing." She looked over them for a moment. "The three of you will be doing missions without me today. I'm needed elsewhere, so I have to leave you three alone. I should be finished sometime today, so I will be come by to meet you later. This could very well be the typical routine for the next few days, although something else may come up. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am!"

She nodded. "Then let's get moving."

* * *

 **Missions Office**

"Hey! Who is taking the lumber gathering mission?!"

"We need someone to take the delivery mission to the border guards!"

"It's time for a patrol shift! Who's next?!"

"Why hasn't that training ground damage report been submitted yet?!"

"And what about the one for the stadium?!"

The genin of team 12 stared in bewilderment at the chaos ensuing in the room. It was filled to the brim with shouting mission dispatchers with papers covering the floor. It was clear that a backlog of missions was piling up after the invasion.

"What the hell…" Naruto muttered.

"This is…lively…" Yakumo ventured.

"It would be wise for them to acquire a more efficient method." Sai finished.

It was at that point that a nearby dispatcher noticed them. "Hey! You guys are a genin team, right?! I need you to take this mission!" He threw a scroll at them and Naruto caught it. "Get moving!"

Naruto stared at him for a moment before glancing to the scroll in his hand. His eyes then turned to Yūgao, who grinned. "You heard the man, get to it. Report back here after the mission to receive the next one. Keep doing that until I come by to stop you."

"…Right…" Naruto had to fight to keep the grimace off of his face. He just _knew_ that today would be a pain. "I assume you're going to report to the Hokage to receive your mission?"

"You got it."

"Why are you still there?! Hurry up!"

The grin on Yūgao's face turned slightly sadistic. "Be sure to give it your all!" She disappeared in a swirl of leaves. The three of them glanced to one another before sighing in unison.

* * *

 **Streets of Konoha (Later)**

The sun was starting to set in the sky as Team 12 trudged back to the Hokage tower to turn in their latest mission. After an entire day filled with nothing but missions and running all over the village, they were ready to call it a quits. While they weren't as tired as they had been the day before, it was still taxing to spend an entire day on the move and working.

"I hope that was the last one…" Yakumo muttered.

Naruto nodded tiredly. "That would be great, wouldn't it?" He glanced at the position of the sun. "I can't imagine us fitting in much more today. Yūgao-sensei should step in soon…"

"As a matter of fact, I'm going to step in now." They turned their heads to see a grinning Yūgao standing nearby.

' _There is no way she_ doesn't _wait for one of us to say something before appearing…'_ Although he thought this, Naruto was smart enough to not say anything, instead choosing to grin tiredly. "Hey, sensei. Am I glad to see you."

Yakumo immediately nodded. "I'm in complete agreement with Naruto, sensei. We missed having you around."

Yūgao smirked. "Yeah, sure. That's why you guys are happy to see me. It has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that me being here means that you guys are done doing missions." She rolled her eyes when she saw the two innocent looks she was getting. "You will never convince anyone with those faces." She turned away. "Naruto and Yakumo, follow me. I don't want to wind up late like Kakashi. Sai, you're dismissed."

The three genin blinked and traded glances when she said that. "Why isn't Sai coming? And late to what?" Yakumo asked.

"Sai isn't coming because it was just you two who were requested to come. That's just how it is." Naruto and Yakumo frowned, but didn't argue. "As for what we would be late to…" They couldn't see it, but they could practically _feel_ the smirk growing on Yūgao's face. "Late to the important meeting, of course."

* * *

 **Hokage Tower**

The three of them filed into a rather spacious room. Once they had entered, Yūgao spoke up as Naruto and Yakumo stood behind her. "Requested members of Team 12 reporting, Hokage-sama." As his sensei said this, Naruto took a quick glance around the room.

Standing in a row in the center of the room were Menma, Narumi, Sasuke, Misa, Shino, Shikamaru, Samui, and Omoi. The Raikage, B, and Darui were also present. Standing off to the side and speaking in low tones were Shikaku and Ibiki. The jōnin sensei of the present genin were standing by the other wall. Minato was standing by a window next to A. On the far wall of the room was a large screen.

When he heard Yūgao speak, he turned and smiled at them. "Good to see you're on time. The genin are to line up with the others while the jōnin stand to the side." She nodded in understanding and they moved as told. Minato glanced at the clock. "The stragglers should arrive at any-" Bam! He was cut off when the door was flung open and a body was tossed inside. "Moment." Nobody needed to double check to confirm that it was Kakashi sprawled out on the floor with an irate Kushina standing in the doorway. "Now that we're all here, we can get started. Kushina, please close the door." Kushina nodded while glaring at Kakashi, who was scrambling towards the other jōnin. She turned and closed the door.

Minato's smile grew and he looked at the genin. "Welcome, all of you. I understand that you are tired from a long day of running missions, but I believe that this is something you would want to hear."

Naruto raised an eyebrow and took another quick glance around to double check who was there. If he had to guess why they were there based on who was in the room…He felt another wave of exhaustion hit him as he realized the probable reason for them to be there.

' _Damn it all…I thought we were done with this…I don't know if I want to do this again…'_

"Some of you may have already guessed the reason as to why you were called here." Minato continued.

"…This is about the chūnin exams, isn't it?" Shikamaru ventured. He looked extremely reluctant as he said this, much to Shikaku's amusement. The question served to catch the interest of the genin who did not guess the reason.

Minato grinned, but A was the one to respond. "Exactly. Because of the invasion, the exams were interrupted before they could finish. This left us without any new chūnin."

"So we decided to do something about it." Minato continued. "We won't be continuing the tournament style exam, but instead be doing something new." He gestured to Shikaku. "Shikaku will explain what you will have to do." He nodded to the Nara head, who nodded back and walked over to the screen.

Shikaku started speaking as the lights dimmed. "As you all know, Orochimaru was the one to orchestrate the invasion. While he had the expected help from Oto and Suna, there was another addition that caught us off guard." An image of a soldier heartless appeared on the screen. "These creatures are known as 'The Heartless.' They are Orochimaru's newest tool to do his bidding." The screen cycled through pictures of the different types of heartless. "As you can see, they come in many shapes and forms. While they had initially only appeared when Orochimaru called them, it is obvious that they are starting to appear on their own around the world."

Naruto frowned minutely. _'Where is this going?'_

"Because this is the first time that anyone has ever seen something like this, we have no information on them." He turned back to the genin. "That's where you guys come in." The screen changed to display a map of the elemental nations. "Each of you will head north towards Kumo. You will be leaving from different locations and be travelling towards different destinations. Your mission is to record and document on different types of heartless as you travel. You will be graded based on how well you do so and how quickly you complete the mission."

' _I_ really _don't like this.'_

"Each of you will be judged on how many types of documents you record, with favorable judgement going to those who detail an effective method to kill the types documented. The time constraint is one week. You will have a week to travel to Kumo and document the different types of heartless." He paused to let them grasp what the task was. "The exam will begin in a few days. We are simply waiting on confirmation from the Land of Hot Water and the Land of Frost because you will need to pass through them. Keep in mind to avoid the Land of Sound. We have no confirmation as to Oto's exact location, but we know the general area." He glanced at the genin. "If you have questions or would like to forfeit, now is the time to speak."

"We are travelling alone, right?" Narumi got a silent nod in return. "What are the chances of getting attacked by an enemy while travelling?"

Shikaku smirked. "Good question. It's troublesome, but tensions are high between us and Oto, so they are obviously aren't our friends right now. We will have allies posted in most of the towns and villages along the way, but never drop your guard. As for the heartless, you will most likely be attacked by them. But if you keep calm, plan your moves, and conserve your energy, then they shouldn't be much of a problem." He glanced around again. "Any more questions?"

"Yeah. I was disqualified a month ago in the preliminaries. Should I really be here for this?" Misa asked.

"You and another are here because you showed skill, patience, leadership, and planning during the invasion. It was for that reason that it was decided to give you another chance." Shikaku's eyes slid over to Kakashi. "Although there was another situation where it was debated if a genin should be allowed to compete after being late, it was allowed after it was classed as a 'tactical move' to throw off the enemy…" Kakashi averted his gaze. "…Troublesome. I assume there are no further questions?" None were raised.

Minato smiled and nodded. "Great. We will contact you in a few days when we are ready to begin. For now, you are all excused from any and all duties so you have a chance to prepare. You're all dismissed." The genin and most of the jōnin left the room, leaving nobody but Minato, A, Killer B, Kakashi, Shikaku, and Kushina in the room.

Kushina frowned. "I really don't like this, Minato. We are using them as bait."

Her words made Minato's smile fall with a heavy sigh. "I don't like it either, but it needs to be done. Orochimaru has grown into too much of a threat. Just look at the heartless. We need to eliminate him as soon as possible. The best way to do that is by baiting him with what he really wants."

A crossed his arms. "This is the life of a shinobi. Some sacrifices are needed. I can't say I like this plan, but you cannot deny how effective it is."

"They are children-"

"They are shinobi." Shikaku interrupted. "Kushina-sama, I understand how you feel perfectly well. I'm sending my own son out there as well. I would like to do nothing more than to lock him up at home and wait for this entire thing to blow over, but I know that isn't an option." He sighed and looked out the window. Night was quickly descending upon the village. "It's troublesome, but we just have to have faith in them."

Kakashi nodded. "They're right, senpai." He gave her an eye smile. "Everything will turn out alright. After all, we will be stationed nearby throughout the entire exam."

Although it was obvious that she was still extremely reluctant to agree to this, Kushina eventually nodded.

* * *

 **Streets of Konoha**

Naruto was walking down the road alone on his way to the Urahara Shop. _'There is_ absolutely _no way that this won't go wrong. In fact, that's probably the plan…'_ Naruto was fully aware that this exam would take them beyond Konoha's protective walls and put them even closer to Orochimaru.

"Naruto!" He paused when he heard a familiar voice call his name. Turning, he saw Misa jogging to catch up with him. He smiled and raised a hand in greeting.

"Hey. Congrats on getting back in this thing."

Misa smirked. "As if they could deny the chance of having someone as awesome as me in the final exam." Her smirk fell and was replaced by a serious look. Seeing her expression, Naruto mirrored it. "You have a chance to talk?"

He nodded. "Yeah, that's fine with me." He was pretty sure he knew what she wanted to talk about.

"Great, let's go somewhere else. I doubt this is something we should be talking about in public."

"Lead the way."

She turned and lead him back towards the Hokage monument. The two of them walked in silence as they climbed the stairs. At the top of the monument was a large grassy field that let them see the entire village. Naruto and Misa were the only ones there due to the time.

After reaching the top, Naruto and Misa simply stood next to each other as they looked out to the village. Naruto couldn't help but admit to himself that it was a beautiful view, especially with the cloudless night sky.

 **Play Sword Art Online OST: At Our Parting Piano Version Extended**

Looking up, he was entranced by the sight of the countless stars shining. A small smile appeared on his face as he gazed at the sky.

"What's got you smiling?" He was pulled from his thoughts by the sound of his friend's voice.

"Hm?"

"I asked why you're suddenly smiling." A smirk appeared on her lips. "Is it because you're alone with a pretty girl while no one is around?"

Naruto snorted. "You wish that was it."

She leaned closer to him. "No need to be shy. It's perfectly understandable." She reached up a hand and traced a finger along one of his whisker marks as she brought her lips closer to his ear. "Who knows? You just might get lucky~" She whispered.

Dead silence.

"Pft!" At the same time, the two of them started to crack up. They spent the next few minutes simply laughing. After she finally regained control, Misa smiled at him. "But really, what's on your mind?"

Naruto smiled and looked back to the stars. "Do you believe in other worlds?"

Misa blinked. "What?"

"I asked if you believe in the existence of other worlds."

She followed his line of sight and looked at the stars. "Different worlds? I…don't know. Do you?"

"Well…If we're here on this world…then wouldn't that mean that there could be other worlds out there?"

Misa considered his words. "I guess…It's possible…"

Naruto's smile grew. "When I look at the stars, I can't help but wonder. This is the only world we have ever known…How does it compare to other worlds? Are they like ours? Are there people there? Do they look like us?"

"You've put some thought into this…"

"I guess I have…"

"…If you could go to another world, would you?" Naruto's eyes widened in surprise.

"Would I go given the chance?"

"Yeah. If you had a chance to go and travel between worlds, would you take it?"

"…I would."

"Even if it meant leaving everyone behind?" His eyes widened even further and he turned his head to Misa to see that she was staring directly at him.

"I…"

"Would you leave? Even if it meant that you would have to sever the bonds you have with everyone here that you would leave behind?"

He looked back to the sky. "No. I would never sever my bonds. I fight to protect what's important to me. My bonds are the reason I fight. I would be sure to come back." Misa smiled at this and turned back to the sky.

"Good answer." They stood there in silence for another minute before Naruto spoke.

"So, you have a bad feeling about this exam too?" Although he wasn't facing her, Naruto could picture Misa's expression based on the heavy sigh she gave.

"Yeah. I'm not stupid and I know you've figured it out as well…" He nodded.

"We're acting as bait. While we may very well be promoted, they want to lure out Orochimaru, who has shown a large amount of interest in some of the genin."

"Don't act like you're not one of the ones he is interested in."

"…"

"…Just be sure to be careful, alright? That freak is nothing but trouble."

"I got it." He smiled and looked at her. "You have nothing to worry about. Like I said, I will be sure to come back." He bumped shoulders with her, prompting her to look at him. "So you be sure to come back too." A small smile blossomed on her face.

"It's a promise." Something flashed in the corner of her eye. She looked back to the sky and her smile grew bigger. "Look!" Turning his head back to see what caught her attention, Naruto's eyes widened in surprise before a smile appeared on him as well.

High up in the sky was a streak of light. It soon disappeared, but was replaced by another, with more soon following. "A meteor shower…" Misa whispered before closing her eyes.

Naruto glanced at her and raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing?" He couldn't see it, but a light dust of pink coated her cheeks, but she didn't answer. He smirked at her. "You're making a wish, aren't you? You believe in that?" She opened her eyes and glared at him.

"Shut up! So what if I do?" She looked back to the meteor shower. "There's nothing wrong with it."

"Hm…" Naruto turned back to the meteor shower as well. He wasn't sure how, but he knew what it meant. This was a sign that the barrier protecting the world had now fully collapsed. He knew this perfectly well.

And yet he couldn't stop himself from smiling.

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 30!**

 **Change of plans! And a big one! I had been partway through the chapter when a big wave of writer's block hit me. I was brainstorming how to proceed when I got** _ **this**_ **idea. Well, I thought of something like it around chapter 17, but I never really considered doing it until now. I have now effectively sped things up in a manner I actually like! Worship me!**

 **This** _ **also**_ **means that I need to finish choosing the worlds sooner. Can you guys please give me some suggestions? Just leave them in a review! Whether it be a game, anime/manga/light novel, book, movie, or TV show, speak up! I will admit here and now I am more likely to choose anime/manga/light novel or game suggestions. I also reserve the right to ignore each and every one of you to instead do what I want.**

 **The concept of an aura print is something I just made up. I got some inspiration from the Bleach anime where Urahara tried finding the "Spiritual Sound" of the mod souls in the Bount arc…Either that, or the concept of an aura print is something that** _ **is**_ **canon and I just can't remember it fully.**

 **I took the name Gummi** _ **Block**_ **a little too literally and didn't remember that they don't always look like blocks until a few days later…Oh well. I'll just be sure not to do that in the future.**

 **Fun fact: I modeled Misa after Mikoto Misaka from the To Aru series. That's also where I derived her name from.**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	32. A Different Kind of Angel

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 31!**

 **You didn't really think that after such a late update last time, I wouldn't make up for it, did you? Also, this totally counts as a chapter released on Tuesday…Or at least, it was close enough…**

 **My Youtube Red trial ended and now I'm having a lot of trouble readjusting to not being able to keep a video going in the background on my phone and having ads…I would pay for it, but I don't want to pay for it** _ **and**_ **Spotify. And Spotify is cheaper…**

 **Keep the world recommendations coming, people! I also enjoy reading the reasons you give as to why I should include the ones you suggest.**

 **Hey, just curious, but do people want me to start adding chapter titles? It is something I've been wondering for a while, but never tried. I would have done it before now, but I find that there are sometimes spoilers in the titles.**

 **I was recently asked to stop adding sound effects when I write. Reading that guy's argument, I can see his point. I gave it a try in this chapter (Except for one part) and I realized that adding sound effects is something I'm so used to doing, that it feels weird when I don't. But whatever, I'll get over it.**

 **I'm not sure how to feel about this chapter. I feel the events are a good set up for what I have planned, but I'm worried about the execution. Because I sped things up a bit, some changes had to be made to how I did it. This was the only part that I had a little trouble adjusting.**

* * *

 **redlox2: I feel it would be stupid of me to wait on including the nobodies until then, but I'm not completely sure as to when I would include them.**

 **LordGhostStriker: :P**

 **Guest: Sora and Riku exist, yes.**

 **prototype gear: I already said that keyholes are often found in obvious places…**

 **Kagavamaru: Thanks! I'm hesitant to call this the best KHxNaruto story, but I'm definitely happy with how far along it has come.**

 **rinsegaku: Lazy Afternoons was one of the final four contenders for which song I would put there. In the end, I ruled it out as an option because I felt like it was just a** _ **bit**_ **too upbeat for what I was aiming for. In my opinion, Treasured Memories just flowed better.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else. I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Deity Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Deity Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **Urahara Shop (Two Days Later)**

Boom!

Naruto ignored the small explosion and continued to calmly eat his meal. After he swallowed his current bite, he glanced back towards the door that led towards Urahara's lab. "He's been making noise for a while now…" He said offhandedly.

Soifon smirked a bit and took a bite of her own meal. "True, but he also seems to be having a lot of fun…It must be incredibly interesting for him to have something brand new to research. He's always been like that."

"Hm…" Naruto took another bite as he thought about what she told him. "Ever since that conversation two days ago, he has been holed up in there…"

"Well, I'm sure he will come out when he gets too hungry."

"Or he will be too much of an idiot to notice…" The crimson blond blinked when Soifon's smirk grew. "What are you smirking abou-"

"Naruto-kun!" Suddenly, a pair of arms wrapped around Naruto and a loud voice was annoyingly close to his ear. "Why are you so mean to me?!"

Naruto growled before raising his arms off to throw the man off. "Get off me-ttebayo!" He struggled for a minute, but was met with no success. "Why are you so damn annoying?!"

The hug tightened. "I'm only trying to show you how much I care!"

"Whatever! Just let go of me!"

"Okay." And just like that, Naruto was freed and Urahara was calmly sitting in his seat with a plate in front of him, as if he was there the entire time. "So, what have you two been up to since I saw you last?"

Soifon shrugged. "Nothing much for me. Just relaxing and some light sparring with Naruto."

Naruto nodded. "Besides the spars, I've been in my room gathering everything I need and mapping out the best possible routes to get to Kumo. I think I've studied the area well enough so I won't get lost." A small frown made its way onto Naruto's face when Urahara paused when he heard him. "What?"

"You've spent the last two days here?" Urahara stopped eating and turned to look at Naruto to ask that.

"Yeah…?" Naruto didn't see a problem with that. "Why? Am I starting to overstay my welcome?"

Urahara quickly shook his head. "No, you're always welcome to stay here for as long as you'd like." Naruto couldn't help the small smile that appeared when he heard that. "It's just…" Urahara shared a glance with Soifon, who seemed to understand where this was going.

"Naruto…" She began, making said genin's attention shift to her. "You are leaving for Kumo tomorrow morning, right?" Naruto nodded.

He received word earlier that day that those participating in the exam would leave tomorrow morning at eight. That left him a little more than twelve hours before he would have to go to the specified meeting point. "Yes." He didn't see a problem with that.

Urahara sighed, apparently _he_ did see a problem with it. "I'll get straight to the point…You have spent the entirety of the training month before the invasion here and then after the invasion, you continued to stay here. I at first thought you would return home after the invasion, but it is now obvious that isn't the case. Naruto, is there a reason you aren't returning back home?" Naruto stiffened. "I know it isn't because of that argument you had over a month ago, so what is it?"

Instead of answering, Naruto looked away with a conflicted look on his face. His mind went back to a conversation he had before the invasion.

" _I never stopped caring! How could you think that?!"_

" _Very easily."_

" _And you know what I realized over the years? If you don't care, then neither should I."_

' _I can't believe I said that…'_ He was both embarrassed and ashamed of himself for what he said to Kushina. But even then, a part of his mind felt vindictive pleasure at the crushed look on her face when she heard those words.

After he cooled down and got a chance to think, Naruto realized he probably could have handled that situation better. He still definitely could have handled it worse, but telling his mother that he doubted her feelings for him may not been the best course of action. Over the past few months, both Kushina and Minato seemed genuinely remorseful.

He shook his head. Acting like they regretted their actions over the past few months did not make up for years of forgetting he was there and indifference. Looking back to Urahara and Soifon for a moment, the both of them having remained silent has he thought, Naruto spoke up. "It's nothing. I just feel more comfortable here."

Urahara didn't buy it for a moment. "Naruto…" The intent was clear.

With a heavy sigh, Naruto turned back to them with a reluctant expression. "…On the day of the invasion, I…had a small argument with my mother."

Soifon's face gained an understanding and sympathetic look. "What was it about?" She asked.

"She was relieved to see that I was fine after disappearing without warning for a month…It turned into her wanting to know where I've been…One thing led to another, and I flat out questioned the genuineness of her worry. I eventually just walked away and didn't see her again until the other day."

The room was silent for a moment. Urahara sighed again. "What were your exact words? What exactly did you say when you walked out?"

Naruto closed his eyes. "'If you don't care, then neither should I.'" He opened his eyes back up, revealing a determined glint in them. "And it's true, I shouldn't care. They never cared, so I see no reason as to why I should."

Soifon gazed into his eyes. "You should care because she is your mother and she loves you."

"Ha…I wonder about that…"

"I can't defend the actions of your parents over the past years." She shook her head. "In fact, I don't even want to. I hate what they did…But it's clear that they are trying to make up for it now. Wouldn't it be best to try and open up a bit to them?"

Naruto glared. "I don't see why I should."

"I find your choice of words very interesting." They both looked over to Urahara, who had remained silent for the last minute while looking down in thought. Naruto tilted his head.

"What do you mean?"

Urahara looked back to him. "Your choice of words. 'If you don't care, then neither _should_ I.'" Naruto's eyes widened. "'And it's true, I _shouldn't_ care.' All of your words point to you feeling like you shouldn't care." He leaned forward. "But in reality, you actually do care, don't you?" Naruto looked away, avoiding all eye contact. "You _do_ care, and it's tearing you up inside, isn't it?"

Dead silence.

All three of them sat in silence as they waited for someone to speak. Urahara was waiting for Naruto to answer his question, Soifon was waiting for the same, while Naruto was hoping he wouldn't have to. Eventually, Naruto grit his teeth and looked back up.

"Yes, I care. I care that they chose to let me sit on the sidelines and watch them be there for Narumi and Menma as they grew up. I care that they, along with the others, never gave me the time of day. I care that that never showed any interest in what I did or how well I did it. I care about how they chose to leave me behind!" He ended with a shout. "…I care, I really do. I wish I didn't…but I can't help it." His voice lessened in volume until it was nothing but a whisper.

Soifon got up and moved to the spot next to Naruto before slinging an arm around his shoulders. "Then you should do something about it." She said quietly.

He glanced to her. "What should I do? And why should I do it? They pushed me away first, I'm only acting how I have in the past…Why should I give them another chance?"

"You should do it because they are your parents and it is very obvious they regret what happened." She took her arm back. "I'm not saying that you should just throw your heart out there, but maybe a small chance…"

Urahara nodded. "Spend some time around them. Maybe after a while, you can decide for yourself if you would like to forgive them."

Naruto thought about what they said. "Honestly, I'm still unsure. Part of me wants to just turn away from them and never look back…Actually, a lot of me wants that…"

"But…" Soifon began.

"But, I trust your judgements…" Naruto looked between them. "I'll talk to them for a bit tomorrow before I leave." He got two smiles and nods in return. Wanting to change the subject, Naruto asked something that had been on his mind for a while. "Hey, where's Yoruichi? I haven't seen him in a while…" Come to think of it, he hasn't seen him since before the invasion…

Soifon and Urahara traded looks. A smirk formed on Urahara's face, but it was quickly covered by his fan. Soifon was the one to turn back and answer the question. "You already know that Yoruichi is a cat that likes to disappear every now and then…" Naruto nodded. "This time, Yoruichi actually decided to explore the Elemental Nations for a little while."

Naruto's eyes widened. "What about the heartless? What if he's attacked?"

For some reason, Naruto voicing this concern made Urahara chuckle. "Don't you worry, Naruto-kun." He said. "Yoruichi can handle himself in a fight. I'm positive that any heartless that attacked him would be quickly defeated."

Although reluctant to accept such an answer, Naruto eventually nodded.

* * *

 **Uzumaki-Namikaze Household (The Next Morning)**

Naruto took a deep breath as he stood in front of the front door of his house. He was technically just returning home, but he still felt hesitant. That morning, Naruto had gotten up early and packed the things he would need before saying his goodbyes to both Soifon and Urahara. On his way out, they had both given him sentiments of good luck and the request to be careful. Even Urahara was able to remain serious throughout the exchange.

They both were well aware of what was likely to happen during this exam.

Bringing his mind back to the present, Naruto shook his head before raising a hand towards the doorknob. All it took was a small pump of his chakra before the seal matrix on the house identified him and unlocked the door. He walked into the house and took a look around. No one in sight so fa-

"Nii-chan!" He was immediately bowled over by a speeding Narumi.

' _Why does that always happen?'_ Was he jinxing himself? It seemed like every other time he thought about how he had expected something to happen, it would then immediately happen. Mostly when people appearing out of nowhere was concerned.

Naruto turned his head around to see the grinning face of his sister laying on his back. Her grin grew in size when she saw that she had his attention. "You haven't been back in forever-ttebane! It was weird not having you around!"

"Narumi…Please get off of me…" Naruto requested.

Without her smile faltering for even a second, Narumi jumped off of her brother before tugging him to his feet. "Come on! Everyone else is in the living room. Kaa-chan and Tou-chan were just about to talk to us." He didn't fight her as she semi-forced him to follow. "Hey, everyone! I told you Nii-chan would come!"

Entering the room, Naruto and Narumi was greeted with the sight of Menma sitting on the couch with a small smile on his face and a surprised looking Kushina and Minato standing nearby. Kushina looked to be even more surprised than Minato that Naruto had showed up. After a moment of silent staring, Naruto nodded his head to them in greeting.

Seeing that, Minato gained a smile that could have lit the entire room. "Naruto! You're back!" Kushina seemed extremely pleased as well, but there was also some hesitation present. "We were just about to talk to Narumi and Menma. We were planning on trying to talk with you once we met up with you, but you being here is even better!" He motioned towards the couch. "Could you two please take a seat on the couch?" Narumi nodded to him with a grin. Not letting Naruto go for a moment, she walked over to the couch before pushing him down into the middle of it. Menma was sitting on his left while Narumi took a seat on his right.

Now that they were seated, Minato nodded. "Great, now I will get started. Today all three of you are going to go out and travel towards Kumo, you know that." His grin dimmed before their eyes. "I just want you to understand how serious this situation is. You will all be departing alone. No teammates, no one to point out the way, and no one to cover your back." His grin recovered. "Despite this, I want you to understand how proud we are of you three…" Naruto suppressed a flinch. "But we still worry." He sighed. "I want you to never let your guards down. Always be aware of your surroundings and don't jump into things that you are unsure that you can handle…"

Kushina took over for him. "This is only an exam. We have allies from both Konoha and Kumo posted at various locations in between here and there. If you run into trouble, help won't be far. A good shinobi knows when the risks are too great."

' _They're telling us to get out of there when things get serious.'_

Minato sighed again and wrapped an arm around Kushina. "I know we just sound like a couple of worrywarts, but please, bear with us." His smile returned. "I know all of you will do fantastic." A similar bloomed on Kushina's face. Glancing at the clock, he spoke up. "We should get going soon." He looked over the three of them briefly. "I can tell Naruto is already prepped and ready to go, but you two should go finish gathering your gear." Narumi nodded with a grin while Menma saluted. The two of them then got to their feet and left the room, leaving the other three behind. A slightly awkward silence descended.

Naruto opted to watch the far wall in silence to pass the time. Minato and Kushina watched him for a minute before trading silent looks. It seemed like an entire conversation was being conducted with no words.

"Hey…" At the sound of his voice, Minato and Kushina turned back to Naruto. "Can I ask you two something?" He was still looking away.

Minato smiled and nodded. "Of course."

"First, please put a silencing seal up." This request greatly confused the other two in the room.

"How come?" Minato asked, but Naruto only shook his head.

"You'll understand after I ask my question." Although still confused, Minato eventually nodded and walked over to a wall before activating a privacy seal.

"It's up."

Taking a deep breath, Naruto prepared himself for what he was about to ask. "Why did you leave me behind?"

 **Play Naruto Shippuden OST - Loneliness Extended**

That wasn't exactly what he wanted to ask, or even how he wanted to ask it, but it was the biggest question in his mind.

Kushina and Minato were stunned at the question. "W-What do you mean?" Minato asked. "We never left you behind." Kushina stayed silent.

"You did. The two of you, Kakashi, Jiraiya, Tsunade, you all left me behind. You all put me on the sidelines and focused on Menma and Narumi…You pretty much forgot about me." He looked back to them. "I want to know why." He would decide here and now if he wanted to forgive them or not.

It all just depended on what they said to answer.

"We…" Minato began. "We never did! There's no way…" He trailed off. Minato would love nothing more than to deny what Naruto was saying, but he knew that he couldn't. "…We did…"

Naruto nodded, a glare forming. "Yes, you did. You both started acting like I didn't exist when I was four. I was forced to start doing things on my own. I ate by myself. I went places by myself. I trained by myself. _I grew up by myself_." They looked extremely ashamed at what he was saying. "I know you've been wondering where I learned everything I know. When I learned and from who?" He got a hesitant nod from the both of them.

"I started learning how to use a sword when I was six." Heterochromatic eyes shifted to Kushina. "I went out and found someone willing to teach me after you told me you were too busy teaching Menma and Narumi."

Kushina looked shocked to hear that. "I-I did that?" She got a nod in return.

"Yes, you did. The first thing I did when I wanted to learn how to use a sword was come to you in the hopes that you would teach me." Naruto's glare deepened. "But I was immediately shot down and forced to look for other options." His glare was slowly replaced by a fond smile and he looked away. "In hindsight, that might have been a good thing." Yoruichi only brought him to Urahara because he mentioned that he needed to learn how to use a sword.

He returned to the moment and his smile disappeared. "I found someone willing to teach me, willing to talk to me, willing to _spend time with me_. I started leaving the house more and more to train and spend time in other places." Naruto complained about Urahara a lot, but he knew for a fact that he would never regret walking into that shop while following a cat.

"Time passed, things didn't change, and I started to lose interest." Naruto sighed before looking back to Kushina. "Then out of nowhere, years later, you started acting strange while in the Land of Waves."

Kushina knew exactly what he was talking about. She remembered the moment when she sat and watched the sunset as she thought about just how little she knew about Naruto. It was the realization that she _didn't_ know that much that spurred her to start paying more attention to him.

"And then you start doing the same." Naruto added as he looked to Minato. "It was as if the two of you suddenly remembered that I was your child as well. You both tried to include me in things, but I didn't know what had changed, so I stayed away…It got to the point where I was reluctant to come home…I eventually just didn't." His glare returned. "And you both tried acting like nothing had changed! Like the past eight years hadn't happened! It isn't that easy!" Kushina felt her eyes start to water and Minato was having trouble maintaining eye contact.

Naruto forced a neutral look onto his face and sat back with his arms crossed. "So please, for once and for all, tell me why you left me behind and what changed to abruptly make you start caring."

The room was completely silent. After a minute, Kushina spoke up. "Naruto…We are so, so sorry…We have been terrible parents…" She was starting to lose the fight against her tears.

Naruto shook his head. "I already know that, just tell me _why_."

"We…" Minato and Kushina looked to each other. "We have nothing to say for ourselves…" Minato said. That answer sparked some anger in Naruto. "There is no excuse for what we've done."

"Nothing?" Naruto repeated quietly. "Nothing to say at all?" A scowl formed. "Then why the hell should I bother opening myself up to you? Why expose myself like that?!" He didn't even realize he had gotten to his feet.

"Please…" Kushina choked.

"It was stupid of me to come here!" Unnoticed by anyone due to the events unfolding in the room, a soft glow was present in Naruto's eyes. He turned towards the door. "Just forget I said anything!" He began walking away.

"No!" A pair of arms wrapped around his body, holding him in place. "Please, Naruto! Don't go! Just listen to us!"

"Why should I?!" He struggled to free himself. Minato quickly rushed over, but didn't know who to help. "I was right back in the stadium! I should just forget about it!"

"No!" Kushina poured all her emotions into that word, doing nothing but trying to convey how much she cared for Naruto.

 **End Music**

Naruto froze in his tracks when she felt something in Kushina reach out to him. A hopeful look lit her face when she saw him stop. His eyes were wide with surprise as he tried to comprehend what he just felt. _'That was…'_ He quickly tried to turn around, but found himself still trapped in her hold. "Let go!"

The hopeful look turned into a crushed one when Kushina heard that. "No, please let us speak!"

"I'm not going to leave, just let go of me!" Naruto shouted. Both Kushina and Minato were greatly surprised by his words.

"You…Mean it?" Kushina asked with some doubt, but hope was still present.

"Yes! Now let go-ttebayo!" With a great amount of reluctance, Kushina let go of him.

A smile reappeared on her face. "So you are going to give us a chance?"

Naruto frowned at her. "Give me a second." He mind was focused completely on what he felt in her when she yelled a moment ago. It was brief and very buried, but he was _sure_ of what he felt.

Darkness.

When Kushina's emotions grew out of control, it made her unconsciously call upon her aura. _'That shouldn't be possible…That should only happen to someone who has had their aura active in the past…'_ Naruto didn't understand how Kushina could have possibly had her aura awakened. It lies dormant in people's hearts until something acts as a catalyst and interacts with it. Whether it be the will of the heart or an outside force. The fact that Kushina's heart was able to call upon it meant that it had awakened at some point in the past.

' _But…The darkness felt strange, weak…Foreign…'_ A wild theory was starting to come into being in his head as he thought over their dramatic change in actions. From the point where they suddenly stopped paying attention to him to the point when they did. He then thought about some peculiar things he was told. _'That…can't be…'_ "I have another request for you two…It may completely change everything…"

Kushina nodded, eager to prove to Naruto that they were genuine in their feelings. "What is it?" Minato quickly joined her side.

Naruto's mind went back to eight years ago in an attempt to figure out what caused the problem, but he couldn't remember much due to his young age at the time. "When you two remembered that I existed," They both looked pained when he said that. "Were you two having problems concentrating? Maybe some headaches?"

Their eyes widening in surprise was all the answer he needed. Minato nodded. "I don't know about Kushina, but right before I realized that…that we weren't the best of parents to you, I was suffering from a headache much stronger than usual…"

His wife turned to him with a surprised look. "You too? I had a huge headache for a while!"

Naruto grit his teeth as another surge of anger came through him. Their answers gave credit to the crazy idea he was making. _'It couldn't be…But how to check?'_ He then remembered the surprising interaction he had with Killer B over a month ago. _'…I wonder if that could work…'_ He raised a fist to the two of them, gaining a pair of confused looks. "This may sound weird, but I need the both of you to trust me. Place your fists against mine."

Without any hesitation whatsoever, Kushina stepped forward and met his fist with her own. Her lack of hesitation surprised Naruto greatly, and it must have shown because she gave him a smile. The moment she made contact, Naruto felt a pull on his mind, but resisted. He was only able to do so because he was expecting it this time. Minato was only a step behind her in bringing forward a fist.

Now that the two of them had done as he asked, Naruto took a breath and closed his eyes. "Just give me a minute." He focused on the two of them and extended his senses in order to get a feel of their auras. Because they were in contact, he was able to find them almost immediately.

Minato's aura was a normal mixture of light and darkness, albeit more light than darkness, and Kushina's was of a similar state. Naruto dug deeper and tried to get a feel of their hearts.

On the outside, a soft light flashed over each of their chests, greatly surprising the adults. "Whoa!" Minato exclaimed, but was careful to not pull away.

"What was that?" Kushina asked.

Naruto ignored both of them to continue his search. _'Almost…There!'_ He found what he was looking for near the very core of their hearts. Most of their heart was flooded with their auras, but buried deep down was darkness…Darkness that didn't originate from them.

After inspecting the darkness, Naruto would guess that the darkness was injected into them a long time ago, years even. It was obvious that it used to be more prevalent, but was weakening over time.

"You were both being controlled…" Naruto whispered to himself, but Minato and Kushina still heard it.

"What?" Minato asked, a small edge of alarm present in his voice. Kushina was of a similar mind as she wrapped her head around what she was just told.

' _This darkness was deeply ingrained into their hearts, controlling them. They broke free of the control a while back…But because of how ingrained it was and how long it was here, there are still trace amounts of the foreign darkness in their hearts…'_ Naruto looked to meet Minato's eyes. "You both weren't aware of your actions because someone was controlling you."

Rage flooded Minato's body. Someone would _dare_ make him and Kushina ignore their son? "How do you know?" Minato asked quietly. He didn't want to doubt Naruto, but it was hard to swallow that someone had managed to trap them in some sort of genjutsu that lasted for years.

Naruto gained a conflicted look before averting his gaze. "I…" Should he tell them? The discovery of someone forcing them to forget about him changed everything, but was he ready to just spill everything he knew about light, darkness, hearts, and everything else to them? "…I"

"Don't say anything." Naruto's eyes widened in surprise before his head whirled around to Kushina. She was looking at him with a small smile. "You don't have to tell us. It is obvious you are reluctant to, so we will wait until you feel like you can trust us." An incredible wave of relief flooded her when she learned that she may not have become such a horrible mother by her own choice. She was still extremely regretful, but it helped to know that she did not have complete say in the matter.

Naruto nodded in gratitude. Turning his thoughts back to the darkness, he tried to identify it. _'There's something familiar about it…Like I've felt it before, but I'm not completely sure…'_ With a sigh, he lowered his fists and took a step back before looking at Minato and Kushina.

It was at that point that a surge of thoughts and emotions hit him, both good and bad. The knowledge that his parents did not have complete control of their actions really made him question everything. If they had been controlled, what about the others? Were Tsunade, Jiraiya and Kakashi also being controlled? He opened his mouth.

"I…"

"I'm all ready to go-ttebane!" The three of them turned to see Narumi dash back into the room with a wide grin on her face. She froze when she noticed the atmosphere and saw the tears in her mother's eyes. "Um…I…Sorry, this was a bad time, wasn't it?" Menma walked in after her, looking at the scene in curiosity.

Naruto quickly shook his head. "No, it's fine. You two ready to go?" He got two hesitant nods in return. "Then we should get going, it's about time for us to show up. The three of us can start heading over." He quickly walked past them. Narumi and Menma shared hesitant looks before following after him.

Once the kids were gone, Minato turned to Kushina. "Kushina…You alright?" He grew worried when more tears leaked from her eyes. He was about to speak again, but found himself wrapped in a tight hug. "Kushina?" Soft sniffles were heard from the redhead, increasing his sense of panic.

"Minato…Just give me a minute, okay?" He nodded and wrapped her up in a hug. The two of them stood like that for a minute before Kushina eventually let go and stepped back. "Thanks…I just needed a minute…" She wiped away her tears.

Minato had a soft smile on his face. "It's fine." He glanced at the door the kids left through. "We should get going too." She nodded. The two of them were about to walk out of the room, but stopped when someone suddenly walked back through the door. Minato stared at the person in surprise. "Narut-"

His words were cut off when Naruto walked up to them and wrapped his arms around them. Kushina and Minato were both too surprised to say anything, but were able to recover quickly enough to return the gesture with smiles. They stayed like that for a minute before Naruto stepped back with a small blush on his cheeks.

"Sorry about that…" He said quietly.

Kushina shook her head rapidly with a wide smile on her face. "Don't worry about it-ttebane!" Having Naruto be the one to initiate a hug was one of the best feelings she could imagine.

Naruto nodded. "We can talk more after the exam. That's also when we can start thinking about who put you guys under their influence. Just wait for me to get back." Minato smiled at him.

"Right, we can talk all about that after the exam…But I'm more looking forward to the chance to just talk with you." Naruto grinned when he heard that, but it faltered when he saw Minato's face become more serious. "Naruto, I'm sure you've realized the real reason why we are doing this exam…" He got a nod in return. Sighing, Minato continued. "Good…The promise me to be careful…Orochimaru is the biggest threat to you and Sasuke."

The request was a slight surprise, but mostly expected. Naruto smiled before giving his reply. "Yeah, of course. I promise to make it back." Minato relaxed a bit and his smile returned. He glanced back to the clock. "Come on, we really will be late if we don't hurry…Kaa-san, Tou-san." He quickly turned and left the room, not looking at the surprised faces of Kushina and Minato.

Those surprised looks soon turned into wide grins.

* * *

 **Konoha Gates**

 **Play Naruto Shippuden OST - Departure to the Front Lines Extended**

"You are all about to embark on the final test to prove yourselves as chūnin." The ten genin were lined up in front of Minato and A. Each of them had a serious countenance in place as they received last minute instructions. There was even a small crowd gathered that watched from a distance. "As you are aware, each of you will be heading towards Kumo. You will all have a week starting from tomorrow morning at eight to reach the destination given."

A continued the instructions at that point. "You will have to document as many species of heartless as you can with a side objective of describing how to kill them. Organization and clarity are a must." He gestured to the large gate behind him. "You will follow your selected guide to the specified starting point before being told of where in the land of lightning you will travel to."

"Once you reach your starting point, your guide will hand you a scroll. This scroll will contain a notebook in which you will be document the heartless and cameras." Minato said. "Nothing more will be provided. It will be up to you to head to the destination and survive. Remember that there are allies throughout the region." He traded a look with A. "Anything else?" The Raikage shook his head. "Then we will get started. When I call your name, step forward to be paired with the guide who will take you to your starting point."

Naruto glanced to the side and made eye contact with Shikamaru. When he saw the reluctant look on the Nara's face, a small smirk formed. Looking the other way, Naruto then met Misa's eyes. She seemed just as amused with Shikamaru's attitude.

"Genin Misa of Konoha." Her smirk was immediately wiped from her face. She nodded to Naruto, who returned the gesture, before walking towards the guide she was assigned. Narumi was called after her.

"Genin Naruto of Konoha." Upon hearing his name, Naruto schooled his features and walked towards the indicated guide.

His assigned guide was a man with dark, spiky hair and red-framed sunglasses. He wore a standard Konoha shinobi outfit, but his forehead protector was tilted slightly.

The man nodded to Naruto with a small smile. "Hey there, name's Aoba." He held out a hand.

Accepting the hand and shaking it, Naruto smiled. "Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze."

Aoba nodded and replaced his smile with a grin. "I knew that. I'm sure you've already heard it, but I wanted to thank you for saving Hayate. He's a good friend of mine and I would hate to have lost him."

With a sheepish smile and small blush, Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "It wasn't a problem. I had to do something." Aoba nodded and left the conversation alone. After looking over to Minato, he spoke up again. "We are going to head out soon. Your starting point is Inn Town. We will leave, get there in a couple hours, stay the night, and then you will head on your way tomorrow. Understood?"

Naruto nodded. "I got it."

"Good." Aoba looked over to Minato and nodded his head. Seeing the gesture, Minato nodded back before looking to the other guides. Soon, all of the guides had given confirmation that they were ready to head out.

Once the last guide had given the signal, Minato shared a look with A before looking back to the assorted shinobi. "Alright." A began, getting everyone's attention. "We're all ready to start now, so you may leave whenever you wish! I would like to wish all of you the best of luck."

Minato nodded in agreement. "Yes, and the same from me. Please be careful during your travels and I will see you all on the other side." The crowd cheered when the go ahead was given.

Aoba turned and smirked at Naruto. "Well, Naruto…You ready to go?"

Returning the smirk, Naruto nodded his head. "Ready whenever." With one last wave to the others, Naruto and Aoba turned and left the village.

 **End Music**

* * *

 **Edge of Inn Town (The Next Morning)**

Naruto checked over his gear one last time before nodding to Aoba. "I'm ready to go." It was the next morning and the final exam was about to begin. Naruto was taking the chance to make one last check of his supplies.

"Alright." Aoba checked his watch. "It is now 9:00 in the morning. I'm going to hand over the scroll containing the notebook and camera." He reached into his pack and pulled out a small storage scroll before handing it over to Naruto. "Your destination is the Thunder Dragon Inn in the Land of Lightning. Will you be able to navigate there?"

Going over a map of the region in his head, Naruto nodded. The Thunder Dragon Inn was one of Kumo's more famous inns. It was actually somewhat of a tourist attraction. "Yeah, I know the place."

"Good." Aoba smiled. "Then this is where we part ways. I wish you the best of luck." He disappeared in a swirl of leaves. Naruto quirked an eyebrow at the quick exit before shrugging and turning towards the correct direction.

"Well, I guess I better get going…" He dashed down the road that led north. He would need to travel on the road for a bit before he hit a forest. Because of the close vicinity of Konoha and its patrols, he shouldn't run into too many heartless until he gained some more distance.

* * *

"That looks like the brat. Should we go meet him?"

"…No."

An annoyed grunt was heard. "Why the hell not? Is he not one of the targets?"

"We shouldn't because there are too many enemies in the area. I have no doubt that there are still many eyes on him."

"Tch…I suppose you're right…So what then?"

"…We wait. If a chance arises, we take it. If not, then it is of no harm done."

"…I hate waiting."

* * *

 **Forest of the Land of Fire (One Day Later)**

" **Fire**!" The fireball hit its mark and destroyed the shadow heartless. Naruto let out a sigh before lowering his keyblade. "I already have enough information on _those_ …"

A day has passed since Naruto started travelling towards Kumo and he was making steady progress towards the border of the Land of Fire and the Land of Hot Water. In just a day, Naruto has taken data on shadows, soldiers, hook bats, and even an armored knight. Unfortunately, these were all heartless that participated in the invasion, so it wouldn't be that impressive.

As he traveled, Naruto was sure to keep an eye on his surroundings. He was well aware of the risk that Orochimaru posed and he would be happy if he could make the entire journey without running into trouble.

Naruto glanced to the sky and noted that the sun was starting to set. _'I should find a secure location to make camp soon…'_ While making camp in the middle of nowhere would normally be a terrible idea because he was on his own, Naruto was able to make some **Shadow Clones** that would be able to keep watch while he slept. Even if one was killed silently, the rush of memories would wake him up.

A rustling of leaves made him fall back into a battle stance and prepare himself for any surprises with his eyes were glued to the direction the sound came from. After a moment, the rustling sound continued, but it sounded closer than it did before.

Suddenly, a speeding figure shot out of the trees. Seeing that it was a hook bat, Naruto quickly raised his keyblade, but stopped when it ignored him and kept moving. It soon left Naruto's sight. _'What?'_ Another rustle drew his attention back to where the hook bat had come from, and Naruto was surprised to see that there was now a powerwild running in the same direction.

Acting quickly, Naruto snapped a picture of the powerwild before it left his sight as well. A third rustle made Naruto look over again. Expecting another strange heartless, his eyes widened in shock when a group of soldier heartless ran by. _'What the hell?'_ Naruto noticed that they all seemed to be running from the same direction. Deciding to let his curiosity get the better of him, Naruto started walking that way.

He didn't have to walk far because he soon came upon a clearing in the forest. Naruto wasn't sure what he was expecting to see, but he was curious as to what could make the heartless flee. Cerulean and violet eyes widened in surprise when he saw the source of the commotion. In the middle of the clearing were three large heartless.

The first heartless was a massive creature with black skin. The body of the heartless was wrapped in teal thorns, both of its wrists and ankles had manacles on them, and it had a heart shaped hole in its chest. While the chain on its arms were broken, the one connecting its feet was not. The maw of the heartless was large and toothy whereas the eyes were small and beady. Each limb sported three digits with red claws. Completing the look of the heartless was a large orange mane and two massive orange horns.

The next heartless resembled the first somewhat, but still had obvious differences. The body was a purplish-black and had dark magenta spikes running down the back, as well as a mane of dark magenta spikes. Like the other, this heartless had a jagged mouth and beady yellow eyes. Each leg of the heartless had a purple claw. Naruto noticed that this heartless also had chains on its forelegs.

The last heartless was of a similar size to the other two, but had a different build. Its body was majorly lilac in color, but its back and all four of its legs were violet. Each leg ended with two toes with black claws. Coming out of the lower jaw were two large, curved tusks that were colored white on the upper half while the other half was lilac. On the forehead of the heartless was a conical, black horn. Like the first two, this heartless had the signature jagged maw and yellow eyes. Finishing the look was the heartless emblem on its chest.

' _What the hell are these things doing here?!'_ Naruto did _not_ want to fight all three of them at once. It was then that he noticed that the three heartless were completely focused on something else.

All three of the heartless were surrounding something in the center of the clearing. Taking a look at what it was, Naruto was shocked and alarmed to see a man standing there. Before he could fully take in the man's appearance or do anything to help, all three of the heartless pounced on him.

"No!" Naruto moved to help the man, but he knew that there was no way he could make it in time. He could do nothing but watch as the heartless neared the man. With wide eyes, Naruto watched as the claws shot to pierce the man's body.

A bright flash momentarily blinded Naruto. Skidding to a halt, he shielded his eyes as he waited for his vision to return. When it finally did a minute later, he hesitantly opened his eyes, expecting to see a gruesome scene before him.

His eyes promptly snapped opened fully in shock when he saw that the man was standing there, completely intact, while the heartless were dissolving into darkness.

"Wha…What?" Naruto muttered. He turned his eyes back to the man, who had his back to Naruto. _'How did he do that?'_

"You there." Naruto wasn't ashamed to admit he flinched when the man suddenly addressed him. "Who are you?"

"…Name's Naruto." He said slowly. "…And you?"

The man was silent for a moment. "Me?" He turned to face Naruto. "I am known as Sephiroth."

He had had long, silver hair with long bangs that framed his face, cold, blue eyes, and dressed in a tattered black leather coat with red-violet lining that had a large collar which reached his ears. Around his waist was a black belt with a silver buckle. The sleeves of his coat ended in metal rings instead of normal cuffs, and he had on black leather gloves. His chest was exposed, showing that he had on a grey strap around his abdomen with two black belts over it. His pants and knee-high boots were also black. On each shoulder was silver armor. The strangest thing about the man's appearance was the large, navy blue wing sprouting from his right shoulder.

In his hand was the largest sword that Naruto has ever seen.

Sephiroth's eyes travelled to the keyblade that was in Naruto's hand. "Well…That's an interesting sword you're carrying."

Naruto swallowed and glanced down to his keyblade. "I guess…" He looked back to Sephiroth. "It's obvious that you don't need any help, so I'm just going to leave." He turned.

"Wait." Naruto wasn't even able to take a full step before Sephiroth said that. "I sense a great amount of power within you. Both that of light…and of darkness…" Naruto's eyes widened. "I am curious as to how you are able to achieve such balance."

Slowly, Naruto turned back around. "You know about light and darkness?" He wasn't sure if he should be surprised or not.

"Obviously…I came to this world after I felt a large expulsion of darkness here. I was beginning to think that it was a wasted venture…But now I see that may not be true."

Alarms were blaring through Naruto's head and growing louder by the second. "And?"

Sephiroth was silent for a moment. "Your sword is clearly a special one…is it the catalyst to your abilities?"

Naruto shakily shook his head. "It helps, but I don't need the keyblade to-" He cut himself off when he realized what he was saying. Just being in the presence of this man struck a sense of fear in Naruto, and it was making it hard for him to think clearly.

"I see…So that's a keyblade." Sephiroth said softly. "And I suppose you must be its chosen wielder." Naruto didn't reply, but it seemed like Sephiroth didn't need him to.

 **Play Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD ReMix - One Winged Angel Extended**

"I wonder if it won't change its mind…" Sephiroth raised his blade. By now, the alarms going off in Naruto's head were near deafening. "…Once I defeat you." Sephiroth slid into a battle stance.

' _Oh Kami, no.'_ Naruto hastily got into a battle stance of his own. _'Gotta get out of here!'_

"Show me your strength."

Sephiroth dashed at Naruto and lowered his sword in a swift strike. Acting on pure instinct, Naruto raised his keyblade and blocked the slash, creating a shower of sparks. Having his blow blocked bounced Sephiroth's sword back into the air and Naruto used this chance to jump back. " **Fira**!" A large fireball shot out of his hand and impacted Sephiroth. Making his way towards the trees, only escape was on Naruto's mind. He would gain some distance before concentrating and creating a **Corridor of Darkness** to leave the area.

Completely shrugging off the attack like it was nothing, Sephiroth dashed after Naruto. In a flash, Naruto was cut off when he appeared in front of him. "There is no escape." Sephiroth said before bringing his sword forward again.

Because there was no time for his keyblade to get into position, Naruto dove to the side, barely avoiding the earth splitting slice. "You won't get away. Stand and fight."

Naruto cursed loud and long in his head. Standing up, he glared at the man. "Why are you doing this? I don't want to fight you."

Sephiroth readied his blade again. "Why? Because your power interests me. If I have to attempt to kill you for you to bring it out, then so be it." He flew at Naruto again. Keyblade met sword as Naruto blocked the attack again. _'This man is_ fast _.'_ Naruto was having a lot of trouble blocking and avoiding the strikes.

The scariest part was that Naruto had a feeling that Sephiroth could still go faster.

A scowl made its way onto Naruto's face. "Fine then…" Gathering his resolve Naruto pushed back. Sephiroth quickly jumped away.

"So you have found the will to fight." He got back into a battle stance. "Then come, prove yourself." He dashed back at Naruto.

Naruto blocked the strike and parried Sephiroth's sword towards the air. Acting quickly, Naruto launched into a fast combo on his torso. After a few slashes, Naruto brought his keyblade back in preparation for a stronger strike. Using all of his strength, he directed it towards the center of Sephiroth's chest, but missed the mark when Sephiroth disappeared in a flash of darkness.

Eyes widening in shock, Naruto was about to jump away, but was stopped after he heard the sound of Sephiroth reappearing directly behind him. "Gah!" Naruto shouted in pain when Sephiroth's next attack landed and launched him high into the air. Sephiroth tracked him for a moment before jumping after him.

Naruto grit his teeth and cracked an eye open to see his opponent nearing him at high speeds. The keyblade was able to intercept the sword an inch before it cut into his body. Spinning around in midair, Naruto used the chance to land more strikes on Sephiroth.

As they fell, Naruto was able to get many hits in, but none of them seemed to do any visible damage. "Ha!" Naruto swore when his downward slash missed its target because Sephiroth disappeared in another flash of darkness. Landing in a crouch, Naruto quickly took in his surroundings as he thought about what he saw.

' _Is he using a_ _ **Corridor of Darkness**_ _to teleport around like that?'_

"Give into the dark." Suddenly, Naruto was surrounded by multiple orbs of darkness. Eyes widening in alarm, Naruto was barely able to get his keyblade up in time when they shot at him.

"Guh!" He was quick enough to deflect some of them, but a couple still slipped by his defenses. _'Note to self. Learn more defensive techniques…'_

Naruto's breathing was extremely labored and he had sweat dripping down his face. They hadn't even been fighting that long, but Naruto was already greatly injured. _'No choice.'_ He placed a hand over his chest. " **Cura**." The warmth and soothing feeling was a welcome one compared to the aches and pains wracking his body prior to the spell. Within seconds, most of Naruto's injuries had healed, but he was feeling fatigued. A soft glow of light and darkness was present in his eyes.

Hearing a rustle behind him, Naruto whirled around with his keyblade raised. He was just in time to block the surprise attack from the oversized sword. Before Naruto could react any further, Sephiroth jumps back and raises his sword into the air. "Perish, now." Without any warning, blinding pillars of fire shot up around him, casting a blazing heat over the area and setting fire to the grass.

"What?!" The most surprising thing was that Naruto felt himself get pulled towards the flames. Acting quickly, Naruto turned and stabbed his keyblade into the ground to stop his movement. He was able to stop before he was completely devoured by the flames, but he was still extremely close. Naruto hissed in pain when the flames licked his back.

The flames soon died down and the gravitational pull left as well. The very second they did, Naruto pulled his keyblade out of the ground and rushed at Sephiroth, who still had his blade in the air. Naruto took vindictive pleasure in the grunts that escaped Sephiroth whenever his keyblade made contact. This attack soon came to an abrupt end when Sephiroth teleported away to the other side of the clearing.

Now that he had some more room to breathe, Naruto quickly came up with his next plan of attack. He stuck his hand into the case on his leg and took out a dream eater card before calling upon his twilight. Because he had no time to be picky, he would need to use the card on top of the deck, which happened to be the last card he used.

" **Summon: Ryu Dragon**!" Ryu appeared in a flash. The dragon looked ready to greet Naruto, but was interrupted. "No time for hellos, Ryu!" He raised his keyblade when he saw Sephiroth charge again. "Here he comes!"

Naruto ducked under the newest slash to come at him and raised his keyblade to counterattack. Sephiroth jumped back out of the way, but was placed directly in the path of Ryu when the dream eater charged him. The charge met its mark and sent Sephiroth flying to the side, directly at Naruto.

" **ShadowBreaker**!" Both slashes made contact with Sephiroth. Just as he was about to continue his assault, Sephiroth flipped up and into the air before hovering.

"The time has come." Fear crept into Naruto when small meteors formed around Sephiroth. Unlike when Naruto made them, there were more than just a few.

"Ryu!"

"Kyu!" Naruto leapt onto Ryu's back as the meteor's streaked towards them. He was forced to hold on tight as Ryu took sharp turns and dives to outmaneuver all of the attacks. "Kyu!" Ryu was hit by a meteor that came from the side while dodging another. Naruto could feel the heat from each meteor as they flew by him, and the light from the explosions were blinding, but he kept his eyes on the main threat.

"Just a little more! We're almost through!" Naruto shouted. Soon, the onslaught ended and Naruto looked back to the still floating form of Sephiroth. _'We need to end this now!'_ "Take us in close!" As Ryu complied with the order, Naruto began to call upon as much twilight as he could to strengthen himself. "Now!" He jumped off of Ryu with his keyblade at the ready.

" **Decussation**!" Naruto and Ryu teleported out of sight and reappeared on either side of Sephiroth. Both of them struck at the same time and landed attacks before disappearing again. Naruto reappeared behind Sephiroth and slashed at his exposed back, but teleported out of sight when Sephiroth spun around and slashed at him. Ryu chose that moment to attack from above. The two of them continued this pattern for a few moments, determined to take down their opponent.

"I grow tired of this." A blast of darkness exploded from Sephiroth and crashed right into Naruto and Ryu, catching them so off guard that they were unable to react in any way. The force of the blast sent them both hurtling back to the ground. It took Naruto a moment to regain his bearings and shake off the feeling of pain wracking his damaged body. Naruto snapped his head back up just in time to see Sephiroth disappear again.

He reappeared a foot in front of Naruto with his blade ready to strike, and Naruto only just rolled out of the way. Naruto would have retaliated, but Sephiroth disappeared before he could do anything. The silver haired man reappeared to Naruto's side with another strike at the ready. This time, Naruto was able to get his keyblade up in time to block it. The moment he saw that his attack failed, Sephiroth teleported away again.

' _I hate that so much…'_ Naruto scanned the surroundings in search of his opponent.

"Kyu…" Ryu flew down next to Naruto and did the same.

' _How can anyone be this strong?'_ Naruto's mind went back to his fight with Orochimaru. _'How many monsters are there?'_

"Give into the dark." More orbs of darkness formed in a ring around them. Naruto flew into action when they flew at him, but just like last time, a couple made it through.

"Gah!" Spittle and blood flew from Naruto's mouth when an orb smashed into his chest. His body was launched back and crashed harshly into the ground. Naruto coughed as he attempted to get to his feet, but his body wasn't responding to him properly.

"Kyu!" While feeling as if he was made of lead, Naruto forced his head to turn towards Ryu. The dragon had been struck and impacted the earth with just as much strength. From where he was, Naruto could see the flash which indicated that Ryu had returned to card form.

Naruto's eyes slid over to Sephiroth. He could tell that his body was starting to shut down. _'No…'_ He grit his teeth. _'No…I promised…'_ Misa's smiling face emerged in his mind. _'I promised I would come back!'_ Ignoring his protesting muscles, Naruto forced an arm under his body and pushed. A new wave of fiery pain raced through him, but he ignored it and pushed harder.

"You are still conscious?" Naruto looked over to Sephiroth, standing there as if nothing happened. "That is impressive. Most of my opponents would have fallen for good by now."

"Shut…up." Naruto muttered. Blood, sweat and dirt coated his body, but he didn't care. He just had to get back up. He took a deep breath and dismissed the pain it brought. With one final push, he got back to his feet.

"And you're able to stand? You truly surprise me."

Naruto didn't respond. _'How…Do I get out of this…?'_ Every breath burned, every creak of his muscles made it feel like he was being ground up, and his vision kept getting darker.

Sephiroth crouched. "But you should know when to quit."

"Heh." For some reason, Naruto couldn't stop the small laugh that escaped him or the smile that quirked his lips. "…You're…right…" He panted. "…I probably…should…" He sluggishly got into a battle stance. "But…I never will…"

"…" Sephiroth remained silent for a minute. "…That's enough."

And in a flash, it was over.

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 31!**

 **I have a great song that would have fit** _ **perfectly**_ **for this chapter, but I've been saving it for a later one. Oh well.**

 **Things are starting to pick up!**

 **Fun fact: I have consciously had Naruto refrain from calling Minato and Kushina "Tou-san" and "Kaa-san," always rewording sentences so that people knew what he meant without him verbally -or even mentally- referring to them as such.**

 **The three boss heartless Sephiroth was fighting were Dark Thorn, Dark Hide, and Behemoth.**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	33. The Mutant Cat

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 32! First chapter of the new year!**

 **Holy crap, that review thing was a pain in the ass.**

 **I'm back in school…Fuck. I'm worried about the update cycle for this and Embers of a Shinobi. I'm going to try to stick to a weekly update, but I make no promises.**

 **Was going to be a shorter chapter this time, but I had some ideas as I wrote it. Although the second half may be a little bit meh. I wrote the first 5k words on my phone...that wasn't very fun.**

 **I only had two worlds chosen, but you guys still managed to call one of them out. The other one hasn't been specifically mentioned (I think), but it has been close.**

* * *

 **kavell Anderson: Totally missed the point there. Don't focus on the heartless, just pay attention to how awesome Sephiroth is. It can be considered as too much, yes, but I thought it was worth it.**

 **Kairitrion Cerulean: Based on the one from the Kingdom Hearts universe, but with some modifications that I will elaborate on later.**

 **redlox2: Is that how it came across? I was trying to make it seem like Naruto was being toyed with the entire time. That's also basically what happened with Sora in the game.**

 **Morgan d'Arc: No problem!**

 **jonnywolf: I'll fix it in a bit, thanks for pointing that out!**

 **prototype gear: No it does not! :P I actually almost had him make an appearance a couple of chapters ago, but decided not to in the end. Wasn't really planning to have scenes around the world, no. And thanks! I was absolutely trying to make it seem like Naruto was being toyed with.**

 **Zant's Minion: Sorry if you didn't like it. That actually wasn't the original plan. At this point, almost everything I put has deviated from the original plan. Hell, the original plot bunny didn't even involve other worlds, but it had a much bigger focus on the neglect. What I want to happen changes so often as I go along that some things just wind up as coming off as a little pointless. But to be fair, you are literally the only person complaining about how I did it when everyone else who reviewed said it was good. (Although that might change now that I've said it)**

 **Exalted Demi-Soul: Meh, it all depends on how you look at it.**

 **Weeldx: Terra, Ventus, and Aqua are characters that I'm still planning out. The drive form as well. Sorry if I'm not being helpful.**

 **HeartlessNobody13: I already replied to you, right?**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else. I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Deity Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Deity Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

Cerulean and violet eyes snapped open as Naruto jolted awake. He regretted doing so however when pain assaulted him the very next moment. "Son of a…" He hissed quietly. "That really hurts."

"Yes, I imagine it would." A nearby voice said.

Naruto jumped at the unexpected response before gritting his teeth when more pain hit him at the hasty movement. With one eye closed in pain, Naruto gently turned his head so he could see the speaker, although he was already pretty sure who it was after hearing the voice. "Yoruichi?" He asked.

The black feline was indeed sitting nearby, watching him. When he saw that Naruto was looking his way, the cat nodded. "Yes. And you shouldn't make any sudden movements. Your body was heavily injured."

"Heavily...injured…" Naruto slowly repeated with a frown. "From what?" He was in a _lot_ of pain. What the hell happened for him to end up like this?

Yoruichi looked at him curiously. "You don't remember?"

"Um…" Naruto started to think back. "I remember being in the final part of the exam...I was making good progress towards my destination...There weren't that many new heartless around...A bunch of heartless ran by me and I was curious to see what made them so scared that they would ignore me…" Naruto's eyes widened in shock. Quickly sitting up, he shouted. "Sephiroth! Ow!"

"I told you to not move too much!" Yoruichi chided and immediately started checking him over. "You and Ichigo are so alike sometimes…" He muttered.

Ignoring the worry, Naruto looked around with some alarm. "Where did Sephiroth go? And how did I get here? I was sure…" He looked down. "…I was sure I wouldn't make it out of there…" The end of his sentence was little more than a whisper.

Yoruichi gazed at him. "Sephiroth? Was that the name of the person who did this to you?" He got a nod. "Who is Sephiroth?"

"I…have no clue." Naruto admitted. "But…his strength was unreal. It was like I was nothing more than a little kid with no training going up against…I don't know how to describe it. None of my attacks even fazed him, like I wasn't trying to hurt him…" His hands balled into fists as he looked away. "Dammit...I'm _still_ not strong enough...I can't do anything like I am…"

Yoruichi remained quiet while Naruto spoke. When he was done, the two of them remained like that; Naruto frustrated with how little he could do against Sephiroth and Yoruichi watching him in silence. Eventually, a sigh escaped the cat.

"...No matter how many times I see it...it still astonishes me how dim witted you can be."

Naruto blinked in surprise before slowly turning his head to look at Yoruichi. "...Huh?"

With a shake of the head, Yoruichi elaborated. "You are missing the entire point here to focus on the fact that you lost to a stronger opponent. Do you truly not remember the end of the fight?"

A small frown slowly worked its way onto Naruto's face. "...The end of...the fight…" He muttered. It really was hazy for him. All that popped into his mind was Sephiroth's final attack.

"Take your time. Think back to the final moments of the fight."

' _...What more was there?'_ Naruto stayed silent as he attempted to recall what happened. His eyes soon widened when he finally started to remember.

* * *

 **Flashback: End of the Fight**

"...That's enough." With speed that easily surpassed anything that he used in the fight, the one winged man rushed at Naruto with his sword at the ready. It truly was a disappointment that this boy was unable to show anything of substantial value, but it did not matter in the end.

Naruto was yelling internally for his body to move, but it wasn't listening to him. A large wave of pain hit him, forcing Naruto down to a knee. The adrenaline was fading, causing the pain to grow. His mind vaguely registered that he was in danger, but what could he do? Naruto closed his eyes as he thought. This man outclassed him in every conceivable way, so how could he possibly get out of this?

' _Am I…really not going to keep my promise?'_ That fact, more than anything, hurt Naruto. He had promised that he would return. He and Misa both promised on that night.

And now he was breaking that promise.

That single thought brought a new surge of emotions into Naruto. The world around him slowed down, as if time was being stretched out, but Naruto didn't notice.

' _I…promised I would come back…'_ His eyes opened back up and looked to Sephiroth, still not noticing the change in his perception.

This man was making him break his promise.

It was his fault he wouldn't be able to help when Xehanort returned.

The worlds would be plunged into ruin, and he would not be able to fight it.

All because of _this man_ , the people he cared about would suffer.

' _No.'_

Sephiroth, drawing ever closer to Naruto, immediately noticed when the glow in Naruto's eyes returned, but there was something different about them. The glow before was that of light and darkness, separated in each eye where the cerulean eye glowed with light and the violet eye glowed with darkness. Both were contributing to Naruto's performance, but it was nothing too great. That wasn't the case anymore.

Both of Naruto's eyes were now bathed in an aura that was a perfect mix of light and darkness. No longer were they separated.

' _No matter.'_ Sephiroth was now within striking distance of Naruto. With speed that most could never hope to match, he moved his blade in a graceful arc. That was when Sephiroth, for the first time in years, was slightly surprised.

Impossibly, Naruto's eyes tracked the blade.

' _I won't let it end here!'_

Naruto's mind cleared of all thoughts. Only the need to keep his promise remained. Unnoticed to Naruto, his keyblade began to emit a soft glow.

' _I won't fail!'_

The glow became brighter, completely covering his keyblade in a twilight aura.

' _Stop his attack!'_

With no further thought or worry, Naruto's keyblade shot up with speeds that instilled more surprise in Sephiroth.

Clang!

Sephiroth's blade was parried towards the sky, leaving the man completely open.

' _I will hit him!'_

Naruto never noticed that his keyblade began to shift in shape, becoming longer and more blade like. Because it was still glowing brightly, it was impossible to discern any specific details. Seeing that the man was open, Naruto summoned all of his remaining strength and stood back up.

' _I will keep that promise!'_

The keyblade streaked towards Sephiroth's chest and slashed diagonally across it.

"Gah!" Naruto was about to bring it back for a second strike, but was unable to due to the blast of darkness that impacted his chest and sent him shooting back. His back impacted harshly on the trunk of a tree, expelling both all of the air Naruto had in his body and some blood. Naruto lost his grip on the still glowing keyblade to the point that it flew out of his hand and was stabbed into the ground. The owner of the keyblade fell limply to the ground a moment later. The entire sequence of events was so fast, it was as if it all happened in a flash.

The pain that Naruto now felt eclipsed what he was feeling just minutes before. Even breathing was now an extreme difficulty as opposed to the work that it was.

"...You…"

' _Move!'_ Naruto ignored all of his protesting muscles and slowly moved his head until he could see Sephiroth. The man was standing there will his usual apathetic look, but his eyes held a sense of intrigue and…

Respect?

Sephiroth looked down to his chest in silence. Without even thinking about it, Naruto found his eyes following, and that was when Naruto saw it.

A cut, no bigger than an inch or two, but it was visible. There was a small cut going across the center of Sephiroth's chest with a small trickle of blood escaping from it.

"Naruto!" Another person appeared in between Naruto and Sephiroth. Because of his body starting to shut down again, it took Naruto a moment to register who it was.

"...Soi...fon…" He said weakly. The dark skinned woman turned her head back to him and took in his condition. After she finished looking him over from where she stood, she smiled softly and nodded.

"You've done wonderfully, Naruto. You can rest now." She turned back to Sephiroth and glared. Sliding into a battle stance, she spoke to him. "You're the one who did this to him? Why? And who are you?"

Instead of answering the newcomer, Sephiroth dismissed her completely and continued to look at his wound. "...I had…" He began. "...Previously believed that there was only one person out there who was capable of eliminating me…" Sephiroth slowly looked back up to Naruto, still not acknowledging Soifon. "I now see that belief was incorrect...Although you appear not yet ready to." He turned his head to the fallen keyblade.

Soifon and Naruto followed his example, but Soifon was careful to keep the man in her sights. Both of them were surprised to see the glowing keyblade. But while the glow was surprising, it was the new shape that shocked Naruto.

He _definitely_ recognized that shape.

"...You said your name was Naruto, correct?" They turned back to Sephiroth, but his eyes were still on the keyblade. "I will remember that name." Sephiroth looked back to Naruto, staring directly into his eyes. "Your powers are still immature…You have yet to reach your true potential. This feat was merely a glimpse of what you are capable of."

' _My true...potential?'_

"Or perhaps 'true potential' is a misleading way to phrase it?" Instead of elaborating on that, Sephiroth changed the subject. "We will meet again. Until then, grow stronger. Strong enough to defeat me." Sephiroth became silent as he looked at Naruto. "...You remind me a great deal of _him_. You both prefer the light, but still have inescapable ties to the dark." He turned his back to them and began walking away. "I look forward to witnessing how you grow. Will you truly accept your darkness? Or will it consume you?"

' _Him? How...I grow? Accept…my...darkness?'_ Naruto's vision was growing darker again.

Soifon's glare deepened. "Wait! You aren't going anywhere until you answer my questions!" She moved to cut him off.

"Farewell, Naruto. Until the next time that our fates cross." In a flash of darkness, Sephiroth disappeared.

"Damn!" Soifon's cursed. Who the hell was that? Her eyes soon widened when she heard a weak and pained cough behind her. "Naruto!"

* * *

 **Flashback End**

Yoruichi seemed to smirk when Naruto's eyes widened. "So you remember?" Slowly, Naruto nodded. "Good. Then you realize that you _did_ manage to harm Sephiroth."

"But…" Naruto couldn't completely suppress the scowl forming on his face. "That was just a scratch. I…couldn't do anything more than a _freaking_ scratch." Yoruichi was silent for a moment before calmly walking up to Naruto. Noticing the cat's approach, Naruto tilted his head. "What?" He was a little weirded out by the blank look on the cat…and was completely unprepared for what happened next.

"Ow! Son of a bit-!" Naruto's hand shot up to his eye.

"You deserved that!" Yoruichi cut him off.

"What the hell did I do to deserve a freakin' head butt to the eye-ttebayo?!"

"Did you listen to a _single_ word I said? You're still missing the entire point!"

"And what the hell is the point?!"

Yoruichi's tail flicked in an agitated manner. "The _point_ is what Sephiroth said. Yes, you were unable to do anything more than give him a scratch, but that doesn't mean that is all you will ever be able to do."

Naruto's eyes widened, although one was unable to widen as much as the other due to the pain. "My true potential." He said quietly, earning a nod from Yoruichi.

"Exactly. You are still young. I don't know anything about that man, but it was obvious that he was at a level few can ever dream of reaching. It is understandable that you were unable to pose any real threat to him. And even then, does it really matter if you are unable to defeat Sephiroth?"

This question confused him. "What?"

"What does it matter if Sephiroth is stronger than you? Or if anyone is stronger than you? That doesn't matter in the slightest. And not only that, but no matter how strong you become, there will always be someone capable of defeating you. But returning to the point, what is important is that you are able to defeat _Xehanort_ , not Sephiroth."

Naruto's mind blanked for a moment. "But…"

"But nothing." Yoruichi said. "Xehanort is the one who poses a threat to the worlds…to your loved ones."

"...Right…"

"And let's just consider that you weren't strong enough to defeat Xehanort, that he overpowered you to the point that you were defeated." That was not something Naruto liked to consider. "Do you know how to fix that? Besides getting stronger?" Naruto silently shook his head, making Yoruichi fight the urge to head butt his other eye.

"The solution is to have people who will fight by your side."

Naruto's mind came to a stop. That's right. He had people he could count on. People he trusted with his life. Urahara and Soifon instantly came to mind. His friends soon entered his thoughts as well. A small smile formed on his lips.

"I see you understand now." Yoruichi nodded. "Good. I had thought that was a lesson you already learned, but you apparently needed a reminder."

"Yeah...Sorry about that…" Naruto said quietly. "Don't worry, I won't forget it again."

"See that you don't." Yoruichi looked him over again. "Back to the matter at hand, you were heavily injured from your fight with Sephiroth and have been unconscious since then. I have done my best to heal you, but that was never my specialty."

Naruto blinked. _'A healing cat?'_ Although it was a weird thought, he could ask about it later. "How long have I been out?" He looked around again. "And where are we?" It looked like they were in some room…

"You have been unconscious for little more than twenty-four hours, meaning that it is now the middle of the night."

"So it is the end of the third day of the exam…" He could still make it to his destination, but he would need to be quick while incredibly injured. "And the location?"

"You are in a safe house that Kisuke and I had set up. It isn't too far from where you fought Sephiroth, but it isn't in the immediate area."

"A safe house…" Naruto paused when a thought came to him. "How did I get here?"

Yoruichi looked at him with a look that made him feel slightly stupid, but he had no idea why he should. "I carried you here of course."

"Uh...you did?" That didn't make sense to him. "I mean, thanks, but it's surprising to me that you were able to carry me with your small body...I would have thought that Soifon-san was the one to bring me here…" He looked around. "Come to think of it, where is she? She got there at the end of the fight, but I passed out soon after." When no answer was given, Naruto turned back to Yoruichi with a confused expression, not prepared for the look he was going to get. _Now_ he felt stupid.

Although he still didn't know why.

Yoruichi was giving him a look that was an odd mix between exasperation, irritation, confusion, and amusement. Overall, it successfully made Naruto fidget in place.

"...What?" What was wrong with what he said?

"...You…" Yoruichi began before shaking his head. "I cannot believe that you haven't figured it out yet." Naruto was by no means dumb, but Yoruichi would have figured Naruto would catch on by now.

"Figured...what out, exactly?"

Yoruichi considered his options. This situation reminded the cat greatly of a similar one with Ichigo in Soul Society. The memory of Ichigo's reaction brought around a smirk. "Instead of answering that question, wouldn't you like me to tell you how I was able to carry you here?"

"Um...I guess?"

"Well, it wasn't that hard, really. Once I changed back into my true form, it was pretty simple."

"Oh…" Naruto was silent as his mind processed what he just heard. "Wait, what the hell do you mean by that-ttebayo?!"

"I only mean that I changed back into my true form to carry you here. It was pretty easy to carry you like that."

"Wha...You…" Naruto was unable to form any coherent thought beyond this.

"Sound it out."

Ignoring the jab, Naruto finally collected himself. "You're a cat."

"Oh, are we having this conversation again? It was so much fun the last time."

"So…you're not a cat?"

"Well I currently am, yes, but I was not born as a cat if that's what you're getting at."

"Then…"

"Then?"

"Then...what are you?"

' _Jackpot.'_ Yoruichi did his best to prevent his excitement from showing. Instead, he chose to lean in closer with a serious look. "Do you really want to know?" He asked quietly.

Slightly unnerved by the not-really-cat's attitude, Naruto nodded. "Yeah…"

"I don't mind showing you, but you must promise me something." Yoruichi told him.

"What is it?"

"You must promise me to _never_ tell anyone what you are about to witness." A light blue aura formed around Yoruichi and his eyes glowed with power. Naruto suddenly found it harder to breathe and the air around him felt a lot heavier. After training with both Urahara and Soifon, Naruto was easily able to tell that this was spiritual pressure. "Do you swear this, Naruto? Do you swear to keep my true appearance a secret to your very grave? Whether it be your own will or that of another, you will _never_ tell anyone of it." Sweat was starting to drop down the side of Naruto's head. "Is that perfectly understood?"

Naruto shakily nodded his head. "Y-yeah, I promise." If Yoruichi was this serious about it, then it must be really important that people didn't know.

Yoruichi nodded. "Good." The oppressive aura feeling died down, allowing Naruto to relax his body, noting that he wasn't even sure when he had tensed. Yoruichi turned around and began to put some distance between them. "I hope you are ready, Naruto. Merely witnessing me revert to my true form is something that has the power to draw the blood of men."

' _Just seeing him transform does that?'_ What exactly was about to happen?

"I believe you are one of the ones who are capable of withstanding it, but be careful regardless. Just stay focused and you should be fine." Yoruichi stopped and turned around to face him again before crouching in preparation. "This is your last chance to back out. Are you ready?"

Was he? A big part of him was screaming that this was a bad idea, but he wasn't going to back out now. Steeling himself for whatever may happen, Naruto nodded.

"Very well." The spiritual pressure returned, but it was not suffocating him like it had been. "Behold, my true form!"

Out of nowhere, smoke started coming from Yoruichi's body, startling Naruto slightly. In front of his eyes, Yoruichi began to grow in size and change shape. The black fur on the body receded while the portion on the top turned into a shade of purple.

A familiar shade of purple.

Naruto gaped as he watched the black feline he had known for about seven years morph into one of his mentors. Yoruichi/Soifon took great pleasure in his reaction.

She smirked and made a pose. "So, what do you think?"

"Y…Yo…I…Cat…"

Her smirk grew. "Wow, your reaction this time is even better than finding out that a cat could talk." She walked back over to his side and sat down. "So now you know. Soifon and Yoruichi are in fact the same person. Did you really never think about how you never saw them the two together?"

"You…"

"I know, I'm awesome, aren't I?" She leaned forward. "So? You never told me what you think." Her smirk had long turned into a full grin.

"I…" All of Naruto's mental facilities were in the process of rebooting. He wasn't sure what he expected, but it sure wasn't this. After staring at her in silence for a minute, his eyes slowly started to trail down. Naruto's face immediately glowed so bright, that Yoruichi was sure that it was brighter than anything one of his abilities could produce.

"What's the matter?" She asked in a concerned tone. Reaching up and pulling his head so she could put her forehead against his, she continued. "You didn't catch a fever, did you?" Naruto jumped back as if burned. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing even remotely intelligible came out anymore. "Come on, use your words."

"P…Pu…"

"Hm?"

"PUT SOME FREAKING CLOTHES ON-TTEBAYO!"

The sounds of female laughter rang throughout the safe house.

* * *

A now fully dressed Yoruichi laughed as she sat across from an irritated and blushing Naruto. "I was right! You and Ichigo really are alike. The both of you have the best reactions!" Her grin widened. "I just transformed back into this and carried you here. Did you know that you like to cuddle in your sleep? Pretty grabby, too…"

"Shut up…" Naruto couldn't look at Yoruichi for more than two seconds before his blush returned. "So everything you said was a load of crap then."

"Not really." Yoruichi grinned at him. "I was telling the truth when I said that just seeing me change back had the power to make men bleed. It just doesn't happen to be in the way you thought."

Naruto considered her words for a moment and scowled. "Stupid pervs…" He muttered. Yoruichi hummed in agreement.

"I don't mean to sound self-centered, but you can't exactly blame them. I like to think of myself as an attractive woman."

"Uh…" That sounded like a trap. How should he respond to that? "So what name do I call you by?"

Changing the subject seemed to be the safest option.

If Yoruichi caught onto his thoughts, she decided to be merciful. "Soifon is a name that I borrowed from someone I know. My actual name is Yoruichi Shihōin"

"Got it." He turned back to face her, withholding a sigh of relief that they had moved on.

Yoruichi lifted up her top. "So do you want another peak?" Scratch that.

Naruto jerked around to look away. "No-ttebayo!" He regretted this action the very next second when burning pain shot through him again. "Gah!"

"Naruto!" Yoruichi abandoned her playful attitude and adopted a concerned one. She rushed to check over his wounds again. "Sorry, I shouldn't tease you while your injured."

"It's...fine…" Naruto replied through clenched teeth. "How long do you think until I'm ready to move?"

She shot him a sharp look. "Not for a while. At least a couple of days."

"A couple of days?!" His protests died upon seeing the look she gave him.

"Yes, a couple of days. You are in no condition to continue the exam."

"But…"

"Get over it." She cut him off. "This exam isn't worth it anyways."

Naruto was silent for a minute. "Honestly, I agree with you. I would love to do nothing else but stay here and recover…" He stared her in the eyes. "But I can't. Not while there is the chance of that freak being out there with the people I care about."

"Is that right?" Yoruichi crossed her arms. "I understand your intentions, Naruto. I know perfectly well where you're coming from. But what can you possibly do in your condition. If anything, you would be nothing but a burden and an easy target." Naruto looked away. "I know you aren't yet good enough in healing magic to heal from all of this. So how are you going to recover?"

While he would love to argue, Naruto knew that what Yoruichi was right. He wouldn't be any help in his current condition. It was also true that he wasn't proficient enough in healing spells to recover from this in a reasonable amount of time without over exerting himself. On his own, he could never do it.

His eyes widened.

On his _own,_ Naruto could never heal himself quickly and not exhaust himself. But he didn't have to do it on his own. The grin forming on his face caught Yoruichi's interest.

"What?" She asked. "Did you think of something?" Naruto nodded.

"Yeah, I did." After glancing around, Naruto spotted his target on a nearby table with the rest of his tools. "Can you please hand me my dream eater deck?"

Comprehension soon came to Yoruichi followed by a smirk. "I see where this is going, Sure." She got up and retrieved the case. Handing it to Naruto, she spoke up. "Can one of them help you?"

Naruto nodded with a grin. "Yeah. I might not be good enough to heal myself, but I know who is." He took out the deck and began to look through the cards. It wasn't that big of a deck, so he should be able to find the card he wanted easily enough. "Some dream eaters are more skilled in certain areas than others. For example, Ryu is good in a fight, but support techniques aren't his thing." His grin grew when he found the card he was looking for. "But I know who is good at them." He held the card up and poured some twilight into it.

" **Summon: Wheeflower**!" In a flash, the card disappeared and in its place was a dream eater.

As the name suggested, this dream eater bore many similarities to a flower. It had a yellow head with a purple swirl on the top, light pink antennas with purple tops, and a pink and yellow butterfly shaped flower behind its head. The body of the heartless consisted of green petal-like appendages and a body that was shaped like a pink heart with lighter coloring on the top. On the front of the body was the dream eater emblem.

The dream eater did a twirl and a flip in the air while gently floating down to the ground. It was sure to pose as it landed, as if it was on stage during some sort of show. "Whewee!" It bowed.

Although Yoruichi raised an eyebrow at the behavior, Naruto grinned. "That one was even better than the last one, flower." The dream eater cheered at the praise, but the joy on her face soon died down when she saw the condition that Naruto was in.

"Whee!" She rushed up to Naruto with obvious concern.

Naruto smiled down at her. "I'm completely fine, really."

"Whee?"

"Well, not completely. I'm actually in a lot of pain right now…That's actually why I called you here." He gestured to his battered body. "I was hoping you could help me take care of this. The sooner I can get up and moving, the better."

Wheeflower looked over his wounds with a critical eye. After a minute of assessing the damage, she looked back to Naruto and nodded with a determined smile. "Whee."

"Great, thank you so much. Do you think I can be up by the time morning comes around?"

"Whee!" Another nod.

"Awesome. I would be screwed without you." The dream eater started to act bashful at his words.

"Whee…" Without any further words, Wheeflower began to raise her petals towards Naruto, prompting a soft green light to form. Naruto sighed in relief when he felt the soothing sensation wash over him.

"So you'll be ready to go by the morning?" Yoruichi asked.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, I should be. Wheeflower is able to heal many wounds quickly, but this many would need some time."

"Alright. We'll head out once your recovered and it gets brighter." This declaration caused some confusion in Naruto.

"'We'll?'" Naruto repeated, making Yoruichi roll her eyes.

"Yes, we'll. Did you really think that Kisuke and I would just let you waltz out here where it was likely you would be attacked by Orochimaru? Nope. Kisuke is busy with his project, but I was free to come out to travel with you."

"But…This is an exam. We aren't supposed to have outside help."

"I think the idea of keeping the rules going in the exam went out the window the moment Orochimaru became involved." Was the dry reply. "Don't worry about it. It isn't like I will be helping in the exam itself. I'll just be there for when things get really bad. People won't question it too much."

Naruto's confusion grew. "How will they not question it?" He was waved off.

"I said not to worry about it. Just focus on resting and healing."

"…Right…" With great care, Naruto settled back down to rest. Regardless of whether it was allowed or not, it was nice to know that he had someone to help out. Yoruichi's words about how he would be fighting with people he can count on in the future came back to mind.

He was stupid to forget that he wouldn't be fighting alone. Xehanort was a threat to not just his world, but all the worlds. There would of course be others who would wish to fight against him. Hell, he already knew there would be others. Hikari and Yami themselves had told him that there were others out there that would be fighting. Naruto idly wondered what the other keyblade wielders would be like.

Naruto froze at that reminder. _'The keyblade!'_ Without thinking, Naruto bolted upright, startling Wheeflower. He was instantly reminded why that was a bad idea when more pain crashed through him.

"Whewee!"

"Hey, what are you doing?!" Yoruichi glared at him, but the concern she held was still obvious. "Why would you move like that?"

Instead of answering, Naruto lifted up a hand and summoned his keyblade. A feeling of mixed apprehension and excitement was pooling in him. Like it always did, the keyblade appeared in a flash of light and darkness.

And like always, Two Become One was in his hand.

"What?" Naruto felt slightly disappointed and confused when he saw the unaltered keyblade. Yoruichi and Wheeflower looked on in curiosity.

"Your keyblade?" Yoruichi asked. Her eyes soon widened as she understood what made him act like that. "Come to think of it, your keyblade was acting strangely back then…"

Naruto didn't look away from his keyblade as he answered, too focused on attempting to find some abnormality. Something that would prove what he thought he saw really happened. "I'm…not sure what happened…I don't even know when it started doing that. I never noticed until Sephiroth directed our attention towards it. But…I need to talk to Hikari and Yami. Now."

She looked away from the keyblade and to him. "No." Her sudden denial made Naruto blink and turn to her.

"What?"

"I said no. You are not going to go into the Station of Awakening just to end up talking to them until morning. You are going to rest both your body and your mind. You've said it yourself on multiple occasions, the station only allows your body to rest. Every time you went in there, you always came out mentally fatigued, and it showed in your training. It's even the reason you started to like sleeping so much."

"But…This is-" He _had_ to understand what happened.

"No." Her eyes softened. "I'm sorry, but this has to wait. If we are going to confronting someone like Orochimaru, you need to be in your best condition, both mentally and physically. You can ask about it after the exam."

"…" Naruto was silent as he considered her words. She was right on every point. The Station of Awakening always allowed his body to rest, but allowing the mind to rest was just as important. He could wait to ask about the transformation the keyblade underwent. "…Fine…" He relented.

"Thanks." Yoruichi gained a stern look. "Now seriously, go to sleep."

"Whee!" Wheeflower was quick to voice her agreement. She even went so far as to gently push Naruto back down.

"Fine, fine." Naruto had a small smile at the dream eater's fussy behavior. "What a pair of mother hens…" He muttered.

"What was that?" Now wasn't _that_ a dangerous tone?

"Nothing! I'm asleep-ttebayo!"

* * *

"Well?" A cold voice asked.

"They are in place and awaiting your signal." Replied another.

"Good. And where are the targets?"

"The Uchiha has just recently crossed the border of the Land of Hot Water."

"And what about the other?"

"…Unknown."

" _What was that_?" Hissed the first voice.

"Kidōmaru had last reported him to be nearing the border as well, but…" It was obvious that the second voice was hesitant to continue.

"But _what_?"

"But…he stopped reporting in a little over twenty-four hours ago. He was discovered and eliminated."

"Are you telling me that the boy found and killed a member of the Sound Four who was _supposed to remain hidden_?" Rage was bubbling under those words.

"Sir…I'm not sure what to tell you. The wounds on the body were done by a blade of some sort, one that was not a kunai. Perhaps it was the strange blade?"

"…Perhaps…"

"Trouble in paradise?" A new voice asked.

"You will do well to not forget your place!" Snapped the first.

"My _place_ is no lower than your own, snake. If your men are unable to do the job, perhaps mine will."

"Just give me the word, ma'am! I'll take care of the brat!" A fourth voice joined the conversation.

"Silence, fool!" The third voice ordered. "So, what say you? The boy will be taken care of, allowing the plan can continue."

"…Do _not_ get in my way. Anger me, and you will die." Said the first voice. "Go ahead and send your buffoon."

"Hey!" The fourth voice shouted. "I ain't no-"

"If you do not silence yourself in the next second, you will personally see just how _painful_ some of my research can be!"

"…"

"Good. Now head to this location. If he hasn't strayed too far, the boy should be passing through it soon. You will meet allies there."

* * *

 **The Next Morning**

Naruto stretched out his body with a wide yawn. "Good night of sleep and a healed body. I feel great!" He turned with a wide grin to Wheeflower. "Thanks for the help."

The tired dream eater nodded. "Whee…"

"I'm sorry for having you work for that long. You definitely earned some rest." With a nod, Wheeflower bowed to him before disappearing in a flash of twilight, leaving a card in her place. Yoruichi spoke up just as Naruto was putting the card back into the deck.

"We should get going soon. Daylight is starting to reach us."

Naruto nodded. "Right." He quickly walked over to the table and grabbed his gear. "I'm healed and ready to go whenever you are."

"Sure, sure. I just gotta get out of my clothes." Naruto blinked.

"What?" He turned to her, but snapped his head back around as soon as he saw she had already taken off her pants. "Why are you taking your clothes off?!"

"Why do you think?" She asked sarcastically.

"I have no idea-ttebayo!" Unseen to Naruto because he was looking away, Yoruichi took a small scroll out of her pants pocket, unrolled it, and placed her clothes on it. With a flare of her spiritual pressure, the clothes were concealed in a puff of smoke. When the smoke dissipated, only the scroll remained.

Yoruichi grinned widely. "This is one of the best things that Kisuke has ever made." She said.

"What, a pair of pants?"

"No. A sealing scroll that works with spiritual pressure instead of chakra. Now it's easier for me to carry around my clothes!"

Naruto frowned at this. "Easier than simply wearing them?" He voiced.

The Shihōin rolled her eyes. "Were you always this much of a smartass?" Not waiting for an answer, she continued. "I can't exactly wear them when I'm a cat."

"When you're a…" Smoke started to spread from behind him, but Naruto didn't turn around. A moment later, a weight settled across his shoulders, prompting him to look. "Oh…"

"Indeed." Yoruichi had returned to her cat form and was now riding on Naruto's shoulders. In her mouth was the scroll, which she handed to Naruto. "This is why I said people wouldn't have a problem with me sticking with you. Do you get it now?"

Naruto grinned. "Yeah, now it makes sense. I didn't even think of that…Probably because I'm still not used to the idea of you being able to transform like that."

"Well, get used to it. It was such a hassle not being able to change between my forms with you around." She said. Naruto frowned and opened his mouth to reply, but she cut him off. "Anyways, get moving! I want to be half way through the Land of Hot Water by the end of the day!"

"…Fine." He didn't like how he was being ordered around, but Naruto knew that they probably should get moving. He was already behind schedule by a day, so he needed to pick up the pace. "I'm not stopping for you if you fall!"

* * *

 **Later**

"Hm…It is getting warmer…And more humid…" Yoruichi noted. The two of them had recently left the heavily forested area and were now travelling through slightly mountainous terrain. At the moment, Naruto was travelling through a small mountain pass.

Naruto paused for a moment before speaking up. "Yeah, we made it a good amount into the Land of Hot Water now. If I'm right…" He broke into a light jog. The further he travelled, the warmer it got. He soon came upon the end of the pass. "There we go."

The scene they came upon was a cliff overlooking a flooded valley, forming a lake. The incredible thing was that there was steam rising off of the lake. Yoruichi's eyes narrowed in thought at the sight. "Is that…a hot spring?" She asked.

"Yeah, it is. The Land of Hot Water is known for its hot springs. This one is one of the largest natural ones they have…" Naruto answered while scanning the nearby shore. "We need to get across…I would just water walk, but this particular spring is also known for its abnormal heat. I don't want to get that close to the water…" A grin formed when he spotted what he was looking for. "There we go." He turned and jogged towards the thing that caught his attention.

"Oh, I see." Yoruichi muttered. "You're going to use this bridge…" A bridge was made across the diameter of the hot spring, granting access to anyone who wanted to cross.

"Exactly. They made this a while back." He nearing the bridge, but was surprised when he got closer. "Misa?"

Said girl blinked in surprise before looking up from her map and turning around. When she saw who had said her name, she grinned. "Naruto! You're still alive!"

Naruto's grin instantly died down. "Yeah, surprising right?" He muttered. "What are you doing here? I would have thought that I was behind everyone else." A blush spread across her cheeks and she looked away, making Naruto raise an eyebrow. "What?"

"I sorta…lost track of time…" She admitted.

Even if he had wanted to, Naruto would not have been able to prevent the laugh that escaped him. "You lost track of time?"

Her blush darkened. "Shut up! It could happen to anyone!"

"Right, right. Anyone could have lost track of time in the middle of a chūnin exam…"

"That…That…That isn't the point!" She rounded on him. "And what about you? What are you doing back here?"

Naruto didn't even miss a beat. "I'm so behind because I was finding so many types of heartless that I needed more time in this area."

"Tch…" Misa opened her mouth again, but paused when she noticed his passenger. "Why do you have a cat with you?"

"This is…" Naruto glanced to Yoruichi, who glanced back. "This is Yoruichi. She wanted to come along so bad that she followed me from the village. Because of all the heartless, I didn't want to leave her alone, so I just kept her with me."

"Oh…Make sense…I guess…" She quickly shook her head. "Wait, wait, wait! I don't have time for this. I need to get moving!" She turned away and started walking towards the bridge. "Later, Naruto! See you in Kumo!"

Naruto frowned. "Wait!" She did so. "Where in the Land of Lightning are you going? I'm heading to a point that's a little west of Kumo."

She turned back to him. "Same here. My destination is a little north west." Naruto grinned at the answer.

"Then we should travel together for a bit." Misa wasn't expecting that abrupt proposal.

"What? Is that even allowed?"

He shrugged. "I don't see why not. It was never explicitly stated that we had to travel alone. They only really told us to leave on our own and arrive on our own. Nothing about the in between." He held out a hand. "So? What do you say?"

Misa looked at his hand for a moment before smirking and shaking it. "Sure, why not? I would feel safer if heartless suddenly started popping out of nowhere if someone had my back."

No sooner had the words left her mouth than pools of darkness formed in a ring around them, giving rise to heartless. Snapping to high alert, Misa pulled out a kunai and whirled around while Naruto summoned his keyblade and turned around as well. The two of them stood back to back and prepared themselves for a fight.

"…Misa…You absolutely jinxed us."

"…I'm really sorry." She took in the types of heartless that appeared. "I don't need to document any of these, you?"

After taking a moment to look around, Naruto shook his head. "Nope. I've got them all as well."

Misa's smirk returned when he said this. "The one to kill more heartless doesn't have to help set up camp and food?"

"Deal." Without any further words, they both dashed towards the closest heartless.

* * *

"So, how many you get?" Naruto asked.

"You first."

Naruto scowled at her. "I asked first."

"…Same time?" Her question was met with a nod.

"On three. One. Two. Three!"

"Nineteen!"

"Twenty!"

"Dammit!" Misa cursed. "You must have cheated."

"Nope." Naruto grinned. "All skill, I'm afraid. No need to be a sore loser, it happens to the best of us."

"Whatever. If we just had two more opponents, then I would have totally won." She said.

"Oh? And how about us?" A new voice said. Immediately, Naruto and Misa whirled around to face the owner of the voice, weapons at the ready.

Standing there was a man with dark grey hair that had a bang covering an eye. His outfit was a brown tunic with long black wristbands, black skin-tight shorts, and a purple rope tied around his waist. Around his neck was a dark red beaded necklace.

The man smirked. "How about it? Didn't you say you wanted to fight more? I can easily provide you with the chance." He raised a hand and snapped his fingers. Heartless appeared around him in response to his call. "Courtesy of Orochimaru-sama." That named made Naruto and Misa tense.

' _Orochimaru? Damn it!'_

"What? Don't want to talk?" The man taunted. "No matter. Kill them!" The heartless eagerly obeyed the order and jumped at them.

Naruto dodged the swipe of a soldier heartless and retaliated with a swift slash that killed it, but the first heartless was soon replaced with another two. Because they were such a low class type of heartless, neither he nor Misa had trouble dispatching them.

The difficulty came in the numbers.

For every heartless they killed, another two would appear. If they killed those two, then another four would appear. The grey haired man watched with a wide grin as more and more heartless joined the fight.

Misa growled when she kicked a heartless away for the twelfth time. "Where do they keep coming from?"

"No idea…" Naruto stopped talking to attack another heartless. "But they don't seem to be slowing down." Between him and Misa, at least forty of them must have already been killed. Heartless didn't normally travel in such large groups. The fact that they kept coming meant… "We need to take the guy out!"

"Easier said than done!" Other types of heartless were starting to join the fight, making it more difficult for them to maneuver.

"Figured it out, did you?" The man called. He had yet to join the battle because he was spending all his time calling upon more and more heartless to the area. "Then go ahead, try to 'take me out!' You won't even get close!"

"Meow!"

"Argh! What the hell?!" The man's attention snapped to the black cat that just dug its claws into the back of his neck. "You stupid cat!" He swiped at Yoruichi, but she just jumped to the side and retaliated with another slash. "Gah! Fuck you!"

"He's fighting the cat…" Misa muttered.

Naruto smirked. "Did I not mention that I also didn't mind Yoruichi because she is good in a fight?"

"You left that part out."

"Whoops, my bad." He crouched. "We should get rid of these guys while he's distracted. **Ars Acanum**!" Naruto disappeared in a blur of speed, quick destroying another portion of the heartless.

"Sit still, you flea bag!" Naruto smirked when the man turned his back to him in order to get at Yoruichi. Taking the chance, Naruto sped towards the exposed back with his keyblade at the ready.

' _Goodbye!'_

Naruto was completely unprepared for the arm that suddenly shot out of the man's back and embedded a fist in the crimson blond's stomach. "Gah!" Yoruichi jumped back and out of reach with wide eyes at the sight, Naruto soon doing the same.

"Hehehe…Did you really think that would work?" The man asked. Turning around, he revealed to Naruto that a wide smirk was present on his face. "You really are stupid."

"What the hell are you?" Naruto bit out.

"Ah, that isn't the right way to say it…" Naruto's eyes widened in shock when _another head_ grew out of the man's neck. "You should say, 'What the hell are _we_.'" The two heads finished together. "From the very beginning, I asked if you would like to fight _us_. Did you think I was talking about the heartless?" The left head asked. "Allow us to introduce ourselves. I am Sakon."

"And I am Ukon." The right head finished.

"We are the leaders of the Sound Four, the elite body guards of Orochimaru-sama." They said together.

Naruto scowled and slid back into a battle stance. "You can call yourselves whatever you want, but you're nothing more than tools for the freak."

"Maybe to you." Ukon said.

"But to us, there is no greater honor." Sakon finished. Their smirks grew. "Who knows, you may come around to our way of thinking."

"Like hell I will!"

"Hm…We'll see…" Ukon said. "But anyways, you sure are focused on the two of us, aren't you?"

Naruto looked at them suspiciously. "What does that mean?" Their smirks grew even more.

"It means…" Ukon began.

"That maybe you should pay some attention to your friend." Naruto's eyes widened.

"Gah!"

"Misa!" He snapped around when he heard the shout, but it was too late. To top it off, he wasn't even sure what he was looking at.

Standing there was a large, black, bipedal animal that vaguely resembled a cat. It was wearing armor that was colored blue and purple over a red, short-sleeved shirt with a vertical pink stripe descending from the neck. Its pants were navy blue, with light blue lining, purple power legs, two pouches on either side, and an oversized zipper going down the front and wrapping around to the backside. The thing also had two suspenders that intersected across his chest, blue sneakers, and a pair of fingerless gauntlets.

The cat-thing grinned maliciously at Naruto before speaking in a male voice. "Well, look what I have here…" Under his arm was a knocked out Misa.

Naruto growled. "I don't know who or what you are, but let. Her. Go."

"No can do, I got specific instructions to take her. And now that I have her, I don't see any reason for good ol' Pete to stick around anymore…" He snapped his fingers.

The air next to him shimmered until a large, yellow and green heartless became visible. In the back of his mind, Naruto vaguely noted that the heartless looked a lot like a chameleon, but he was more preoccupied with the mutated cat holding his friend.

Without wasting a moment, Pete jumped onto the back of the newly appeared heartless. "I'll see you around! Try not to miss me too much!" He broke into loud laughter after he said this and kicked the sides of the heartless. "Get movin'!"

"No!" Naruto moved to stop him, but found his path blocked by the appearance of more heartless. "Get out of the way!"

"Sorry, but if you want to help your friend…"

"Then you have to get by us."

Naruto whirled around and got into a battle stance. His cerulean eye was glowing a silvery-white while the violet one glowed a purplish-black. "You won't stop me from saving her."

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 32!**

 **You get one guess as to what happened in that flashback.**

 **Changing the gender of Yoruichi in cat form from a male to female now that Naruto knows.**

 **Surprisingly enough (at least to me), that stuff about getting a nosebleed when excited is real. I have a friend who actually got a nosebleed while he was with his girlfriend. 100% true story.**

 **Do dream eaters have genders? I don't think they do (too lazy to check beyond a brief glance on the wiki), but should I just give them ones anyways?**

 **The heartless Pete used to get away was a Stealth Sneak**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	34. Open Your Heart

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 33!**

 **Just gonna say this. I am dead tired as I write this chapter. As in, I keep nodding off in my chair. So I don't know how it compares to the others, quality wise.**

 **It's amazing how much being sick takes away your motivation to get shit done. I honestly pushed writing this thing back multiple times over the last three days.**

 **I'll just start giving the dream eaters genders…cuz why not?**

 **You know what confuses me? Stories that literally only have 2k words in them and yet still have over 1k favorites and follows. I mean, I get the author is known for good stories, but they are also known for having trouble sticking to one fic for an extended period of time…Case in point, a story with 2k words that has a single chapter and was published like 8 months ago…**

* * *

 **Kairitrion Cerulean: Maybe. That is a kinda cool idea…And thanks!**

 **guest-bat: I already have a girl in mind for the pairing. I'm not going to commit to her, but I might hint that there is something between the two of them and gauge how to proceed from reactions. I don't care if there is a pairing or not…But having one with the girl I have in mind might help my plans.**

 **redlox2: Ugh. You too?! Yes, I plan on giving him some more jutsu stuff before he leaves.**

 **The Eternal FrostbiteLeo: Maybe and perhaps. :P**

 **LordGhostStriker: Yeah! Or maybe. I dunno.**

 **Stick Figure man:** _ **That**_ **answer would lead to spoilers no matter if I confirmed or denied it.**

 **CyberDragonEX: I jumped the gun in giving him that keychain. It was** _ **way**_ **too early for me to do that and I regret it slightly. It is also because of that that no, he hasn't gotten any since then.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else. I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Deity Talking: " **Insert witty remark here.** "

Biju/Deity Thinking: _' **Insert witty remark here.** '_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **Last Updated: 4/6/17 (Minor Improvements)**

* * *

"Has he still not been spotted?" Yūgao's face was serious, but there was still obvious worry in her eyes.

"No…" Aoba was beating himself up for letting something like this happen. "I can't believe I lost track of him like that."

Genma chewed on his senbon for a moment while rapidly going over all the facts again in his head. "Relax, it's not like this is the end of the world. We just need to find him. Let's start from the last time you saw him."

Aoba sighed and tiredly rubbed his eyes. "Right. The last time I had confirmation on his location was the day before last. As per instructed, I was keeping a fair distance between us. I was ready to rush in the moment I felt a large spike of chakra or any similar signs of a fight, but..."

"But it never came." He nodded at Genma's words.

"Exactly. I stayed where he was supposed to pass through, but he never came. After three hours and a growing sense that something was wrong, I went to investigate." He gestured around them to the crater filled and scorched clearing they were standing in. "And here we are."

"Safe to say Naruto got into a fight..." Yūgao said, gaining nods from the other two. "But with who? And who came out as the victor? And even then, where is he now?" Neither of them could answer her questions.

"...You think it was Orochimaru?" Genma asked. This possibility sent a jolt of dread down Yūgao's spine.

"...I wouldn't rule out the possibility..." Aoba admitted. "The Hokage has already been informed of the situation, right?"

"Yes. The message was sent right away." Any further discussions were interrupted by a small burst of smoke appearing in between them. Immediately on guard, the three of them relaxed when they saw it was one of Anko's messenger snakes. Yūgao took the message, allowing the snake to disappear, and opened it. The others waited silently for her to finish. Their eyebrows rose when a harsh frown formed on the purple haired kunoichi's face. "What's up?"

She put the message away and turned to them. "We need to move, now. Naruto has been spotted crossing the border recently."

Relief flooded their bodies, but a small sense of confusion accompanied it. "Then what's the problem?" Aoba asked.

"The problem is that-" Her words were cut off as several polls of darkness opened up around them, giving form to heartless. Without wasting a moment to think, the three turned away from each other so that they would be back to back and slid into battle stances. "...All of our allies are now being confronted by heartless." She finished.

"Wonderful..." Even a small child would be able to pick up the sarcasm in Genma's statement. "So, what's the plan?"

Yūgao unsheathed her sword and mentally counted the number of heartless. "The plan is to fight our way to Naruto. We need to get there before Orochimaru does."

"Alright then..." Aoba said. "But first, would our guest like to show himself?" He called. All was silent for a minute, but a voice soon responded.

"So you detected me…I suppose the three of you have earned your ranks after all…" They turned their heads to view the speaker.

Standing there was a young man with pale skin, green eyes, two scarlet dots on his forehead, and shoulder-length white hair that was divided down the middle of his head. His outfit consisted of a light lavender, loose-fitting, long-sleeved, zip-up shirt, black pants, black shinobi sandals, and a purple rope belt.

"Orochimaru-sama instructed me to prevent any of the trash from interfering." He raised a hand, and they all watched as a bone emerged from it until it was about the length of a katana. The newcomer then slid into a battle stance. "I will complete this order, even if it costs me my life."

"Your life, huh…" Genma muttered while taking in the appearance of the boy. _'Enemy. Slightly young, but still a threat. Judging by the weapon, he is a Kaguya. Due to the importance of getting to the others, there is no time to capture. Elimination is the only option.'_ "You do realize that you really will lose your life by fighting us, right?" He asked. "You can't possibly defeat the three of us on your own; Even with the heartless backing you."

The Kaguya considered his words. Eventually, he nodded with his apathetic look still in place. "If that is my fate, then so be it. As long as I die so Orochimaru-sama's desire come to fruition."

"You won't stall us for long." Aoba said. "It shouldn't take us long to get by you and reach the others. You do not have the power to keep us here for too long."

"That is where you're wrong." That declaration made the three of them all the warier of the newcomer. That wasn't a declaration of false bravado, but one of the utmost confidence, as if he knew something they didn't. "Orochimaru-sama granted me the power to succeed." Their eyes widened when a purplish-black aura started to form around him. "With this, I will surely do my duty…" He brandished the bone sword. "Now, prepare yourselves. The time for talk has ended."

* * *

 **With Naruto**

Naruto panted lightly as he glared at the downed forms of Sakon and Ukon. "They were annoying…" He muttered. Although they didn't look that strong, they were definitely capable of keeping him and Yoruichi there for longer than he would have liked. Because of that, Naruto was unable to go and save- "Misa!" His head snapped around to the way that that mutated cat thing had gone. "Shit!" Channeling some chakra to his legs and pausing just long enough for Yoruichi to jump on, Naruto dashed after them.

"How much time has passed…?" Paying attention to the time was the last thing on his mind during the fight, so he wasn't sure.

"Hm…" Yoruichi glanced to the position of the sun. "I would say that he has a good thirty-minute head start…" Naruto cursed under his breath.

"He rode off on a freaking heartless. Add to that the head start, and I will never catch up on foot." His hand shot to his card deck. "Ryu is still hurt…But this guy is pretty fast as well." He raised the card. " **Summon: Halbird**!" In a flash, the desired dream eater appeared.

It was an eagle dream eater with wings and a tail that resembled blades. The legs, horns, and tail of the bird were both outlined in aquamarine while the rest of the body had shades of purple mixed in. Completing its look was something similar to a yellow mane and a blue chest.

The dream eater flew over to Naruto with a friendly look. Naruto smiled back, but his expression soon turned serious. "Sorry Hal, but I don't really have time to talk. A friend of mine was taken and I need help catching up to them. Are you okay with giving us a lift?" The Eagle gained a determined look and nodded before bending lower so Naruto would have easier access.

Grinning, Naruto hopped on. "Thanks!" He pointed in the direction they had been going. "They went that way. I'm not sure how far they've gotten, so we better get a move on!" With another nod, the dream eater started to pick up speed in the direction he pointed in. After a few yards, it leapt into the air, and started to soar through it.

"What does that thing want Misa for, anyways?" Naruto wondered out loud.

Yoruichi shook her head. "I haven't the faintest clue. But do you remember what he said?"

Naruto scowled and nodded. "The thing said that he had 'specific instructions' to take Misa…" He looked to the cat. "But who would order that?"

"Is it really so hard to guess?" His scowl deepened.

"No, but I was really hoping you would tell me otherwise. Maybe some evil mutated cat lord you heard about while adventuring as a cat…anything but the freak would have been preferable." Their current direction took them west, if Naruto was correct…Which meant that they were heading towards the direction Land of Sound was in. That alone gave some merit to his theory as to who was behind this.

Yoruichi sighed. "I'm afraid that it may be much worse than that…" Naruto sent her a look that was mixed with curiosity and trepidation.

"How can it be worse?" Wasn't just having to deal with Orochimaru already the worst situation?

"Naruto…What exactly would you classify the thing that took Misa as?" Yoruichi asked instead.

Although he didn't understand why she was asking him that, Naruto figured it probably had something to do with the current situation. "I already said it's some kind of mutated cat thing…" He replied.

"Really? Is that all?" What more is there than that? He wouldn't be surprised to find out that it was some kind of result from one of the freak's experiments. Yoruichi looked him in the eyes. "Because I for one, would classify it as _otherworldly_."

All of Naruto's thought processes froze at that last word. "…You…you don't think…" Yoruichi nodded.

"I do…Sephiroth being on this world was the first indication, but we never gave it much thought. Who is to say that others have not made their way to this world as well?"

"…And if these people have met with Orochimaru…And are willing to ally themselves with him…"

"Then things could get much, much worse…I truly fear for Misa. I do not know what she could have possibly done to attract their attention, but it most likely isn't good."

"Shit. Hal! We need to pick up the pace!"

"Kah!" The Eagle reared in the air before streaking across the sky, nearly doubling their previous speed.

' _Gotta get there, now…'_

* * *

 **Later**

Naruto's eyes frantically scanned the slightly mountainous terrain below him in order to find his target. _'Where…How far could they have gotten?'_ Naruto was already uncomfortably close to the Land of Sound. If it came to it, he would venture into the Land of Sound, but he would really love to avoid that if he could. He ignored the small thoughts in the back of his head that told him that he might have been too late.

"There!" Naruto's head snapped around at Yoruichi's exclamation and he immediately spotted them. The fat cat thing was still riding on the back of the heartless, and Misa was still unconscious. It didn't look like they knew he had caught up yet.

Back on the ground, Pete was grinning widely to himself. The plan was going just as expected! If things kept up this way, then they would have to agree that he was just as much of a force to be reckoned with as the rest of them!

"Hal, you see them?" The dream eater nodded. "Then you know what to do. Let's hit them hard before they even know we're here!" They immediately fell into a steep dive that was aimed right at the large heartless. Naruto waited until they were within mere feet to raise his keyblade. " **Fly-by Knight**." In a flash of light, Halbird's speed increased again, and it aimed right at Pete's back.

Naruto's eyes widened in shock when, at the last moment, the heartless Pete was riding on jumped to the side, avoiding the entire attack. Halbird was quick to recover from his surprise and whirl around in midair so that they were now facing Pete.

Pete glowered at Naruto. "Oooh, you stupid brat! You should have just stayed out o' the way!" He shouted.

Glaring, Naruto spoke up. "You're going to give Misa back, now." This can be done through one of two methods. Either you do so willingly…"

"Ha! Or what?" The cocky grin on Pete's face faltered when an aura of twilight formed around Naruto.

"…Or I beat you until you look even _more_ deformed, and _then_ I get Misa back…" Naruto's glare turned colder. "So which will it be?"

Sweat dripped down Pete's head as he stared at the glowing opponent. "W-well, you see…I, uh…"

"Hurry up and choose. I don't care either way. Honestly speaking, I think I will enjoy the latter option a bit."

Pete gulped. "Well, w-when you put it like that…" He began to shift his hold on Misa, moving her so that she was being held out to him. Naruto smirked and the twilight aura died down. "I'd rather choose option three!" He kicked the sides of the heartless, making it put on a large burst of speed. "The one where I get the heck outta here!"

 **Play Kingdom Hearts 1.5 ReMIX - Squirming Evil Extended**

Naruto glared after him, rage bubbling in his chest. "Sorry, that isn't an option…" He said quietly. "And therefore, option two is chosen by default." Halbird reared again before shooting after them.

Once again, Naruto found himself slightly surprised by the speed that the heartless Pete was riding possessed. In the few seconds after it took off, it had already sprinted a larger distance than he would have expected. But it was still nothing Halbird couldn't handle. Without giving Pete the chance to even realize what was going on, he found his path cut off by Naruto.

"Why you!" Pete growled. "Fine! If you want a fight, then you'll get one!" He hopped off the heartless and pointed a finger at Naruto. "Teach that brat a lesson!" Immediately following this order, he ran off to hide behind a boulder.

After scowling at the bit of cowardice, Naruto turned back to the heartless. "Fine, I'll just get rid of you first…Get in close!"

"Kah!" Halbird dove at the heartless, poised to slash at it as it flew by. As they sped towards the heartless, Naruto's mind went over its appearance. It didn't look like it could be hiding anything unexpected…

Suddenly, the heartless disappeared from view, making Naruto's eyes widen in surprise. "Veer left!" He quickly instructed, but the order came too late as an invisible swipe landed on the airborne dream eater, hurling them away. "Hal!"

When the ground was feet away from them, Halbird recovered from the surprising blow and stabilized them. Although it had been unexpected, the dream eater was able to avoid any major damage, but it was still glaring hatefully at the spot the heartless last occupied.

Naruto was cursing himself in his head. "I forgot it could do that…" His eyes were scanning the surrounding area in an attempt to spot the heartless.

"I think we both did…" Yoruichi agreed while helping in the search. "This may prove to be more difficult than expected."

"Tch." Naruto didn't respond to that one and continued the search. Turning his head, he caught a shimmer of light out of the corner of his eye. Not even bothering to question it, he aimed his keyblade at the spot. " **Fire**!" The fireball shot out of the keyblade and rocketed towards the indicated spot.

To the slight surprise of Naruto, Yoruichi, and Halbird, the fireball made contact with something that they hadn't seen. A victorious grin filter across Naruto's face when he heard the pained warble of the heartless. "If we pay attention, we can spot the light shimmering off of it!" He instructed.

"Right, good catch…" Yoruichi complimented. Her feline eyes zeroed in a small glimmer to their right. "2 o'clock!" Without hesitation, Naruto directed his keyblade at the indicated spot.

" **Fira**!" A larger fireball than last time was launched at the hidden heartless, and like the previous time, it met its mark.

Naruto grinned when the heartless reappeared in front of them. "I guess that it can't maintain its invisibility after taking damage. Now is the time to get rid of it!"

"Kah!" Halbird shot towards the heartless. The Eagle surprised the heartless with the fast speeds, therefore earning a clean hit on the side of the heartless. Halbird whirled around for another attack, but was forced to abandon such plans in order to avoid the swipe of a claw.

" **Thunder**!" Naruto frowned when the chameleon heartless jumped out of the way of his spell. Halbird followed this up with another charge, but the heartless was able to avoid it this time. "This isn't going to work…" He said quietly. "Hal, keep attacking from the air!" Naruto hopped off and landed on the ground. Glaring at the heartless, he slid into a battle stance. "You probably can't do as well against two targets."

The heartless set its eyes on Naruto and lunged at him. Naruto rolled to the side to avoid the attack before springing back to his feet. He used the chance to slash at the side of the heartless and was rewarded with a shout that was a mixture of pain and rage. It whirled around on him, but soon found itself under attack by the dream eater.

Halbird dove between swipes to land an electrified charge on the heartless. Stealth sneak, annoyed by the flying horse, turned towards the dream eater to get a better shot at it, which gave Naruto the perfect opening to its back. Taking the chance, Naruto jumped onto its back.

Immediately noticing that it had an unwanted passenger, Stealth sneak started to buck and move in frantic motions to hurl him off. Using chakra to make sure he didn't fly off, Naruto ran the rest of the way up to the head.

"Now then… **Shadowbreaker**!" Two fast and powerful strikes to the back of the head served as enough incentive for the heartless to roar in further agony and double its efforts in losing Naruto. "Whoa!" Caught off guard by the suddenly more violent movement, Naruto was unable to stop himself from losing his balance. Not wanting to fall to the ground directly in front of the large heartless, Naruto jumped away.

Now free of the passenger, Stealth sneak glared at Naruto for a minute. But instead of lunging at him, like Naruto expected, it instead reared onto its hind legs and its eyes started to glow.

Naruto's eyes shot open in surprise when two laser blasts shot out of its eyes and straight at him. Reacting quickly, he dove out of the way of the blasts, only to be further shocked when they altered their course to follow him. Naruto's keyblade shot up to intercept the attack. "Gah!" He managed to block one of the blasts, but the other struck him in the side. Naruto shoved the pain to the back of his mind and jumped back into battle while Halbird had the attention of the heartless.

"This ends now…Hal!" Knowing what he wanted without being asked, Halbird veered off of his previous trajectory and instead flew to Naruto. Once the avian was close enough, Naruto leapt into the air, with Halbird still racing towards him.

From his spot behind the boulder, Pete squinted his eyes at the action. "What's he up to…" If they kept going like that, then they would collide in the air.

Right when Halbird and Naruto were inches from each other, the area was bathed in a bright light, forcing Pete and even the heartless to avert their eyes. When the light died down, the mutated cat was shocked to see Naruto floating in the air with the dream eater nowhere in sight. But what was alarming was the fact that a bright aura of light was shrouding Naruto's body; Even his eyes were glowing with it.

" **Shining Hammer**." The crimson blond intoned. The next second, Pete was greeted with another flash of light, but this one was accompanied with the pained cry of his heartless. Pete's jaw dropped in shock at the high speeds Naruto was darting around at and the helplessness his heartless now exuded.

Naruto slashed from the right, before shooting by a feeble swipe and attacking from the rear. The attacks were relentless and it was clear to Pete that this fight was about to finish. "I better get out o' here…" He turned towards the still unconscious Misa, but stumbled when a shockwave blasted from behind him.

"You aren't going anywhere." A quiet voice said.

 **End Music**

Pete's entire body shook in fear at what he knew was right behind him. Shakily turning his head, his thoughts were confirmed by the glowing and angry eyes of Naruto. "N-now listen…There's no need t-"

"I gave you a chance." Naruto interrupted. "I told you that you could just leave Misa and be spared any harm, but you instead chose to fight. And I'm not even going to comment on your stupidity in not running away while I was busy." The sweat pouring down Pete's face grew. "I hold no pity for those who don't take the warnings they get."

"Such cold words, Naruto-kun."

Naruto's body froze in place at the new voice. Pete on the other hand, looked as if he had just been saved from unimaginable pain.

...Which was probably true.

Slowly turning his head and hoping that it was just some kind of twisted figment of his imagination, Naruto paled upon seeing the grinning face of Orochimaru standing a few feet behind him. When he saw that Naruto was looking his way, the grin on his face grew.

' _Move!'_ Naruto shot to the side, not even fully understanding why he did. The answer came an instant later when a blast of darkness impacted the spot he was just in.

"Oh? It would seem that you are learning...How wonderful."

' _Bad. Bad. Bad. Bad. Terrible. Worst case scenario. This is really happening. Bad. Bad._ _ **Bad!**_ _'_ Naruto needed to grab Misa and leave, _now!_ He held no false conceptions on just where he stood in comparison to the snake sannin. He had just finished a fight with Sephiroth and was in no way eager to jump into another impossible fight. He glanced back to Misa.

"Ah, please keep your focus on me, Naruto-kun." A cold feeling washed over him. Looking back, Naruto was horrified to see that Orochimaru was now leaking darkness, and it was much more than he ever had before. "Doing otherwise may prove to bring...undesirable results." That sick grin was still in place.

"...What do you want?" Naruto asked.

"What I want has never changed from our meeting in the forest. I want you to show me what you are capable of. The abilities you possess when it comes to light and darkness." His snake-like eyes glanced over Naruto's still glowing form. "It appears that you still had more to show when it comes to light, at least." He shook his head. "But while I admit to being curious, that is not the only thing about you that interests me."

' _What now?'_

"You see, Naruto-kun, I recently made a new...associate." He said, and Naruto saw a brief flash of both intrigue and annoyance in his eyes "I had believed that I was the only one to delve into the research of the heart, and therefore, light and darkness...but I was terribly mistaken."

Naruto could feel the dread seeping into his veins at his words.

"This new associate of mine was quick to rid me of that notion." He started to pace around Naruto, and like the previous time he did so, Naruto found himself unable to move from his spot. "While I was initially annoyed at this revelation, I must admit that it brought some truly interesting information to my attention."

"My ultimate goal has always been to learn everything that could be learned. To accumulate every shred of knowledge that exists in the world. That has been my goal since I was young…" He almost seemed nostalgic with the way he said it. "…But then…" His grin sharpened. "Why should I settle with what is to be learned in this world when I can learn everything there is to know in _all of them_."

' _He really knows.'_ A cold sweat dripped down the side of his face.

"Imagine, Naruto-kun, my surprise, my shock, my curiosity, my _joy_ in learning that there were other worlds that exist. Each with its own unique history, and some with a past that may even be similar to ours. Upon being enlightened to this piece of knowledge, I began to wonder, what if there _was_ another world out there like this one we stand on now? What if that world had its own inhabitants that were similar to us? What if those inhabitants had evolved as we did, fought as we did, create new and intriguing discoveries as we did?" The way his eyes were lit up was similar to a child's on Christmas. "There is so much _more_ than just this world and its jutsu, so why should I settle for just that?"

Naruto swallowed, but didn't say anything. What could he say? That Orochimaru was right? With every point he made? There _are_ other worlds out there and some of them were similar to this one in some regards.

Oblivious to Naruto's internal thoughts, Orochimaru continued. "After being told of this, I naturally quizzed my new associate on any and all information that could be immediately given. The first thing I asked about was the reason that the worlds were separated." His eyes met Naruto's again. " _That_ had led to a whole new well of information." He took a step closer to Naruto, who found that he did not have the ability to move a single muscle. "And it also makes me curious as to just _how much_ of that information you know…" Naruto already hated it, but now he was starting to have entirely new levels of distaste for that grin.

"I wonder, Naruto-kun…" Orochimaru said softly. "Did you know of the other worlds? Of the darkness and light? Of the nature of the heart? Of the keyhole to the world? The very heart of the world? Of the barrier between worlds? Or how ours recently crumbled?" He stepped closer again. "I read in some reports about the nature of the beings that are created from the darkness of a person's heart…The very beings that I first introduced to our world…Do you know what the report called them?" He leaned in closer, and that was when Naruto's body finally reacted and jumped back, sliding into a battle stance as he did so, although it was obvious that he was shaken by who he was with and what that person was saying. "…I truly wonder how you knew they were called heartless, Naruto-kun…Won't you tell me what else you know that I don't?" His eyes slid to the weapon in Naruto's hand.

"…Perhaps you would be willing to tell me about your keyblade?"

' _RUN!'_ Naruto's body snapped around and rocketed towards Misa. There was no fighting Orochimaru. The only chance of survival was escape. This was far beyond his current level. He didn't make it more than a few feet before he found his path blocked by the still grinning snake sannin. Naruto soon found himself suffocating, making his shroud of light finally fade away. And unlike he had hoped, Halbird had returned directly back to card form, likely from working so hard since Naruto summoned him.

"I'm afraid that you won't be leaving until I have satisfied my curiosity…And perhaps not even after that." Faster than Naruto could react, a pale hand snapped around his throat, strangling him. "Now then, shall we be of-" Wham!

Naruto collapsed to his knees and his hand flew to his throat as he gasped for air. "Get up, we need to move, now." Cracking an eye open, he was relieved to see the fully human -and clothed- Yoruichi standing in front of him. She glanced back to him for a moment before returning her eyes back to the direction she had launched the snake in.

"R-right." Naruto put away the dream eater card before rushing over to Misa. Pete gaped at him and made to stop him, but a glacial look from Yoruichi sent him scrambling in the other direction to hide again. Shaking Misa's shoulder, he spoke in an urgent tone. "Misa, wake up. We have to get out of here right now." After a few more moments of repeating this, Misa began to stir.

Cracking an eye open, she looked blearily at him. "N…Naruto? What happ-"

"No time to explain. We have to get out of here while we can."

"B-but, what happened to that weird cat th-"

"I'll explain later! We have to go!" He tugged her to her feet and began dragging her back in the direction they came from.

"You won't be going anywhere." An oppressive power pushed down on them and forced him and Misa to their knees. "I have already lost too many resources to distract Namikaze and his entourage to just let you walk away now." Turing with shaky head, he and Misa saw a Orochimaru walking back towards them. And for all of a quarter of a second, Naruto missed the creepy smile.

At least that one didn't come with the obvious _and_ overbearing feeling of death.

The snake sannin looked over Yoruichi, who didn't even flinch under his look. "I'm not sure who you are, but I would hazard a guess that you are the woman who I received some reports about helping during Konoha during the invasion?"

Yoruichi nodded. "And you must be the creepy snake who keeps causing problems."

"Hm, charming, aren't you?" He looked between her and the two Konoha genin. "I don't suppose you will simply step aside and allow me to continue with my business?"

"No."

"Well, then I hope you are prepared for your death!" He blurred towards her at a speed that would outstrip most opponents. "Gah!"

But then again, he was facing Yoruichi Shihōin.

Launched back for the second time within two minutes, Orochimaru was seething with new levels of rage. "I will enjoy killing you." He sped back towards her, but with an obviously higher amount of caution that a minute prior.

Seeing that the two strongest people here were going to keep each other busy, Naruto hurriedly turned to Misa. "We are leaving, now." She nodded.

"Oh, no you don't!" Naruto groaned when they found their way blocked by the large form of Pete. "Orochimaru may be busy with that scary lady who just popped up out o' nowhere, but you two will have to get through me!" He snapped his fingers. Naruto and Misa paled a bit when a _huge_ pool of darkness opened up in the rocky ground.

Emerging from it was one of the types of heartless that Naruto saw Sephiroth dispatch like it was nothing. The problem was, he wasn't sure if he could do the same. Its body was majorly lilac in color, but its back and all four of its legs were violet. Each leg ended with two toes with black claws. Coming out of the lower jaw were two large, curved tusks that were colored white on the upper half while the other half was lilac. On the forehead of the heartless was a conical, black horn. Like most heartless, it had the signature jagged maw and yellow eyes. Finishing the look was the heartless emblem on its chest.

 **Play Kingdom Hearts 2.5 ReMIX - A Fight to the Death [Armored Xemnas 1] Extended**

"And by me, I mean him!" Pete guffawed at them before pointing a finger. "Sic 'em!" The large heartless roared before it lunged at them.

"Move out of the way!" Not even needing to be told once, Naruto jumped to the side to dodge the heartless that landed where he and Misa were standing only moments before.

"Guh!" He grit his teeth in pain when the _shockwave_ of the landing was enough to injure him somewhat. _'What kind of monster can actually attack by jumping on the ground?'_ Although he thought this, Naruto was outwardly being more productive. Raising his keyblade, he shouted his spell at the same moment that Misa launched a few explosive kunai. " **Thundara**!" Lightning struck from the sky and the explosion engulfed the massive head of the heartless, but it didn't even seem to notice.

"That didn't even do anything?!" Misa shouted in shock, which Naruto mentally agreed with. It was like fighting the one tailed heartless hybrid all over again!

Naruto's eyes widened and shot to the massive horn on the forehead of the heartless. Looking closer, he could see a faint aura of darkness coating it. The heartless chose that moment to turn towards him and raise one of its massive legs. Knowing what was coming, Naruto jumped back with a much larger safety margin than he would normally have done. However, he was glad to have done so when pillars of darkness shot out of the ground in the area he was just in.

"Misa! I've got an idea!"

"What?!"

"Distract it for me!"

"That's a shitty idea!" Although she complained, Misa complied. Pulling out even more explosives than before, she shouted. "Hey, overgrown pug!"

' _It doesn't even look like a pug!'_

"Over here!" She lobbed the bombs at the target, but they also did no damage. But they did the job of making the behemoth turn away from Naruto and towards her. "You better do whatever it is fast, Naruto!"

"On it!" _'Alright, just as before…'_ Channeling chakra to his legs, Naruto leapt onto the hind legs of the massive heartless. Despite the human now on it, it didn't even seem to notice, but Naruto wasn't going to complain. Jumping again, he landed on its back, with the horned head directly in front of him. " **Ars Arcanum**!" Twilight coated his body as he launched in a flurry of rapid strikes.

"Grah!" Unlike previous times, _that_ attack seemed to catch its notice. Grinning at the success, Naruto didn't let up and continued to attack. Acknowledging him as the bigger threat, the behemoth stopped attempting to kill Misa and instead started to try to fling Naruto off.

"No…You…Don't!" Naruto growled. He was about to launch into another attack, but paused when the horn suddenly to emit even more darkness. Naruto's eyes widened in shock when the behemoth reared onto its hind legs and succeeded in knocking him off. Landing on his feet, Naruto's head snapped up when the behemoth launched an orb of darkness into the air. _'Going by how most heartless attack, that's probably going to…'_ His worries were proven correct when blasts of darkness shot out of the orb and rocketed at him and Misa. "Dodge them!"

"Nah, I wanted to let them hit!"

"Shut up and move-ttebayo!"

Naruto dove to the side to avoid a blast that narrowly missed him, but wasn't as lucky when a second one hit him in the shoulder. Hissing in pain, Naruto endured through the onslaught and didn't suffer any more hits.

The moment the darkness stopped raining down, Naruto took the chance to launch himself back onto the heartless. And just as before, it only noticed his presence there after it suffered a large amount of damage. " **Shadowbreaker**!" Naruto blinked in surprise when the behemoth lowered its body all the way to the floor and stopped attacking.

"It's knocked out!" Misa's shout brought a wide grin onto his face.

"Then let's not give it the chance to wake back up!" They both quickly attacked with a chain of several heavy hitters that would have effectively taken out any other enemy they were up against. Unfortunately, that still proved to not be enough when the behemoth soon got back to its feet and roared out its anger at them.

When its horn started to glow again and dark clouds formed above them, Naruto had an idea of what was about to happen. Acting on pure instinct, he dove at Misa. "Hey, wha-"

" **Aerora**!" A deafening crack echoed in his ears, and a burning pain lit his back, but Naruto knew that could have been a lot worse. He pushed himself up from his position on top of Misa and saw her shocked look. "Come on." He got to his feet and quickly pulled her up as well. "We need to finish it and get out of here."

"R-right." They turned back to the behemoth and saw that it was about to stomp again. "Same plan as before!" She instructed.

"You got it!" They dashed in opposite directions with Misa being sure to keep its attention on her. Once he got back onto its back, he focused on its horn. " **Meteor Crash**!"

"Grah!" The behemoth bucked again, but Naruto was careful to not fall off.

"Hey, I'm here too!" More explosions punctuated that statement. Misa grinned at the angered roar she got from that attack.

"We're almost done…" Naruto grinned. " **Ars Arcanum**!" That attack further sent the behemoth into a fit of rage.

Its horn began to glow, deflecting all of Naruto's attacks. Knowing that this meant it was going to attack with either lightning or dark blasts, Naruto jumped off its back to gain some distance. "Grah!" Cerulean and violet eyes widened in shock and fear when instead of doing as expected, a concentrated beam of darkness shot out of its horn.

And shot right at an equally shocked Misa.

"Gyah!"

"Misa!" Naruto could do nothing but watch as she was flung back. Her body harshly impacted a boulder before falling onto the ground, motionless. "You…" Naruto's anger boiled over. Gripping his keyblade tightly, he launched himself at the behemoth. " **Sonic Blade**!"

"Grah!" Although the behemoth tried, it proved unable to keep up with Naruto's high speeds.

After finishing his combo, Naruto reappeared in front of the heartless with his keyblade raised. The tip of his keyblade glowed brightly in a mixture of light and darkness. "I'm through dealing with you! **Twilight Blast**!" A large blast of twilight shot out of his keyblade and impacted against the heartless.

The explosion was so bright that it forced Naruto to cover his eyes as he braced himself during the shockwave it created. When it died down and his vision returned, he smirked to see that there was nothing remaining of the heartless, but the smirk died when he remembered the reason for his anger.

 **End Music**

"Misa!" He turned and rushed over to the fallen girl. No one paid attention to Pete as he silently opened a **Corridor** **of Darkness** and entered it.

Skidding to a stop next to her, he took in her pained expression. She cracked an eye open when he reached her. "I-I'm fine…" She muttered. "I just…need a minute…"

A nearby explosion drew their attention. Shaking his head, Naruto spoke up. "It may just be a minute, but I don't want to be so close to that freak for any longer than I have to. Give me a second." He reached out a hand and hovered it above her chest.

"H-Hey, what are you…"

" **Cura**." Misa gasped at the sudden glow and warm feeling. To her astonishment, she could feel the pain receding and her breathing was becoming less labored.

"W-What was-"

"We can talk about it later." Once again pulling her to her feet, Naruto continued. "We have to make contact with our allies." He slung her arm around his shoulder. "Let's go before the snake realizes we're leaving."

"Too late for that." A deadly voice hissed behind them. Naruto whirled around and maneuvered Misa so that she was behind him. The sight that greeted them was a dirty and scuffed up Orochimaru. He was giving him a look that Naruto felt had to have caused nightmares at some point in the past. "You will not be going anywhere."

"Yes, they will." Yoruichi blurred into form in between them. She was also slightly worn, but ready for a fight. "Get going."

"No! I won't let them!"

"It isn't about what you want, snake." A mischievous smirk made its way onto Yoruichi's face. "Besides…I think that you've already lost." Orochimaru seemed to be as lost on the meaning of that statement as the other two.

"What-" Before he could say anything further, three things happened.

The first was a flash of yellow appearing next to them.

The second was a blur of red only a moment later.

The third were ethereal chains shooting out of the ground and binding Orochimaru in place.

Naruto felt his face split into a relieved grin at the sight of the new arrivals. "Thank kami…" He said quietly, finally letting himself relax somewhat.

Minato spared him and Misa a glance where his face briefly turned warm and reassuring, before he looked over to the still smirking Yoruichi. His face lost the warm look, but it wasn't hostile either. It was more of a neutral look. He then turned to Orochimaru, and _that_ was when his face turned deadly.

"I have no idea how you managed to remove my **Flying Thunder God** kunai from the scroll, Orochimaru, but your plan has still failed." He said.

Orochimaru hissed furiously. "Namikaze!" He struggled against the chains, willing them to break. An aura of darkness reemerged around him.

Kushina grit her teeth, but didn't show any other signs of strain. "Don't even bother. If the Kyūbi can't break them, then there is no way you could." She turned to the genin with a warm smile. "You two have done wonderfully to have lasted this long. Take a rest now." She looked to Yoruichi. "…I'm still not sure who you are, but I guess this is the second time that you've helped us…" She only got a shrug in return.

Minato took a step closer to Orochimaru. "This is the end, Orochimaru. Your plans have failed and you're captured. Just accept your defeat."

The sannin ignored him and continued in his attempt to break free, but was still met with no success. After a minute of struggling, he began to chuckle. That chuckle then turned into a laugh, which then morphed into a cackle. The other people there had no clue what he could possibly find so entertaining in his current situation.

Soon, Kushina was the first to lose her patience. "What the hell is so funny?! You lost, we won! There is no possible way for you to escape-ttebane!" She shouted.

Orochimaru continued to chuckle for a few moments, but it was nowhere near the level of insane laughter he just release. "Oh, my dear Kushina…How could you be so sure of that?" He said. "After all, if I were you, I would doubt a lot of things I take for granted…"

"What was that?" Kushina said quietly.

Minato placed a hand on her shoulder. "Don't listen to him. He's just trying to get in your head."

"Kukuku. Well yes, but I still hold some information you will definitely want to hear…"

"Are you negotiating for your release?" Minato raised an eyebrow. "You know as well as I do it will never happen."

"Undoubtedly…But that is why I have contingency plans." The grin resurfacing on his face set alarms off in all of their heads.

"There is nothing you can do with those chains on." Kushina said resolutely. "Those are just empty words."

"Kukuku…Well, you are not wrong…" He turned to Naruto. "Naruto-kun, I do wish that we had the chance to discuss things further…"

"Don't talk to him!" Kushina snapped, but was ignored.

"And it is also a pity that I will have to use another keyblade wielder when _you_ are so interesting…" Naruto's eyes widened. "But perhaps the next one will agree with my way of thinking?" His grin grew, making a chill run down Naruto's spine.

Something sharp pressed into the square of his back. With no small amount of surprise, he slowly turned his head to see what it was, only to have his eyes widen even further in shock. "Wha…"

Misa smiled sweetly at him. "Sorry, Naruto. But it looks like that promise is going to be unfulfilled after all…" In her hand was a black keyblade.

And it was pointed directly at him.

"It's been fun. Now please...Open your heart to the dark."

Darkness overtook him.

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 33!**

 **I will** _ **never**_ **create an OC unless I need to.** _ **That**_ **has been a long time coming. And it was kind of obvious, really.**

 **This chapter took a lot of thought and redoing in several places. I'm satisfied with how it turned out, for the most part.**

 **Two boss fights in one chapter? Oh, what fun…**

 **If you need me, too bad. I'm going to sleep and I don't plan on getting back up for another fifteen hours. Thank god for professors who cancel their morning classes.**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	35. Stop Lying To Yourself

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 34!**

 **Wanna hear something extremely awesome? Check out the Simple and Clean Rock Remix by Rising Sun. I can seriously play that thing on loop in the background for hours.**

 **This chapter is** _ **way**_ **longer than I expected it to be. I mean, I knew it would be a fair amount, but this? I had decided to not cut it off where I had initially been planning to. That's also why it's a bit late.**

 **Wow. I'm honestly surprised that so many of you did not see the Misa thing coming. I seriously thought it was fairly obvious. I meant to lay out some hints, but only ever got around to a couple of them.**

 **I learned a lot about my writing style after reviewing this chapter. Some of the things I noticed annoy me, but no one has ever said anything about them. In the future, I will aim to improve further.**

* * *

 **Azarune: The feels are like the best part though!**

 **Kairitrion Cerulean: No spoilers :P**

 **plums: Don't mean to be rude, but I honestly sigh whenever I see your name on a review. You've always made a lot of assumptions about things that I never confirmed, only implied. And too much fighting? Sorry, but this is a crossover between an Action-Role Playing game and an Action-Adventure manga. Fighting is a guarantee. In my opinion, I feel like I had enough plot development in the first half of the story as well as mixed in between the fights. But I'll guess you'll be happy to know that I'm done with the fighting for now. I already said in the AN last chapter that I thought the Misa thing was kind of obvious, so that's great that you saw it coming (Although a lot of people still didn't see it coming). And no shit the parents are going to start asking questions now.**

 **redlox2: Yep! That was the entire reason I created her. The plan for the reveal has changed a bunch of times over the course of the story, but the core elements have always stayed the same.**

 **risnsegaku: Lmao. What the hell does getting "knocked up" by the darkness mean? I agree with several of your suggestions, but I have a bunch of songs I'm actually saving for later times. I'm not against reusing songs, but I want to save their first uses for other things. A lot of the KH OSTs are great in-game, but I can't really picture them working that well when I'm not in the middle of playing them. I just feel like they don't give off the right atmosphere…like Rowdy Rumble. I've heard of the game and watched some gameplay of it, but I don't know too much about it. And get out of my head! (You'll understand what I mean after this chapter)**

 **Justaquestion12: 13 on 7 seems a little small for a war…**

 **guest-bat: No worries, you are way better than some of the other people on this site. And is she Naruto's Riku? Meh, ask me again in a few chapters.**

 **Dominus1: Things are more fun when I'm cruel!**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else. I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Deity Talking:" **Insert witty remark here**."

Biju/Deity Thinking: _'_ _ **Insert witty remark here**_ _.'_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

"It's been fun. Now please…Open your heart to the dark."

Boom!

"AAHHH!"

"Naruto!" Yoruichi braced herself against the rush of wind that slammed into her. Gritting her teeth, she tried to get a look at Naruto, but all she could see was a giant pillar of darkness where he was standing. She swore in her head when she was pushed back.

"What?!" Minato whirled around with wide eyes at the explosion and was stunned to see the mass of darkness covering his son.

"Naruto!" Kushina stopped moved to reach her son, but was stopped when Yoruichi grabbed her and held her back! "Let me go! Naruto!"

"No way in hell! You'll be consumed by the darkness!"

"I don't care!"

Unnoticed to them, Kushina's lapse in attention meant that the chains binding Orochimaru slackened. With a broad grin, Orochimaru took the chance to escape the chains and rush at Misa, who had jumped away from Naruto.

"I'm afraid this is where we part ways." A **Corridor of Darkness** formed behind them. Spinning around, Minato glared and created a **Rasengan** in his hand.

"Undo what you did, now!" He demanded.

Orochimaru's grin grew. "I'm afraid not. And even if I wanted to…I'm not sure it's possible to reverse the process at this point." He and Misa took a slow step back. Minato crouched, prompting Orochimaru to raise a hand. "Ah, you have more important things to focus on. If it _is_ possible to reverse the process, now would be the time to do it." Minato paused and looked back to Naruto. Using the chance, Orochimaru and Misa entered the portal. "Until next time, Namikaze." Misa smirked and sent a salute their way.

They disappeared into the portal as it closed.

"Damn!" Minato turned back to towards the pillar of darkness and narrowed his eyes against the wind. He was about to take a step forward, but Yoruichi shouted at him.

"Stop!" Yoruichi yelled. "Don't get any closer!" She was exerting a lot of effort just to keep Kushina from rushing forward, there was no way she would be able to stop Minato as well.

Minato glared at her. "You can't stop me from helping my son!" He looked back to Naruto. The screams coming from the darkness were tearing him up on the inside. Never before had he felt so…helpless.

"You won't be helping him by walking into that!" She yelled back.

"Then what the hell do you want me to do?!" Minato shouted.

"I want you to stop acting like an idiot and start acting like you actually want to help! You owe Naruto that much!" Her words cut off any and all protests that Minato and Kushina were making. "Now the both of you, shut up and listen to me!" Seeing that they would, she let go of Kushina. The wind was picking up, making it harder to hear. "Naruto's heart is strong! He won't lose to something like this!"

Minato sent a suspicious glance her way. "What do you know about what's happening?!" He shouted.

"More than you do!" Yoruichi observed as the darkness began to spiral and condense into a sphere. "If you want any hope of getting Naruto out of this, then you _will_ do as I say!" Minato glanced at her before going back to the sphere of darkness. He didn't trust this woman, but she was the one to fight off Orochimaru until they arrived and she also helped during the invasion.

And there wasn't really much of a choice.

Nodding stiffly Minato yelled back. "Fine!" Kushina's eyes were fixed solely on the darkness. It took everything she had to hold herself back from rushing in to get to Naruto. Without looking away, she nodded. Seeing her agree, Minato deferred to Yoruichi. "What's the plan?!"

Yoruichi stayed silent for a moment and watched the sphere condense even further. "We first need to see if Naruto can stop it himself! Naruto! I know you can hear me! Don't let the darkness get to you! You have to fight it!" She yelled. Minato was slightly skeptical that simply calling out to Naruto would help, but Kushina held no such reservations.

"Naruto, please! I don't know what they did to you, but don't let it win!" She yelled. There were tears in her eyes as she shouted.

Minato looked back to the sphere. "We know you are stronger than this! There's no way that you will let Orochimaru win like this!"

"Naruto! Think about your friends! About everyone! Me, Kisuke, your siblings, the other genin, Hikari and Yami! Focus on the light!" Yoruichi said. She was growing increasingly worried as the darkness condensed further with no signs of stopping. "You have trained to use the darkness, not to let it use you!" Suddenly, the sphere seemed to waver, making her eyes widen. "I know you can do it!"

The sphere of darkness condensed further until it was a few feet in diameter. The three of them saw it rise into the air and the wind spiraled around it. Abruptly, all motion stopped, as if entire world froze. The darkness was shaped into a solid sphere several feet off the ground, the wind disappeared as if it was never there, and Naruto's screams stopped. Minato, Kushina, and Yoruichi traded cautious looks.

Crack!

The sound of something similar to glass breaking alerted them to a change in the cocoon. Snapping their eyes back, they saw a crack had emerged in it. Minato opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted when a second crack joined the first, with another soon following it. More and more cracks formed.

Then all at once, the darkness shattered like glass.

"Naruto!" When a body fell to the ground and landed in a crouched position, Kushina smiled widely and made to rush forward, but was stopped when Yoruichi thrust an arm in front of her. "Why are you stopping me-ttebane?! I need to get to him!"

Yoruichi didn't even bother to look her way, instead choosing to warily watch Naruto, who had not moved. Because his head was lowered, they were unable to see his face. "Naruto, can you hear me?" She asked.

"…"

A dark chill ran down Minato's spine. "Naruto, please talk to us."

"…" Still no response.

"Please, Naruto…Say something!" Kushina pleaded. When she still got no answer, she sprinted around Yoruichi's arm and rushed towards him.

"No, wait!"

Kushina skidded to a stop and crouched to get a better look at him. Reaching out a hand, she spoke up. "Naruto, are you alri-"

That was as far as she got when a pulse of darkness sent her flying back.

"Kushina!" Minato rushed forward and caught her before she could impact anything. Setting her down carefully, he took in her condition with a worried expression. "Kushina, are you alright?"

She winced and moved a hand to her side. "Never mind me." Taking in Naruto's appearance, the worry in her eyes was obvious. "What was that?"

Shaking his head to show he didn't know, Minato followed her example and looked at Naruto. Surprise and worry filled him with what he saw.

Naruto pushed himself into a standing position with his head still lowered. After staggering a bit as if he was going to fall, he steadied himself.

Yoruichi tensed in preparation. "Naruto, are you still you?" Her question prompted the eyes of Minato and Kushina snap to her for a moment. They looked back to Naruto in worry. "If you don't answer me, then I will have to take the needed precautions." Silence filled the area as they all waited for him to say something. Just when Yoruichi was beginning to think that he was just going to stand there, he moved.

Slowly, Naruto raised his head. The three of them held their breaths while they waited for him to give some indication that he was still with them. It was at this point that a small smile was spotted on his face, which in turn almost made Minato and Kushina smile.

Yoruichi felt no inclination to smile. Her eyes were riveted to Naruto's face as she tried to get a look at his eyes. She felt her heart freeze when she saw them.

Staring into her cat-like eyes were glowing yellow eyes.

Immediately, Yoruichi slid into a battle stance, which gained the attention of Minato and Kushina. Glaring, Kushina spoke to her. "What are you doing?"

Yoruichi shook her head. "That's not Naruto. Just look at his eyes." They did so and were shocked to see the glowing yellow eyes. "Naruto! Wake up! There's no way you would let the darkness control you!" The smile on Naruto's face grew.

"Naruto, can you hear me?" Naruto's eyes snapped to Kushina when he heard her voice. "Please…Talk to me." She pleaded. The smile on his face disappeared, leaving a snarl in its place. Everyone there was taken aback by the abrupt hostility.

Naruto growled and slid into a battle stance. Raising a hand, he summoned his weapon. In a flash of darkness, it answered his call. While she was expecting a keyblade to appear, Yoruichi was _not_ expecting it to be a different one.

In his hand was a keyblade where the teeth were black with red outlines and possessed a round, cog-like shape. The handle was red while the guard was identical in design to the teeth. The shaft was majorly colored in shades of grey, but had a copper gear in the center. Wrapping around the shaft were two intersecting black chains. At the head of the blade was a blue, cat-like eye, while an identical eye was embedded in the hilt. The keychain hanging from the blade was made up of three small, copper gears and ended in a charm that looked like two halves of a gear shaped to the letter S.

There was something about that keyblade that just seemed… _evil_ to Yoruichi. "You don't want to do this…" She cautioned. "Just dismiss the keyblade and we will help you." Naruto smirked.

That was all the warning they got before he attacked.

He blurred towards his parents and slashed his keyblade down. Although slightly startled, Minato's quick reflexes allowed him to take out a tri-pronged kunai and use it to block it. "Naruto, what are you doing?!" Instead of answering, Naruto pressed down harder. Gaining a stern look, Minato vanished in a yellow flash, only to reappear on the other side of Kushina.

Kushina appeared to be desperate. "Why did you attack?!" With another snarl, Naruto leapt at her. She ducked to the side and thrust her hand out at him. Glowing chains shot out of her hand and surrounded Naruto. When she saw that she had him, Kushina clenched her hand into a fist, making the chains begin to tighten.

The second before the chains made physical contact with Naruto, he smirked. Seeing this, Yoruichi tried to warn them, but she was too late as Naruto disappeared in a flash of darkness and reappeared behind Kushina, who screamed in pain when an orb of darkness slammed into her back.

"Kushina!" When Naruto raised his keyblade for a follow up attack, Minato stopped him with a kick to the stomach, but because he held back, Naruto was only thrown back a few feet. Landing in nearby, Naruto crouched in preparation to rush back in, but he never got the chance to when a fist suddenly slammed into the side of his face. Unlike Minato's attack, Yoruichi's had enough force behind it to send him flying into a boulder.

Kushina tracked Naruto's trajectory and turned to Yoruichi. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"I can ask you the same thing!" The redhead did not expect such a strong reply, so she faltered. "You two need to understand that while he is like that, Naruto has no problems attacking!" Yoruichi eyed Naruto as he stepped out of the pile of rubble.

Rubbing the side of his face, Naruto scowled at them and slid into a battle stance. Yoruichi prepared for his next attack, but it didn't come. In its place, a shroud of darkness formed around Naruto. Yoruichi, Minato, and Kushina watched with dismay as the darkness grew in amount and began to cling to Naruto's body. When the only thing that was left untouched by darkness was his head, Naruto closed his eyes. After a moment, he smirked and snapped his eyes back open.

The darkness faded away, revealing a black and red body suit that almost looked to be made up of muscle-tissue. Much of the black on the outfit faded to a dark red around the wrists. Added to the outfit were dark red boots, a black cloth around his waist, and a dark red belt. On his chest was a distorted heartless emblem.

Naruto took in his outfit with an ever-growing smirk. Once he was satisfied, he turned back to his opponents.

' _Damn it. Can this get any worse?'_ Yoruichi knew that this was about to turn into a big fight, but she was very reluctant to fight Naruto. "Please, Naruto. I know you're in there somewhere. You can still come back from this. You just need to fight it." Naruto looked to her and tilted his head.

He vanished in a flash of darkness.

Yoruichi's instincts flew into full alert and yelled at her to move out of the way. Not questioning it, she did so and narrowly avoided a stab of Naruto's keyblade. Despite missing, Naruto did not seem to be surprised as he immediately thrust his hand out and hurled a fireball at her. The fireball missed its mark when Yoruichi flashed over to Minato and Kushina.

"Listen, we need to stop him…" Yoruichi said.

Kushina glanced at her. "I…I can't hurt him…" She _knew_ Naruto had no problem attacking them, but she just couldn't bring herself to harm him.

"I'm not saying we have to kill him." Yoruichi bit out, her eyes never leaving Naruto. "The longer he stays like this, the worse it's going to get."

This raised Minato's sense of worry a notch. "What's happening to him?" Yoruichi debated on answering him, but the choice was taken away from her when Naruto rushed at them again. Raising a hand as he moved, several orbs of darkness appeared around him and blasted forward.

"Now isn't the time! You can get all the explanations you want later!" She ducked under an orb that shot at her head. "Naruto comes first!" Minato frowned and considered the situation. He knew she was right, but…He was in the same boat as Kushina. Fighting Naruto was something that he wasn't sure he had in him.

Minato's eyes went to Naruto and met with his son's yellow ones. Seeing the hatred and anger burning in those eyes triggered something in him. Scowling, Minato slid into a battle stance. This action gained him a startled look from Kushina.

"Minato?!" He couldn't seriously be considering this, could he?!

"Kushina, we don't have a choice." It hurt him to say that, but Minato knew it was true. "We aren't going to aim to kill, but if we leave him like this, Naruto will only get worse. We have to subdue him." Kushina looked from Minato to Naruto.

"But…"

Yoruichi moved out of the way of another attack from Naruto's keyblade. _'Damn it! He definitely wasn't this fast before!'_ It wasn't anything she couldn't keep up with, but fighting an opponent who was out for blood while at the same time ensuring that you did no serious harm was tough. "You aren't doing Naruto any favors by refusing to fight! If you really want to help him, make sure he can't hurt anyone!" Her eyes met Kushina's. "Do you really think that Naruto wants to do this?"

Kushina bit her lip. "You're right…" Taking a deep breath, she slid into a battle stance of her own. "I'm ready."

"Good." Yoruichi watched as Naruto scowled and created even more orbs of darkness. "Because I think Naruto is getting impatient with our talking."

* * *

'… _This feeling…'_

A pair of cerulean and violet eyes crack open to look at the surroundings. A black abyss.

' _I…know this feeling…'_

The eyes attempt to close once more as a feeling of immense fatigue wash over them, but the owner of the eyes fought off the feeling.

"… _aruto! I kn…me! Don…you!…Fight it!"_

' _That voice…Yoruichi?'_ He was too tired to think…

"… _did to yo…it win!"_

"… _stronger tha…like this!"_

' _Kaa-san? Tou-san?'_ Were they…yelling for him? Why?

Sluggishly, the eyes moved back to the direction that the owner thought was up.

'… _I think…I'm sinking? This is just like…the first time…'_ It was too tiring to think. Wouldn't it be better to just rest for now?

"… _your friends! Ab…Kisuke, yo…ari and Yam…Focus on the light!"_

' _The…light?'_ But why did he need to do that? The darkness was where he could rest.

"… _not to let it use you!"_

'… _Use me?'_ What was she talking about? He was in perfect control. The light and darkness always balanced each other out equally, he made sure of that. _'…No…That's not true.'_ He could feel it. His senses were extremely dulled, but he could feel the darkness rapidly growing and blacking out the light. _'I need…to fix that…'_ His eyes slid back closed and focused. He was losing his way to the darkness. To help find it again, he needed…Cerulean and violet eyes snapped back open.

"Light!"

A bright flash illuminated the abyss and Naruto felt his strength returning. Flipping his body, Naruto landed on his feet and looked around.

"I'm…in the Station of Awakening? What am I doing here?" Looking down, Naruto was confused to see that while he was wearing the outfit he always wore in the station, all of the black had disappeared from it. Taking a moment to gaze over the altered outfit, Naruto then looked to the floor and noticed that he was standing on an unfamiliar platform. This platform reminded Naruto greatly of the one depicting Ventus and Vanitas, but there were still some differences.

Such as the fact that half of it was pitch black.

The half that he _could_ see had Naruto himself on it in a position that was identical to the one that Ventus was in on the similar platform. In platform Naruto's hand was a basic, silver keyblade, not Two Become One. The visible half of the platform was colored a bluish-white and had some hearts going around the edge. After getting a good look at it, Naruto's eyes moved to the obscured half.

"Why is that part hidden…?" He muttered.

"Isn't it obvious?" Naruto whirled around in surprise at the unexpected voice. When he saw who it was, his eyes widened in shock.

Standing there was a boy that looked identical to him. They were so similar that if Naruto wasn't able to tell the severity of the situation, he would have entertained the joke that this new boy was the quadruplet he never knew about. The only differences in the boy were the yellow eyes and the dark body-suit that almost looked to be made out of muscles.

The boy smirked at him. "It's hidden because you refuse to admit it's there."

Naruto glared at him. "Who are you? How did you get in here? And why do you look like me?"

With an ever-growing smirk, the boy raised a hand to his chest. "Oh, that hurts! How could you ask that? We are practically brothers, after all. We've been together for so long…I can honestly say I know just about everything there is to know about you…"

"I'm pretty sure I would remember having another brother…"

"Ha! I guess so…" The boy started to slowly walk around the edge of the platform, gazing into the abyss as he did so. "But really, do you seriously not know who I am?"

Naruto frowned at him. "Can't say that I do, sorry." There _was_ something that was familiar about him, but Naruto wasn't sure what. It was almost as if he knew who the boy was on an instinctive level.

The boy sighed. "Wow. You really _can_ be an idiot…And I'm not sure if I just insulted myself." He stopped walking and turned to Naruto. Crossing his arms with an amused look, he continued. "Come on, guess. Who could Ibe? Who could _possibly_ meet you in here besides Hikari and Yami?" Naruto thought over the question.

"…No one. As far as I know, only Hikari, Yami, and myself have free access to my Station of Awakening." He knew he didn't bring anyone else in. "…That means…" Naruto gained a surprised look and he looked over the boy again. "…You're me." He finished.

"Ding ding ding! You got it!" The boy mockingly said. "Now, can you tell me _which_ part of you I am?"

Naruto thought about the question. After looking into the boy's eyes, he turned back to the blacked out portion of the platform. A feeling of trepidation was growing in him. As he watched Naruto's every move, the boy's smirk grew.

"I see you have figured it out."

"…You're my darkness." Naruto whispered.

The moment he said this, the darkness covering the other half of the platform faded away, revealing the lookalike in a reverse position to Naruto, similar to how Vanitas was in his platform with Ventus. The now visible half of the platform was colored red and had the heartless emblem going around it. In the boy's hand was a black and red keyblade that resembled a gear.

"Right again." The boy said quietly. "For the sake of simplicity, call me Kuro. We haven't used that name since we first met Yoruichi."

Naruto looked to Kuro. "Why are you here? _How_ are you here?"

Kuro sneered. " _I'm_ here because _you_ are the dumbest person to ever exist." Naruto glared. "Oh, don't give me that look, it's true. It was stupid of you to ever think you could control the dark. You're too attached to the light. Not only that, but you also fight against the dark at every turn." He shook his head. "Someone like you could never control it. No one who fears the dark ever could."

"That's not true!" Naruto said. "I know it's just as important as light! I don't fear darkness!"

"Stop lying to yourself!" Naruto faltered at the rage in those words. Kuro glared at him. "If you didn't fear darkness, then I wouldn't be here! My very existence is proof that you do! Your fear is obvious to anyone who looks." Naruto stared at him with a defiant look. "I see you need some proof…You have so many attacks. So many abilities…And yet you still refuse to use any of the ones that _don't_ have ties to light."

Naruto opened his mouth to retort, but quickly snapped it shut again. "That's…"

"It's true. I see in your eyes that you know this." Kuro growled. "You have been taught to use the darkness, to _control_ it, but you fear it so much that you refuse to use anything that doesn't have some light in it. You want to know why you have so much trouble staying in a **Corridor of Darkness** for a period of time that is longer than a few minutes? It's because you're scared of the dark!" He shook his head. "Your fear of the dark is obvious to anyone who looks. Sephiroth saw it right away."

" _Will you truly accept your darkness?"_ Naruto remembered Sephiroth's parting words. Shaking his head, Naruto glared.

"…There's nothing wrong with being cautious of the dark. It corrupts and twists you into doing things that you would never have done otherwise."

Kuro snorted and his glare turned harsher. "Funny…I can say the same about the light…" Naruto blinked in confusion at this.

"…What is that supposed to mean?"

"Don't play dumb!" Naruto was not expecting Kuro's angered shout. "You know exactly what I'm talking about! The light makes you act like an idiot! A weak! Emotional! Forgiving! IDIOT!" Kuro clenched his fists in anger. "After everything they did…After _years_ of neglect…HOW CAN YOU ACT AS IF IT NEVER HAPPENED?!"

Naruto looked away with a conflicted look. He didn't need Kuro to clarify to understand who he was talking about. "It wasn't their choice." He defended.

"That doesn't change the fact that it still happened!" Kuro swiped his arm through the air as he said this. "Whether or not they meant to do it and saying _sorry_ doesn't make up for eight! Fucking! Years!" Kuro shook his head in disgust. "It's obvious the light makes you weak _and_ foolish. If you open your heart to them, all they will do is let you down! You can prevent that by not even giving anyone the chance to!"

"You don't know that!" Naruto snapped. "You can't just act like everyone is going to betray you sooner or later!"

"Ha! I can't?! I fucking _can't_?!" Kuro repeated. "Are you really that stupid? What the hell is the last thing you remember before waking up here?!"

Naruto flinched. "I…"

"Exactly! You opened our heart to Misa. And what did it get you? Nothing but a kami damn keyblade in the back. Literally!"

"She…She must not have been in control of herself!" Naruto said, although he didn't seem too sure of what he was saying. "Misa would never betray me. We're friends!"

Kuro snarled. "You still don't get it! It's _because_ she was our friend that she even had the chance to betray us! It's only a matter of time until our _parents_ do the same all over again!" He practically spat at the word 'parents.'

"No…"

"Yes! It's true! You know it as well as I do! You are trusting them too easily! Can you honestly tell me that you have no doubts about their remorse? I'll answer that for you. You. _Can't_. You can deny it all you want, but I know how you _really_ feel."

"Shut up…"

"You doubt them. They neglected us for years, and suddenly they act like they're sorry?"

"Shut. Up."

"So what if we found out someone influenced them? That just means they were weak enough to let themselves get influenced into forgetting about their child. It was stupid of you to forgive them like that."

"SHUT UP!"

"NO! I've had to watch you make one stupid choice after the next, and honestly, I'm tired of taking a back seat to watch you act like an idiot. So I'm going step in."

A tense air filled the abyss. Naruto eyed Kuro warily. "What are you talking about?"

Kuro pointed a thumb to his own chest. "I mean that I'm going to be the one in charge from now on." He pointed at Naruto. "You can be the one who gets locked up in here." Kuro smirked. "And honestly? I've been having doubts that you are even strong enough to do what needs to be done."

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "I'll never let that happen."

 **Play Kingdom Hearts BBS OST: Enter the Darkness - Extended**

This declaration earned Naruto a snort from Kuro. "You're talking as if you have a choice. Let me tell you right now…you don't." He raised his hand. "I'll prove to you here and now that you are too weak to actually do anything." Naruto was surprised when, in a flash of darkness, a black and red keyblade resembling a gear appeared in Kuro's hand.

"You won't win." Naruto raised his own hand and summoned his keyblade, but was distracted when something unexpected happened. Instead of Two Become One, a silver keyblade that looked like a normal key with a golden guard appeared in a flash of light. "What?"

"You just keep proving how dumb you are." Naruto's eyes snapped back to Kuro. "Did you already forget what we were talking about? What I am?"

Naruto looked to the Kingdom Key in his hand before looking to the keyblade in Kuro's hand. "I can't use darkness."

"Exactly." Kuro nodded. "Someone like you doesn't even _deserve_ to wield the power of darkness." His smirk extended. " _Me_ on the other hand…" An aura of darkness formed around his body. "I don't think there is anyone better suited for it." He slid into a battle stance. "I'm done talking with you. Let's go, you and me, right now. No jutsu or chakra, just our keyblades, spells, light, and darkness." His smirk faltered when he suddenly paused, as if considering something, but he soon shook his head and regained his smirk. "I hope you're ready to see the dark!" He rose into the air and raised a free hand. As if answering his call, orbs of darkness phased into existence around him. "Perish!" The darkness shot at Naruto.

Rolling to the side, Naruto avoided the first orb and used his keyblade to deflect the next one into the third. "You can't beat me if all you can do is use knockoffs of Sephiroth's attacks!"

"I don't need to use knockoffs." A voice said behind him. Naruto's eyes widened. "I have our moves." Naruto whirled around, but was not fast enough. " **Dark Firaga**!" A darkness coated fireball slammed into Naruto's gut and sent him flying back.

Skidding to a halt, Naruto gripped his stomach and winced. "That move was…"

"The move that Yami taught us." Kuro finished. "The one that _you_ have been too scared to use. You haven't used it a single time. The same goes for the other darkness spells."

"I haven't been too scared to use them!"

"Stop lying! Lying to me means that you're lying to yourself, so cut it out! There's no one who knows you better than I do!" Kuro yelled. "I know you're scared to use them! I can feel it whenever you're in the middle of a fight and going over your options. You don't even consider them! When are you going to just admit you're scared?!"

"I…I'm not!"

Kuro shook his head in disgust. "Fine then. Cling to the pitiful lies you have yourself believing. I'll show you the truth!" Naruto watched as a pool of darkness opened up at his feet and consumed him.

Immediately after, an identical pool of darkness opened under Naruto. Knowing what was about to happen, Naruto jumped back, narrowly avoiding an attacking Kuro. Naruto swung his keyblade at Kuro, but missed when Kuro dove back into the darkness. Another portal opened in the ground next to Naruto, who prepared himself. But while he was expecting Kuro to resurface there, Naruto did not anticipate the volley of fireballs that came with him.

"Gah!" Caught by surprise, a few of the fireballs landed before Naruto was able to block any.

"Ha! If this is the best you can do, then it's a good thing I'm taking over! You're too weak!" Kuro taunted. Gritting his teeth, Naruto ignored the pain and shot at Kuro. Slashing his keyblade down, Naruto's keyblade met Kuro's, creating a shower of sparks. While Naruto had a glare on his face, Kuro's smirk never faltered.

"I'm not weak." Naruto bit out.

"Prior evidence implies otherwise." Kuro jumped back. "This is what _true_ power really is!" Darkness was channeled into his keyblade.

"Your power comes at too great a cost." Naruto replied and channeled light into his keyblade. "If I do things your way, then it will defeat the entire purpose of having that power."

"Wrong! The purpose of having power is to be the strongest! If we're the strongest, then all of our worries will stop!" Kuro rushed at Naruto. "Why can't you realize that?!"

Naruto ducked under his lunge and retaliate with a swipe to Kuro's back, eliciting a grunt of pain from him. "Why can't _you_ realize that it isn't that easy?!" He brought his keyblade back for another strike, but was surprise when it phased right through Kuro.

"Pathetic!" Naruto's head snapped up at the shout, allowing him to see Kuro dropping down at him from above.

" **Aerora**!" A whirlwind formed around Naruto even as he raised his keyblade to block the downward strike. "Guh!" The moment Kuro's keyblade made contact with Naruto's a large pillar of ice erupted from below him and slammed into his back.

Using the chance, Kuro kicked Naruto in the chest, hurling him away. Naruto flipped in the air and landed on his feet before dashing back at Kuro, prompting the two of them to launch into successive slashes and parries as they both tried to get the upper hand.

Suddenly, Kuro disappeared in another flash of darkness. Taking a guess on Kuro's battle tactics based on what he has already seen, Naruto rolled forward and spun around. In doing so, he was greeted with Kuro's exposed back.

" **Photon Charge**." Shrouded in light, Naruto sped at Kuro and slashed at him as he sped by.

"Gah!" Not giving him the chance to recover, Naruto turned around and came back to go into a combo of high speed attacks. Kuro tried to defend himself, but Naruto kept on moving out of the way of any of his strikes and every attempt at a block was met with Naruto attacking from a different angle.

Kuro growled as the number of cuts on his body kept on growing, along with his anger. "Fuck! Off!" A pulse of darkness exploded from his body, forcing Naruto to abandon what he was doing and get out of the way. Snarling, Kuro slashed his keyblade towards Naruto, which shot a crescent-shaped wave of darkness at him.

Sidestepping the attack, Naruto then parried the keyblade that streaked at his neck and retaliated with a slash of his own, but missed his target when Kuro quickly sunk into a pool of darkness. Resurfacing a few feet away, Kuro pointed his keyblade at Naruto and launched a large fireball at him. Naruto dodged to the side, but frowned when the fireball split off into three smaller ones, each homing in on his new position. With two small fireballs of his own, Naruto intercepted the first two before stopping the final one with his keyblade.

Jumping into the air, Kuro channeled more darkness into his keyblade and came back down on his opponent.

' _This again?'_ Naruto back just in time to avoid both Kuro and the pillar of ice that shot out of the ground, but he caught off guard when a pool of darkness opened up under Kuro the moment he landed. _'Shit!'_ Naruto made to move, but he was not fast enough. A second pool of darkness opened at his feet, giving way for an attack from below.

"Gotcha!" Kuro jumped out of the pool and struck Naruto with his keyblade. Doubling the agony was the pillar of dark fire that accompanied Kuro and dealt additional damage.

Naruto stumbled as he tried to gain some distance. Hurriedly, he raised a hand to his chest. " **Cur-** "

"Too slow!" Naruto's spell was cut off when Kuro flashed in front of him and punched him in the face.

Rolling with the force of the blow, Naruto got back to his feet and slid into a battle stance. He was panting and his body was covered in injuries, but he was still able to fight.

Kuro smirked again. "Wow, I was kind of expecting you to put up more of a fight…"

Naruto crouched. "I still got plenty of fight left in me…"

"Then I'll have to beat it out!" Kuro rushed forward and clashed against Naruto again. "There is no way you don't see it now! I'm much stronger than you are! Here we are, in our heart, locked in a heated battle, and you are clearly on the losing side of the fight! You're good, but none of your attacks are strong enough to win!"

"I only need a single good one to take you out!"

"And where are you going to get the strength to?! You're too weak!" Kuro jumped back and awaited Naruto's answer.

Naruto was silent for a moment. "I…I'll do whatever it takes." This response seemed to further infuriate Kuro, making him rush back in.

"That isn't an answer!" Naruto deflected Kuro's keyblade and sliced at his chest. When his keyblade phased through Kuro, Naruto cursed and rolled to the side. Springing back to his feet, he shot his keyblade up.

" **Flame Salvo**!"

" **Dark Volley**!"

Fireballs met darkness and created explosions in between them. Not bothering to wait, Naruto channeled more light and sped towards Kuro, working his way in between the smoke and explosions. Kuro didn't seem to expect another attack so soon, because he still had his keyblade raised and was trying to see through the smoke when Naruto suddenly appeared in front of him.

When a red-tinted glow formed around Naruto, Kuro's eyes widened in a mixture of recognition and alarm. He started channeling more darkness to get out of the way, but wasn't fast enough.

" **Sacrifice**!" Boom!

"Argh!" Kuro's pained shout echoed throughout the station, although Naruto couldn't see him through the smoke after being flung back from the explosion.

Pain wracked every nerve in Naruto's body as he tumbled across the floor. When he finally came to a stop, he could do nothing but lay there and wait for the pain to subside. Cracking an eye open, he glanced back over to the other side of the platform where a cloud of smoke still lingered.

"…Whatever it takes…" He repeated before struggling to push himself to his feet.

 **End Music**

"…You're fucking crazy." Naruto froze at the voice and took a closer look as the smoke finally started to disappear. Standing there was Kuro. He was panting heavily and favoring one side, but he was still standing. Glaring, he spoke up. "You actually used that attack…Hikari and Yami said it was a last resort."

Naruto struggled harder to get to his feet. "I don't…care…I can't let you win." He finally managed to stagger to his feet.

"Tch. I'm getting really sick of your stupidity. I'm ending this." Kuro said. He began to walk forward, but stumbled. Catching himself, he used his keyblade as a support. "Damn it." Naruto gave a weak smirk.

"For all your talk, you look to be in the same position I am."

"Shut up! I'm not a weak idiot like you are! I'm stronger! Faster! More willing to do what's needed!" Kuro shouted. He paused. "…More willing to do what's needed…" A malicious grin formed on his face, making a new sense of dread swell in Naruto. "I'm willing to go the distance and do what I have to in order to grow stronger!"

"What are you talking about?" Naruto demanded.

Kuro laughed. "Just think about it! Our anger and hatred give me strength! The rage we feel for what they've done is what gives me power! But what if I used a _new_ source of rage? One that's even stronger than what we already have? I would become the strongest person in any of the worlds!"

It didn't even take a second for Naruto to understand what he was saying. "No." Kuro laughed even more.

"Just because you're too scared of the dark doesn't mean I am!" Kuro snapped, making light start filtering down in the distance, illuminating a nearby platform. "You said it yourself…Whatever it takes." He disappeared in a flash of darkness.

"Damn it!" Naruto ignored his protesting body and turned towards the edge of the platform. When he ran up to it, a floating bridge of tiles appeared, giving him the chance to make his way to the new platform. As he ran, he raised a hand to his chest. " **Cura**." The feeling of his wounds healing over let him speed his pace up.

Soon, Naruto made it to the new platform. Taking a moment to glance down at it, he noticed that there was a change since the last time he saw it. The Kyūbi no Kitsune was still snarling in the center of it, but there was darkness oozing out of the keyhole. Naruto rushed forward when he saw this, determined to redo the lock, but stopped when black flames erupted in front of him, forming a ring around the keyhole.

"You aren't stopping me!" Naruto's head snapped up to see Kuro floating in the air above the platform. He looked down and met Naruto's eyes. "This is the power we need! You may not see it, but I do!"

"Don't do it!" Naruto shouted. "You can't possibly hope to control the Kyūbi's darkness! It's too much!"

"Maybe for you!" Kuro pointed his keyblade at the lock. "But for someone who isn't afraid of the dark, this is the next step to growing stronger!" Before Naruto could say anything else, a beam of darkness shot out of the keyblade and into the keyhole.

Click.

Both Naruto and Kuro stared at the keyhole in silence as they waited for something to happen.

Boom! A powerful blast of darkness pushed Naruto back several feet, but he managed to not fall off the platform. He watched with horror as the most overwhelming aura he has ever felt exploded from the keyhole.

"Yes! Yes! This is exactly what we need!" Kuro laughed at the sight of the darkness. He dismissed his keyblade and spread his arms out. "We will be the strongest!" He continued to laugh as the darkness swallowed him.

"No!" Naruto was about to try to reach him, but stopped when the platform started to violently shake. Looking down, Naruto saw that large cracks were appearing in it. Some portions of the platform were even falling away into the abyss. With no other option, Naruto spun around and ran back to the other platform.

* * *

 **On the Outside**

Yoruichi tensed when she felt something in Naruto shift. "Get back!" Not knowing what was going on but deciding it was best to not risk it, Kushina and Minato complied.

"AAHH!" The next second, Naruto _screamed_. A pillar of darkness that was even larger than the one from earlier shot into the sky. In the center of it was a thrashing Naruto who was clutching his head in apparent agony.

* * *

Cold blue eyes observed the darkness from a few miles away.

"…So in the end, he was consumed. That is…disappointing."

* * *

"Naruto! What's happening to him?!" Kushina shouted.

"I have no idea! Something in him must have changed!" The darkness was rapidly growing in amount. Soon, there was so much of it that the sky was starting to darken with storm clouds. Kushina, Yoruichi, and Minato braced themselves against the wind and the ground shook. Suddenly, a reddish-orange tint joined the purplish-black. The sight of this new addition froze Kushina and Minato's blood.

"Impossible…" Minato whispered. "That can't be right."

"I take it you know what that new energy is!" Yoruichi said.

"That's...He doesn't have the chakra!" Kushina shouted. "How is that here?!"

That was all Yoruichi needed to put the pieces together. "The Kyūbi..." Things just got a whole lot more serious if the Kyūbi's heart was freed. "Naruto may not have the chakra, but he definitely has the darkness! That's what we're seeing right now!" Lightning was starting to crackle in the sky.

"Darkness?!" Minato asked. "You said that before, what the hell is it?!" And why does he feel like he has heard that before?

"That's not important right now! I told you explanations can come later!" Although obviously unsatisfied with this, Minato relented.

"If the Kyūbi is escaping, then we need to restrain him, now!" Kushina shouted. "The only thing that can hold him down now are my chains! I need you to give me an opening!"

Minato and Yoruichi nodded. "When you do that, I will get a suppression seal on him! I don't know what that stuff is, but it may still work if it's from the Kyūbi!" Minato responded. The darkness was still growing in output. "But we can never get close like this!" Even the ground was starting to shake!

"AAHHHH!" Naruto's screams rose to new heights. At the same time, the pillar of darkness shot even higher into the sky, piercing the clouds entirely. If they weren't trained the way that they were, then Minato, Yoruichi, and Kushina would have stumbled by now.

Off in the distance, a large chunk of a cliff side splintered off and plummeted to the ground, while fissures split the battle field. Yoruichi knew that the situation was escalating even further, but there was nothing she could do while the darkness blocked their path to Naruto. _'At this rate, the world is going to be consumed just by the darkness here!'_ "If we don't stop him right now, then we can kiss the world goodbye!"

Seeing the surrounding area get destroyed by what could rival a natural disaster, Minato grimaced. "Right. I'm going to try and stop whatever's happening with a long rage jutsu! The moment I do, you will need to rush in and get Kushina that opening! Got it?!"

"Got it!"

"Good! Ge ready!" Minato brought his hands together and started to blur through long chain of hand seals. But he only managed to get through the first few when the darkness convulsed. All at once, the entire pillar of darkness exploded outward, blowing them back a few feet.

"Whoa! What the hell?!" When the darkness finally faded, Naruto was seen standing a few yards away. The changes in his appearance made their breaths hitch.

Naruto stood there with a vicious snarl on his face. His whisker marks were darker than they had been and looked more feral. What was truly startling was the fact that his eyes now had slit pupils and seemed to have some kind of glow to them that was colored a mixture of reddish-orange and purplish-black.

His eyes shifted between them, as if trying to decide who to attack first. After some thought, his eyes landed on Kushina and his expression grew darker. Raising a hand, he summoned his keyblade back and slid into a battle stance.

"He's about to attack!" Yoruichi yelled. Naruto crouched in preparation, but paused abruptly and frowned, slightly confusing the others. Tilting his head as if to hear some far off noise, Naruto stayed silent.

" _..._ aahh _..._ " Minato frowned at the distant voice, but didn't let it distract him.

" _.._ Aaahhh!"Kushina glanced around in confusion, Yoruichi doing the same.

' _I'm not hearing things...'_ Kushina thought to herself.

"...AaaaAAAAHHHHH _HHH_ " Naruto's head snapped up when he identified where the screams were coming from. The others were only a second behind him in doing the same.

Yoruichi narrowed her eyes at a small speck that was falling from the hole Naruto made in the blackened sky. She couldn't make see that many details, but if she had to guess... _'People are falling from the sky?'_

* * *

 **High in the Air**

"AAHHH! We're gonna die!" A high pitched voice shouted in despair.

"We aren't going to die!" A male voice barked.

"Yes we are! We're gonna hit the ground and go splat!" The first voice resumed its screaming.

"I don't want to die!" A different male voice yelled before joining in on the screaming.

"Both of you shut up!" Ordered the second voice. "Hey, idiots! Have you forgotten that one of us can fly?!"

"Really?! Who?!" The high pitch voiced asked.

"You!"

"Ah, you're right. I'm saved!"

"That's great, buddy!" The third voice cheered, somehow forgetting that he was still falling.

"Yeah, fantastic! Now catch us!"

"Eh~? But you're heavy..."

"Do it or I'll haunt you after this!" That did the trick of convincing the first voice.

"AYE SIR!"

* * *

 **Back on the Ground**

Two people and one animal touched down roughly on the ground nearby. The people were clinging to the animal like it was some kind of lifeline as it was the only thing that stopped them from being killed on impact.

"We're alive!" One of the people and animal cheered together. The last person slumped to the ground in exhaustion.

"That was closer than I would have liked..." His eyes turned back to the sky. "How the hell did we wind up falling from the sky?"

"No clue! But who cares?" The other male asked.

"I do! Shit like that isn't normal, flame brain! For once in your life, would you just think?!"

"Huh? You wanna say that again, snow cone?" Growled the other person.

"I said you're that you're the dumbest person alive!"

"Oh yeah?! Well your twice as dumb as I am!"

"Great comeback, dipshit! You get that off of Asuka?"

"No, I got it from myself! If it seems stupid to you, that's only 'cause I needed to dumb it down so you would be able to understand it!"

"I'll freeze your fire-retardant ass!"

"Bring it! I'll melt your popsicle face!" The two of them were butting heads as they threw insults and threats at each other.

"Fight! Fight! Fight!" The animal cheered.

Getting over his surprise at the unexpected and strange interruption, Naruto's hostility returned. Gripping his keyblade, he sped towards the newcomers.

Yoruichi recovered her bearings when she saw this. "Watch out!" She shouted.

The two humans blinked and turned as one towards her voice. Their confusion at the shout was obvious to all. After glancing to her, their eyes turned to Naruto and widened in alarm at the keyblade slashing down at them.

"Crap!"

"Whoa!" While one of them jumped out of the way, the other grabbed the small animal and rolled to safety. Springing back to his feet, he slid into a defensive stance with the animal cowering behind him. "What the hell is your problem?!"

"He's scary..." The animal shivered.

Not answering the question, Naruto swiped his keyblade through the air and shot crescent-shaped wave of darkness at them.

"Get out of the way!"

"I know that!" The teens dodged the attack. "Darkness magic?!"

"I guess so! But why is he attacking?!"

"No clue!" The second teen smirked. A familiar swell of excitement was pooling in his chest. "But if he wants a fight, then I'll be happy to take him on!" Flames erupted around his body.

The first teen gained a matching smirk and got into his own battle stance. "Better move fast or I'll be the one to beat him." The ground at his feet began to frost over.

"You're on!" Igniting a fist, the second teen rushed forward, but someone else blurred into existence in front of him and sent Naruto flying with a surprise attack. "The hell?!" He skidded to a halt and barely managed to not run into the woman. "Where did you come from?!"

Yoruichi didn't take her eyes off of Naruto. "I have a similar question for you, but now isn't the time. You and your friends need to leave."

"Huh? No way! I called dibs on this guy!"

Minato flashed into existence next to them, startling the newcomers. "This isn't up for debate. Leave the area." He ordered. Kushina jumped over to them, but her entire focus was on her son.

The first teen looked between the three of them. Taking in their slightly battered appearances, he then noted the destroyed area. "You guys were already fighting him..." He concluded. Minato and Yoruichi nodded.

"Huh? They were?" The second teen deflated at this new piece of information. "Aww...That sucks." He sulked.

His companion scrutinized the others again. Almost immediately, he noticed the similarities between the man, the redhead, and the boy that was getting back up. "Is that your son?" He asked quietly. Judging by their reactions to his question and the extremely distressed expression of the woman, he was pretty sure.

The pink haired teen and animal turned to him and gaped. "What?! He is?!" They shouted together.

"What the heck is wrong with him? Is he sick?" The animal asked.

"In a way." Yoruichi said cryptically. "Now get out of here." Naruto crouched and summoned more darkness. "Here we go again..."

"…" The second teen looked at Naruto before taking in the appearances of the others for the first time. His eyes lingered on the expression Kushina had.

"No. I'm gonna fight too."

After everything that had happened, Yoruichi's patience was wearing thin. "That isn't an option! Leave!"

"I'm not leaving!" The teen shouted back.

"This isn't your fight!"

"Then I'll make it my fight!" He pointed at Naruto. "I may not know what's going on, but I understand how hard it is to be forced to fight family." His mind went to the time that his surrogate sister had to fight against someone she knew from childhood. Then there was his own fight with someone he saw as a brother.

…A rude, arrogant, sarcastic, jackass, lightning brained brother, but still a brother…It helps that he got over himself a bit.

"You don't even need to say anything for me to know that you're hurting inside. All of you are." He glared at Naruto. "Seeing him be controlled by something else to turn against you _really_ pisses me off. This is the Tower of Heaven all over again." He made a flaming fist and punched it into his other hand. "Family fighting family is wrong, that was one of the first lessons Gramps taught me."

The other teen smirked and moved to stand beside the flaming one. "Sorry, but he's right. We can't just sit by and watch this happen. We're helping you stop him."

The cat nodded with a determined expression. "Aye!"

"Listen, that's nice of you, but-" Minato was cut off by Naruto when he shot an oversized fireball at them. "Scatter!" He, Kushina, and Yoruichi all scattered, but the teens and cat stayed in place. "Move!" Minato shouted to them, but they didn't listen.

The first teen smirked and glanced to the other one. "This is all you." He and the cat took a step back.

"Ha! Too easy!" A wild grin made its way onto the pink haired teen's face, showcasing his sharp canines. The adults watched with shock as he stood his ground and actually caught the fireball. What made things even more confusing was that he then began _eating_ it like it was food.

"What?" Yoruichi said in disbelief.

Even Naruto stared as the teen slurped the fire. With a loud burp, he patted his stomach contently. "A little funny tasting, but pretty good!" He punched his fists together again, creating sparks. "Now I'm _really_ fired up!"

The other teen turned his smirk to Minato. "We can handle ourselves pretty well in a fight, so don't worry about that. I assume you have some kind of plan to stop him?"

"Kicking Jellal's ass worked well enough, so let's just do that!"

"Aye!"

He glared at his companions. "Shut up! That may not work this time!" Dark blue eyes went back to the others. "Well?"

"We need to get an opening on him to detain him." Yoruichi finally said. "The problem is that he teleports out of the way whenever we are about to catch him. But having more capable fighters would increase our chances."

"So we just gotta keep attacking until we land a hit? Is that all? I can do that, easy!" The pink haired teen grinned again. "Hey, you!" He shouted to Naruto. "I hope you're ready, 'cause I'm about to turn up the heat!"

The other teen snorted. "That was lame."

"Go Natsu! Go Gray!" The cat cheered. "Win it for Fairy Tail!"

' _There's something not right about them…'_ Yoruichi chose to look at them in greater detail for the first time.

The pink haired teen had spiky hair, black eyes, and a lean, muscular body with slightly tanned skin. He was wearing a sleeveless, gold trimmed, black waistcoat that was left open and untucked, showing that he had nothing on underneath. Going around his waist was a black cloth of the same color scheme that was held by a leather belt. He also had on white pants that only went to his knees, black sandals, and around his neck was a scale-patterned scarf. On his right shoulder was some kind of red tattoo.

The other teen had spiky black hair, dark blue eyes, and was also muscular. His choice of clothing was a white coat with blue trims, a red shirt under it, dark blue pants, and black shoes.

Yoruichi stared. _'Why is he stripping?'_

As if the teen never even noticed, he threw off his coat and shirt, leaving him in nothing but his pants and shoes. On his chest was the same mark that the other teen had, but dark blue in color.

The probably strangest one of the three was the blue cat with a large head and white stomach that was carry a green knapsack.

Naruto seemed to grow even angrier when he saw the pink haired teen eat his attack. With a growl, he crouched low and conjured more orbs of darkness. This served as enough incentive for Yoruichi to focus on the important matters.

"Fine! If you really want to help, then make sure he stays occupied!"

"You got it!"

"Can do!"

Naruto leapt at them.

* * *

 **Station of Awakening**

Naruto swore loudly after glancing back to see that the tile bridge was collapsing behind him. _'Speed it up!'_ The platform was just ahead! Pumping light into his legs, Naruto jumped for it. He landed and rolled until he finally came to a stop in a crouched position. "That was closer than I would have liked…"

Standing up, he turned his eyes to the platform that the he just ran from. The bridge to it was completely destroyed, but there were still some parts of the platform standing, although he didn't think they would be for much longer. Every few seconds, another part would splinter off and fall into the abyss. A chaotic storm of darkness spiraled above it.

"Damn it…This isn't good."

"How can you say that? This is freaking great!" Naruto's head flicked up to see Kuro floating there with a manic grin on his face. A vortex of reddish-orange and purplish-black darkness surrounded him. "There isn't anything I can say to describe this! This power is amazing!"

"Kuro! Stop it now! We can still lock the Kyūbi's darkness back up! It isn't too late!"

"Ha! Lock it back up? Why the hell would I want to do that! We finally have the power we need! Why can't you see that?!"

"All I see is the darkness driving you insane! It _will_ consume you!"

Kuro shook his head. "No, it won't. Don't you get it? Darkness consumes those who fear it. I have no fear of the darkness! I embrace it! That's the difference between you and me! I will become one with the dark!" The vortex picked up speed and the darkness closed in on him.

"Kuro! Don't!"

"If words won't prove it to you, then maybe this will!" He spread his arms out. "Witness the power of the of dark!" The dark aura flooded into his body. When it was all gone, Kuro gently lowered to the ground. He had a giddy look on his face as he looked at his hands to see that the mixed darkness now covered him in a shroud of aura. "This is…This is it!"

Slowly, his pupils turned to slits and his eyes started to glow with a mixture of normal darkness and the darkness from the Kyūbi. Due to the Kyūbi's influence, his whisker marks also darkened and became more feral looking.

"This is it! I can feel the darkness!" Kuro's eyes met Naruto's. "I can finally prove to you that the path of the dark is the path to victory!" He raised a hand, summoning his keyblade, but it was a different one from before.

This new keyblade had a dark red jagged shaft, rust orange teeth that resembled flames, and a rust orange guard shaped like the tails of the Kyūbi. On the top of the guard was the Kyūbi's head with yellow glowing eyes. Spiraling around the shaft and hilt of the blade was another tail that also resembled flames. The shaft of the keyblade had visible darkness coating it.

 **Play Kingdom Hearts BBS OST: Unbreakable Chains - Extended**

Pointing it at Naruto, he spoke up. "The time has come. I'll defeat you, forcing you to admit that your way won't cut it." He got into a battle stance. "Prepare yourself."

With a scowl, Naruto summoned the Kingdom Key and got into his own battle stance. "There are better ways to do things than rely on the dark." The two of them stared at each other in silence.

Suddenly, Kuro shot his arm up. "Darkness will show the way!" A pillar of darkness exploded around him, granting him power. Using this, Kuro launched himself at Naruto with his keyblade coming down in an arc.

Naruto dodged with a roll, but Kuro was quick to react. Stopping on a dime, he spun around and leapt into the air above Naruto. Just coming out of his roll, Naruto hastily jumped to the side again to avoid the newest attack, but he was not expecting a shockwave of darkness that was created.

"Gah!" Naruto was knocked back by the blow, but he was able to recover. Gritting his teeth, Naruto thrust his hand up. " **Chaos Snake**!" Zigzagging projectile of light shot out of his body and flanked Kuro from both sides.

Staying calm, Kuro waited until the last moment to backflip over the first beam. He then turned his body in midair to avoid the next one. The others were dodged in similar displays of acrobatics. When the last one faded from existence, he landed on the ground and launched several waves of darkness at Naruto.

Using some light, Naruto batted it away with his keyblade, only to find that Kuro used the cover provided by the darkness to get close and surprise Naruto. With a smirk, Kuro coated his keyblade in darkness and slashed at Naruto.

Knowing he would never get out of the way in time, Naruto instead aimed his hand down. " **Fira**!" Both Naruto and Kuro were caught in the blast.

Kuro jumped back out of the smoke, smirk nowhere in sight. He raised a hand to his injured side. "Harming yourself just to land a hit on me? And it wasn't **Sacrifice**? You're getting desperate. I didn't think you would do that."

The smoke cleared, showing a grim and injured Naruto. "I guess you don't know me as well as you thought you did." Kuro snorted.

"Don't count on it working again!" He disappeared in a flash of darkness. Immediately, Naruto spun around, successfully blocking the surprise attack from Kuro. Staring into Kuro's surprised eyes, Naruto allowed a small smirk to appear on his face.

"The funny thing is that while you can predict my moves pretty well, I can do the same for you." Kuro snarled and disappeared in another flash. Naruto jumped back and avoided his downward strike. "You see?"

"Shut up!" Kuro disappeared in another flash of darkness. The fight was thrown into a flurry of teleports, slashes, and parries, but neither Naruto nor Kuro were able to land a decisive blow. When Kuro disappeared again, Naruto jumped back and glanced around the platform in an attempt to find him.

"Impossible." Naruto swiftly looked up and spotted Kuro in the air again. "You shouldn't be able to keep up with me." Kuro growled. "How are you doing this?"

That was a good question. How _was_ Naruto keeping up? Naruto shrugged. "Maybe the darkness isn't all that it's cracked up to be."

"Liar! The darkness will grant us the power we need! I won't let you say otherwise!" His shroud of darkness grew stronger. "There's no escape!" Kuro's body swooped down at him, making it look like he was a large darkness bullet.

Naruto dodged the attack, but Kuro halted in midair and came back for a second attempt. This time, his keyblade made contact with Naruto's back. "Gah!" Stumbling forward, Naruto tracked Kuro's movement before throwing himself to the ground to avoid the third strike. After he missed, Kuro dispelled the darkness surrounding him and raised his keyblade to the air. "Embrace the dark!"

Having witnessed the attack before, Naruto knew what was coming. Because he was still prone, he chose to dodge the keyblade slamming into the ground by hastily rolling to the other side of the platform. The shockwave of darkness that came after flew over him by a few inches.

Springing to his feet, Naruto was just in time to duck under Kuro's angered attack and retaliated with his own strike. Still outstretched from his attack, Kuro was unable to get out of the way in time. The Kingdom Key cut into his chest, but it wasn't done. Naruto did not want to give Kuro the chance to recover, so he launched into a swift combo, but he disengaged when one of the strikes phased through Kuro.

The next moment, Kuro reappeared behind Naruto with his body already spinning around to add momentum to his attack. Naruto jumped into the air, but wasn't able to fully dodge as the keyblade sliced into his calf. Grunting in pain, Naruto flipped and lashed a kick out at Kuro from above.

Kuro's hand snapped up and caught the leg. Not deterred in the slightest, Naruto pivoted his body around so he could attack with his keyblade. Kuro blocked the attack before jumping back. He raised his keyblade at the same time Naruto did.

" **Chaos Blade**."

" **Sonic Blade**."

Both of them shot at each other and met in the center of the platform. They clashed their keyblades together for not even an entire second before blurring away, only to reapper off to the side in another shower of sparks, but cut off their attacks again. Naruto's eyes were bathed in light, while Kuro's were shrouded in darkness. Vanishing in another burst of speed, they continued to increase the pace until they almost looked to be teleporting around the platform.

Finally, the two of them blurred into existence on either side of the platform. Naruto was panting heavily on the half of the platform that had his image on it, while Kuro was looking the same on his own side.

"…How…?"

Naruto quirked an eyebrow. "How what?"

"How are you doing this? I am the one with the darkness! I have the darkness of the Kyūbi aiding me! How are you fighting evenly with me?! How are you becoming stronger?!" Kuro yelled.

Frowning, Naruto thought about the question. It really _didn't_ make much sense for him to be able to keep pace with Kuro. Earlier, Kuro had the advantage for most of the fight, so shouldn't that be amplified now that he gained a power boost?

Cerulean and violet eyes went to Kuro's body. Just like Naruto himself, Kuro was littered with various cuts and scorch marks. There was a small trail of blood dripping down his face and sweat was covering his body, but like Naruto, he didn't pay attention to that. That's when Naruto saw it.

A small flinch in the arm that was holding the keyblade.

Understanding dawned on Naruto. "You're wrong." He finally said.

Kuro snarled. "What?"

"I said you're wrong. I've done nothing to grow stronger. I'm the same as I always was." Kuro shook his head.

"Stop! Lying! You are stronger! You are keeping up with me after I absorbed the darkness of the Kyūbi!"

"And that's the problem." This silenced Kuro. "You're in a lot of pain right now, aren't you?"

"Of course I am! We both are! That's what happens when two people fight!"

It was Naruto's turn to shake his head. "Wrong again. You assumed your pain is from what I did, but that's not it." Kuro actually laughed this time.

"Oh yeah? Then what the hell is it then? You aren't actually going to tell me that I'm in pain because I'm getting burned by the light, are you?!" He slashed his hand through the air. "This isn't a joke! Your light isn't harming me!"

"No…You're not getting burned by the light."

"Then what the _hel-_ "

"You're being destroyed by the dark." Kuro's mouth snapped close and he stared into Naruto's eyes. After a minute, a small chuckle escaped his throat. This was soon turned into a laugh, which also grew in volume. With a shiver, Naruto was vividly reminded of Orochimaru.

"The dark? I'm being destroyed by the fucking _dark_? I told you that this isn't a joke!" Kuro flared the darkness around him again. "I _am_ darkness! It will never harm me!"

"Maybe not the darkness already in my heart…but then you went and added another source of darkness to yourself." Kuro froze. "You know what I'm talking about."

"Shut up!" Kuro roared. "I took the Kyūbi's darkness and made it my own! It's mine now! It can't harm me!" Naruto was growing increasingly frustrated with him.

"Stop kidding yourself! Hikari and Yami warned us about how deep the darkness of the Kyūbi ran! I can't control something like that, and neither can you!"

"Yes! I! Can!" Kuro shouted. "It bends to my will and becomes my strength! It already belongs to me!"

"It isn't giving you strength and you haven't absorbed it! Open your freaking eyes and look at yourself! It's destroying you! Just let it go now before it is too late!"

"No! We need this strength! Without it, we will perish!"

"Damn it, Kuro! Listen to yourself! You're me, so you should understand better than anyone that we don't need that power!"

"Yes we do!" The darkness vortex reformed around him, creating wind that whipped through the area. "You won't convince me otherwise!" He pointed his keyblade at Naruto. "Enough talking! This ends now!"

Scowling, Naruto raised his keyblade into an identical stance. "I don't want to do this, Kuro!" A cloak of light faded into existence around his body.

"You don't have a choice! Because I _do_!" They grew quiet as they waited for the right moment.

The moment soon came.

" **Dark Cannon**!"

" **Dark Link**!"

Beams of light and darkness collided in the center of the station, creating a large bubble of chaotic energy fighting for dominance. Kuro and Naruto both poured everything they had into their attacks, knowing that the outcome would be decided right then. The platform they were standing on was starting to shatter from the power struggle.

' _Can't let him win!'_

' _This won't be the end!'_ Naruto and Kuro stopped powering their attacks at the same time and rushed forward.

The area was thrown into a blinding flash.

 **End Music**

* * *

 **On the Outside**

" **Fire Dragon's Roar**!" Natsu opened his mouth and spewed a torrent of flames at Naruto. Growling at the attack, Naruto jumped into the air to avoid it, making Natsu smirk. "Gray!"

"I know!" A voice shouted above Naruto, prompting him to turn his head towards the source. Higher in the air was a grinning Gray. Forming a fist and bringing it into his free palm, he conjured his attack. " **Ice Make: Hammer**!" A large hammer made of ice formed in his hand, which he then swung at Naruto.

With nowhere to go, Naruto was forced to teleport to what he thought was a safe location, but it proved not to be when Yoruichi flashed in front of him with a kick already thrown. The attack landed successfully and launched Naruto back into a nearby boulder. "Now!"

Kushina thrust her hands out and created chains that sped towards Naruto. Snarling, Naruto flashed out of the way.

"Damn it!" Naruto cursed. "What does it take to beat this guy? He either teleports away from our attacks or just brushes them off! Right, Happy?!"

"Aye!" Happy chirped. "It's totally unfair!"

Minato landed next to Natsu. "We just need to keep at it. He can't outmaneuver us forever. Are you still good to fight?" Although he was reluctant at first, both Natsu and Gray proved to be valuable help.

Natsu whirled around and jabbed a thumb at his chest. "Of course I am! If I couldn't handle this, then I wouldn't be the strongest wizard in Fairy Tail!"

"But you aren't the strongest, Natsu. You can't even beat Erza." Happy said innocently.

"Erza doesn't count! She's a monster!"

"That's true…But what about Laxus?"

"I kicked his ass!"

"You had help, but okay…Mira?"

"She's a monster too!"

"Ah, you're right…Gildarts?"

"I almost had him last time! I'm sure I can beat him now!"

"Whatever helps you sleep at night."

"What was that?!"

Minato sweat dropped at the interaction. "Um, now isn't really the time for-"

"Aahh! I'll prove to you that I'm the strongest!" Natsu spun around to face Naruto and ignited his fist again. "Just watch!" He dashed at him.

"No, don't!" Minato made to stop him, but Natsu wasn't listening.

Speeding towards Naruto, Natsu brought his fist down while Naruto moved his keyblade to intercept it. "Take this! **Fire Dragon's Iron F** -Wha?" Before he even got close, Naruto dropped to his knees and clutched his head in pain. His keyblade disappeared in a flash of darkness while the darkness surrounding him wavered.

"AAHHH!"

Natsu was extremely confused by Naruto's sudden agony. "Um, what?"

"Natsu, that was amazing! You beat him with nothing more than a shout!" Happy cheered. Natsu looked at him with wide eyes, but he soon puffed out his chest.

"Ah ha ha ha ha! I told you I was the strongest!"

"You really are! I'll never doubt you again!" Happy said. "…Until the next time you get your ass kicked…" He muttered.

"Hey! What do you mean by th-"

"Kushina! Now!" Ethereal chains shot out of the ground and wrapped around Naruto, binding him in place. Immediately after, Minato appeared in front of him with a seal in his hand. Placing it on Naruto, he formed a hand seal. " **Seal**!" The seal activated, forcing the reddish-orange coloration of the darkness to fade away, but the purplish-black portion remained. "Why isn't it being suppressed?" He whispered.

"Because it's not the Kyūbi's." Yoruichi answered as she landed next to him. "That's all Naruto."

"What? How is this Naruto's?"

"This is what he has been training to use since he was six. But it's growing out of control."

Gray ran up to them. "Then how do we stop it?"

"…We can't."

"What?"

"I said we can't." She repeated. "Only Naruto can. We have to have faith that he will pull himself back from this…But he has to do it soon. His heart can't handle much more." This threw a new wave of silence over them.

* * *

 **Station of Awakening**

Cerulean and violet eyes stared into yellow eyes from a few inches apart. Both of the pairs of eyes lost any glow that they had during the fight. Slowly, the yellow eyes glanced down. A small victorious smile appeared on the owner's lips.

"Well…I guess we have our conclusion…" Kuro said quietly. Following his eyes, Naruto looked down as well.

There was a red keyblade stabbed through Naruto's chest.

A pained cough escaped Naruto, making Kuro look back up to meet his eyes. "I guess so…" He could feel the adrenaline leaving his body, making way for extreme pain and fatigue. "So…Who won?" Kuro blinked sluggishly and glanced down again.

There was a silver keyblade stabbed into Kuro's chest as well.

"Oh…Didn't see that…I…don't know." He admitted. Naruto chuckled.

"Well that's a shitty ending…"

"I know…Nearly as bad as the one about Ventus, Aqua, and Terra." Their eyes met, both full of mirth. Suddenly, wisps of darkness started to come off of Kuro's body, attracting their attention. "I guess that decides it for us…" Kuro sighed and closed his eyes. "So this is it, huh? Forever fated it fade into the dark? This is how I lose?"

"I wouldn't be too sure about that…" Naruto's words made him open his eyes again. He was surprised to see Naruto staring at his own arm, where particles of light were coming from. "If fading into darkness means you lose…then does fading into the light mean I lose?" Both of their bodies lost their tangibility, making the keyblades clatter to the ground. Taking a step back, Naruto chuckled quietly. "I don't suppose you'd settle for both of us winning?" Their eyes met.

Kuro opened his mouth, paused, and closed it. With a sigh, he shook his head. "No, I won't."

Naruto frowned. "Why? Why can't we both win?"

"Because we can't!" Kuro yelled.

"And I'm asking you why the hell not!"

They glared at each other. "How?" Kuro finally asked. "How can we both win? It's either one of us fades away, or we both do. Either way, there is always one winner at most." Naruto grew silent. "It's impossible."

"No…It's not." Kuro frowned at Naruto's reluctance to accept the situation.

"Oh yeah? Then what do you suggest? How do we both walk away as a winner?"

Naruto had a small smile on his face. "You said it yourself. There can only be one winner."

"…You lost me. Did you just argue against yourself?"

The smile on Naruto's face grew. "That's exactly it. All I've been doing is arguing against myself." Kuro's eyes widened in realization. With a sigh, Naruto looked down at the platform. "Light and darkness. One cannot exist without the other. Balance is needed. That was the very first thing that Hikari and Yami taught us…And we forgot it."

"…"

"You're right…I am extremely angry still that they neglected us. And I am scared of the darkness. I don't know what lies in it, where it leads, what it wants, it's just…" He shook his head. "The light is where I feel safe…But I can't have it that way. We need both." His eyes met Kuro's and he offered a hand. "So…how about we work together?"

Kuro stared at the hand for a minute. Slowly, he returned his eyes to Naruto's. A small smirk formed on his face. "You sure you can handle the dark?"

Naruto mirrored his smirk. "I'm positive. You think you can be so close to the light without getting burned?" Kuro snorted and grasped his hand. At once, their bodies began to glow with light and darkness.

"Yeah…I think I can do that." They closed their eyes as a flash of twilight bathed the area.

When it died down, only one person was standing there. Naruto was standing in the exact spot that their hands met. Opening his eyes, Naruto looked himself over and grinned. "Glad that's taken care of…" The black flame pattern had returned to his outfit.

A bright glow in the corner of his eye attracted his attention. Turning, he saw that the two keyblades were intersecting one another and emitting a twilight aura. With wide eyes, Naruto watched as they merged together and changed shape. For a moment, they seemed to be deciding what to turn into, almost becoming what he saw at the end of his fight with Sephiroth, but they soon settled on Two Become One. The keychain had changed minutely. In the intersection of the χ was a yin and yang emblem.

With a broad grin, Naruto picked up his keyblade. "That's more like it." Now to go check on that stupid lock...

* * *

 **On the Outside**

"Um…Is it over?" Happy asked hesitantly. The sky had cleared up and the screaming stopped, meaning they won, right?

Yoruichi smiled softly. "Yeah, it is."

"Hurray!" Happy's cheer was cut off when a twilight aura surrounded Naruto, hiding his body from view. When it died down, they were surprised to see he was wearing a different outfit.

What he had on was a black shirt with a silver collar. Over that, he wore a short sleeved hoodie that was left unzipped. It was majorly a silvery-white color, but it had black going around the edges and black flames. It also had an orange Uzumaki swirl on the back.

His pants only went down to his mid-shins and were of the same color scheme as the hoodie. It was silvery-white in most areas but was black in the pelvis. The color changed from silvery-white to black towards the ends of the legs, and on those were white flames.

His shoes were predominately black, but had some silvery-blue that matched his belt. He also wore fingerless gloves that were black with a silver x on each. He wore a silver chain necklace that was of a heart with a pointed bottom and the point where the heart was made curled in on itself towards either side.

"Whoa…He knows **Requip** magic!" Natsu said excitedly, making Gray snort.

"I don't think that was **Requip** magic." He said.

"Oh yeah, then what the hell do you think it was, huh?!"

"How the heck should I know?!"

"Well obviously you had some thoughts, otherwise you wouldn't have said anything, idiot!"

"You have no room to call me an idiot, dumbass!"

"What was that?!"

"Oh, did you finally melt your brain completely? Was that too hard to understand?"

"Bastard!"

"Fight! Fight! Fight!" The others watched as Naruto and Gray broke out into another fight.

"Ugh…Shut up…" A voice groaned. Instantly, all eyes snapped to Naruto as he cracked an eye open. "It's too early for your crap, Urahara."

"Naruto!" Kushina threw herself at him and wrapped him in a tight embrace.

"Gah! K-kaa-san?!" He patted her on the back. "Too tight! Too tight! Everything hurts right now-ttebayo!"

Kushina's body shook as she cried silently. "I…I was so worried." She whispered. Minato knelt down next to them with a small smile on his face and wrapped them both in a hug.

Unsure what to do, Naruto glanced around at the others for help. Yoruichi smirked at him and shrugged her shoulders, earning herself a light glare. It was obvious to Naruto that she was enjoying this. His eyes then turned the next person. Naruto's eyebrow raised.

"Another mutant cat?"

* * *

"Hmph...So he accepted his darkness..."

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 34!**

 **I regret giving Yoruichi the name Kuro when Naruto first met her. I should have saved it for this, but I didn't think far enough ahead to plan out a name, despite knowing I wanted something like this to happen.**

 **Kuro's outfit was the one that Ventus wore while Vanitas possessed him, but with a heartless emblem. The first keyblade he used was Vanitas's Void Gear.**

 **A big thank you to chouzuXtao for letting me use his keyblade design! That was what the second keyblade was. You know I suck at descriptions, so go check it out! Here are links to both his profile and the keyblade (Remove spaces and replace "dot" with ".")**

 **chouzuxtao dot deviantart dot com**

 **chouzuxtao dot deviantart dot com / art / Naruto -s- keyblades - 115231358**

 **I modeled the fights between Naruto and Kuro after the ones between Ventus and Vanitas. For those of you who don't know,** **Dark Link** **is a light based attack, despite the name.**

 **Hey, I've been wondering this for a while, but should I apply Naruto logic to spells and other attacks? I'm basically asking if it is a good idea to make it so that wind based spells like Aero don't block very much damage from fire attacks. Should I use Naruto logic like that or leave it alone? Hell, should I use Pokémon logic? Because as someone that played Pokémon before getting into Naruto, it doesn't make sense to me that earth beats water.**

 **Normally, I have music playing in the background as I work, which is fine, but it is** _ **impossible**_ **for me to write a fight scene if I don't have some kind of battle music going, usually the one I will be putting for the fight. If nothing else, I just have a playlist of extended OSTs that run in the background.**

 **That was** _ **definitely**_ **not how I wanted to introduce Natsu, Gray, and Happy. That was one of the harder parts to incorporate. Originally, Naruto was meant to fight some heartless boss when they fall out of the sky and crash into him, but things changed. I don't hate what I have, but I still would have preferred the original idea if I could have used it. The problem was that I'm running out time to do it and had to introduce them soon.**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	36. End Of The Beginning

**Not sure if everybody got that email or if it was just me, but I didn't do anything.**

* * *

 **And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 35!**

 **Glad you guys liked the last chapter so much. It is definitely one of my favorites.**

 **As for the spell logic thing, I'm going to use some actual common sense for them. Depends on the situation, really.**

 **I need to stop watching streams on Twitch while I work. It just makes everything take longer…Oh well. Summit1g is a lot of fun to watch when he does something other than Counter Strike.**

 **So I finally stopped being lazy and forced myself into planning more of the story. I want to have the same number of worlds as there are in the game, but I only have 7 decided right now. I'll probably pick the last few when I need to.**

 **If I was to ever rank each chapter by order of how annoying they were to write, this one and the next would be at the top. They were originally one chapter, but it just got to be too long and I didn't feel like I was doing well enough, so I split them. But hey, the fact that I find them hard to write means I'm actually taking this thing seriously to make them worth reading.**

 **But really, these chapters were messes…So many edits, revisions, segments that were added, segments that were just taken away, re-planning because hidden plots I had were too obvious, semi-rushed second half…the list goes on.**

* * *

 **Justaquestion12: I'm assuming you mean the Fairy Tail members, right? Read this chapter!**

 **Kairitrion Cerulean: Ugh, long ass review! But thanks!**

 **Dark Natsu Dragneel: :P Perhaps.**

 **rinsegaku: Yeah, before Tartarus. And thanks for the offer! I'll keep it in mind if I get stuck.**

 **redlox2: Nah, the first hint that something wasn't right about her was within 400 words of me introducing her character. No one ever called me out on it though. As for the hint you mentioned, that was a big one. I was especially careful to make sure Sai had been told that Naruto wanted to enter before I put the scene with the voice. A little misdirection makes things more fun for me. :P And read this chapter for the answer to your question!**

 **jacalman: Locked it back up.**

 **prototype gear: Music definitely helps me think, so I guess so. I have music that fits the intended atmosphere playing while I write the story. As for my writing style, I like to think I at least have an average understanding of the English language. I was annoyed because I noticed that I have a couple of small habits that I wish I didn't.**

 **keyblade master cole: That there is spoiler territory.**

 **isaacmarkerkiller: That made me laugh a bit. I didn't make the connection while writing it, but I guess I can see some similarities.**

 **lonevizard90: I promise it serves a purpose and makes sense…At least, it does in my head.**

 **Kogasa: Which is why I bent the rules a bit and made it so Naruto was chosen to have that ability. It's unique to him. (Unless I come up with some other plot line to use)**

 **Dominus1: Shaddup! You've got the wrong number! :P**

 **digifan303: A lot of inspiration came from there.**

 **vkg13: Possible, but I'm worried that would be over the top.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else. I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Deity Talking: " **Insert witty remark here**."

Biju/Deity Thinking: _'_ _ **Insert witty remark here**_ _.'_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

"Another mutant cat?"

Happy raised a paw in greeting. "Hi! I'm Happy!" Naruto blinked in surprise and gave Happy a wary glance. He switched between Happy and Yoruichi, who appeared to catch onto his train of thought, prompting an even bigger smirk to appear on her face.

"Right…This may sound stupid, but are you a human who is just turned into a cat?" Naruto asked. His question made Happy tilt his head in thought and the others, bar Natsu and Yoruichi, gave incredulous looks.

"No, I'm a real cat! At least…I think I am…" He gained a dismayed expression and turned to Natsu. "Natsu! What if I'm not a cat and I forgot?!"

Natsu's eyes widened in surprise and he quickly started panicking. "I don't know! How would we find out?!"

Tears started forming in Happy's eyes. "If I'm not a cat, then what's the point of even being me? I don't wanna be a human! You guys are all smelly, weird, heavy, and stupid! You don't even eat fish at every meal!" Natsu got onto a knee and pulled Happy into a hug.

"Don't worry, buddy! Even if you're not a cat, you're still my best friend!"

"Natsu!" Everyone proceeded to watch as they cried together.

Gritting his teeth, Gray spoke up. "Stop acting like idiots! Of course Happy is a cat. Hell, if you want to get technical about it, then he is actually an Exceed." Natsu and Happy turned to him and gaped.

"So I'm not a human?" Happy asked hopefully.

"No!"

"Thank the fish!" Happy cheered, Natsu immediately joining in.

Sighing, Gray turned to Naruto. "I'm not going to ask you what made you ask a stupid question like that…I doubt I really even want to know." He looked between the others, who were either facing him or Natsu and Happy. "I'm Gray Fullbuster, mage of Fairy Tail." He said, gaining their attention. Nodding his head towards the two who were crying, he continued. "Tweedle-dumb and tweedle-stupid over there are Natsu Dragneel and Happy, also of Fairy Tail."

Minato stood up and gave him a smile. "My name is Minato Namikaze. This is my wife, Kushina…" The teary eyed redhead nodded to him, still not willing to let Naruto go. "And our son, Naruto. The three of us are from Konoha." Naruto raised a tired hand in greeting.

Gray frowned minutely, but didn't bring up the reason. "Nice to meet you." Gray said before glancing at Yoruichi. "And you?" Minato and Kushina were also interested in her answer.

"I'm Yoruichi Shihōin." She said. "I've been wondering for a while, but why did you take off your top?" Gray's eyes widened and he looked down. "Holy crap, when did that happen?!" He turned around and ran off to find his clothes. The others just stared after him in disbelief.

"…He…didn't notice?" Minato asked slowly.

"Aye! Gray is really stupid!" Happy and Natsu had finished cheering and were now paying attention to what was happening.

Natsu crossed his arms with a smirk. "Yeah, he really is an idiot. Just ignore him."

' _Based on what I have seen in the last minute, you're all idiots.'_ Naruto wanted to groan at the thought. It really did seem like all the idiots were attracted to him.

Crouching, Natsu leaned in close to Naruto, who leaned back a bit. Minato and Kushina sent Natsu cautious looks, but didn't stop him. After a minute of silent staring, Natsu grinned widely.

"Wow, you're really strong!" He patted Naruto on the back roughly. "The only problem was that you weren't you!" His grin turned challenging. "Fight me!"

"…What?"

"Yeah! Come on, let's go! That wasn't really a fight between the two of us, so it didn't count! You and me, right now! I'll kick your ass!"

"I dunno, Natsu…It was hard enough to fight him with all of that help…" Natsu waved Happy off.

Kushina looked down, shadowing her face. "…You want to fight him?" She asked quietly. Recognizing the tone, Minato and Naruto tensed in apprehension. Although she wasn't as familiar with Kushina as them, even Yoruichi could tell that Kushina didn't like that idea.

Heedless of the danger, Natsu nodded excitedly. "He's really strong! Just thinking about it gets me pumped! So fight me!"

It was then that Gray rejoined them. Readjusting his clothes, he shook his head. "We just finished fighting him and he is probably hurt. You can't fight him."

"Whatever! He looks fine!" Natsu reached out a hand to grab Naruto, but he was stopped by another hand suddenly clamping around his wrist. Slowly, Natsu, Happy, and Gray's eyes moved to the owner. When they saw who it was, they paled.

Kushina was giving them a fierce glare. Her hair was rising into the air, showing that she was entering her habanero mind set. She let go of Naruto and stood up. "You aren't fighting him while he is hurt…Is that clear?" She asked quietly.

The Fairy Tail members had flashbacks to another member of their guild. Trembling and swallowing nervously, Natsu agreed.

"A-Aye Sir."

Once he agreed, Kushina turned to Gray, making him shake. "Same goes to you, understand?"

"A-Aye."

"Good." She immediately calmed down, allowing them to relax somewhat. The moment she turned away, Natsu and Gray turned around crouched into a huddle with Happy.

"She's just like Erza!" A wide eyed Natsu said.

"She's a monster!" Happy claimed, only to have his mouth covered by Gray.

"Quiet! Don't let her hear you say that!" He ordered.

"What are you whispering about?" They flinched and whirled around with their best innocent looks, but sweat was dripping down their faces.

"N-Nothing." An unconvincing Gray said.

"Yeah, we definitely weren't talking about how scary you are…" Natsu said. Gray's elbow shot into his side. "Ow! I-I mean, nothing!" Rolling her eyes, Kushina turned away again.

"Right…" She heard them perfectly well, but she wasn't going to act on that.

A clap drew the attention of the group to a smirking Yoruichi. "As entertaining as this is, I think we should focus on the here and now. Naruto, are you alright?"

Naruto looked himself over. His eyes widened when he saw what he was wearing. "These clothes are…"

"They suddenly appeared just before you woke up." Yoruichi explained. "Now answer the question."

"I'm fine." He moved to get to his feet, but was stopped when a hand was place on his shoulder. The owner was giving Naruto a skeptical expression.

"Naruto." Yoruichi repeated, making him sigh, but a small smile played at his lips.

"I promise I'm fine, Yoruichi." The exasperation mixed with fondness in his tone brought a small frown to Kushina's face. Also noticing the familiarity that the two seemed to have with one another, Minato glanced between them.

"Naruto, do you know Yoruichi-san?" Minato asked.

The crimson blond grimaced, unsure what to say. "…I do." It was then that he registered the fact that Minato and Kushina didn't trust her. Glaring, he spoke up. "I've known her since I was six. She is one of the friends I told you I stayed with after the preliminaries. She is one of the few people I'd trust my life to." His answer and sudden hostility caught everyone off guard.

"But…" Kushina began.

"If she was some kind of threat, then she would have shown it a long time ago." Yoruichi nodded at Naruto's words.

"He's right. I don't mean any harm to you. I even went out of my way to help out during the invasion." Although clearly unsatisfied, Minato and Kushina relented for the time being. "Anyways, do you know what happened to you, Naruto?"

"I have a general idea, yeah." He confirmed. "Orochimaru showed up, attacked, was subdued, and then…" He faltered. "And then my darkness was sent spiraling out of control. That about sum it up?"

"Yeah, pretty much. What about on your end?" Yoruichi asked. The others weren't sure what they were talking about, but they stayed silent.

Not wanting to go into extreme detail, Naruto gave her the heavily summarized version. "I was sent into the station. It took a while, but I was able to get my darkness back under control from there…After the Kyūbi's darkness got involved." Naruto sighed. "I wasn't sure if I would make it."

"Well you did. I never doubted you." Naruto smiled at her gratefully.

Minato was getting tired of being left out of the loop. "Alright, enough." When he had their attention, he continued. "What are you two talking about? You said we would get explanations afterwards, so I would appreciate it if you would explain. What do you mean by darkness, what happened to my son, and how did Orochimaru get away the way he did?"

Naruto and Yoruichi exchanged looks. "It's up to you how much you tell them, but I think it would be best to be honest." Yoruichi said.

"Sorry to interrupt, but we would also like to know if you guys have any idea how we got here." Gray said.

"…Right." Naruto made to get up, but only got partway when a wave of fatigue hit him. "On second thought…Maybe later." His eyes rolled back and he promptly passed out. Yoruichi caught him before he could hit the ground and sighed.

"I asked him if he was alright…"

"Naruto!" Kushina rushed towards him in worry.

"Relax, he is just exhausted. He'll be back up once he has rested." Yoruichi's reassurances set her at ease a bit. "Until then, you will have to wait for that explanation."

Minato frowned. "You can't give it to us?"

Yoruichi shrugged. "I could, but Naruto knows more than I do about darkness and what just happened. It would be better to wait for him to wake up."

"Aahh! I don't get it!" Natsu yelled in frustration. "Why do you keep talking about darkness? Wasn't it just some darkness magic?!"

"We're obviously missing something here…" Gray agreed.

"Like I said, it would be best to wait for Naruto to wake up. He is also the only one here that can provide proof for the explanation." She told him. "I have a pretty good idea about how you got here, but I want to wait for him." Naruto was moved to her back. Ignoring the distrustful expression on Kushina's face, she continued. "Should we head back to Konoha?"

Minato was about to agree, but shook his head. "No, we're going to Kumo. Many of the others should be heading there now and I want to speak to them in person. I also need to meet with A-san." His eyes moved to the Fairy Tail members. "Are you going to be coming with us?"

Gray sighed. "Not like we have anything better to do. You guys mentioned places called Konoha and Kumo, but I've never heard of them, which means I have no idea where we are." His response only served to add credit to Yoruichi's theory, but it confused Minato and Kushina.

"…Right. Then let's get moving."

* * *

 **Station of Awakening**

Naruto's eyes fluttered open as he returned to awareness. He sighed when he saw where he was. "I just left here…"

"What did you expect to happen, idiot? You can't just go through that and expect to be perfectly fine afterwards." Scowling, Naruto turned to see Hikari and Yami standing behind him.

"Well sorry, but I-huh?" Naruto was cut off when Hikari pulled him into a hug. "Uh, Hikari?" He asked hesitantly.

"I was so worried." She said quietly. "We felt the darkness and couldn't do anything at all. You were completely cut off from us…" Naruto relaxed with a small smile.

"I'm sorry about that." He looked over to Yami, who avoided meeting his eyes. His smile turned into a smirk. "Were you worried as well?"

Yami couldn't completely keep the blush off her face, so she turned away. "Tch, like hell I was. You're stupid, but I knew you would be fine." She shook her head and turned back when her blush faded. "Anyways, it was too soon for you to be active."

Naruto blinked. "It was?" Even Hikari sighed at him this time.

Stepping back, Hikari gestured to the floor. "Yes, it was. Just take a look." Naruto wasn't expecting what he saw.

They were standing on the platform that depicted him and Kuro again, but that wasn't a problem. What _was_ a problem was the fact that there were large cracks running through the platform. It was obvious that most of the damage done during the fight with Kuro hadn't healed yet, but the cracks closer to the outer edge of the platform were slowly mending.

Yami put her hands on her hips and deadpanned at him. "Do you not remember where we are? What this place represents?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "This is a representation of my heart…"

"And that means?" Hikari prompted.

"That means that if the station is damaged, so is my heart." He said with a sigh.

Hikari nodded. "Exactly. It is fortunate that your heart wasn't completely destroyed. The entire situation was too close to that of Ventus' for comfort." Naruto grimaced.

"Yeah, you're right." He shook his head. "But I'm fine now. You're saying I can't wake up until the station is healed?"

They nodded. "Yes. Until then, it would be a bad idea for you to wake up." Hikari explained.

"And how long do you think it will take?"

Yami shrugged. "Can't say for sure, but probably at least a couple of days."

"Wonderful..." Naruto shook his head. "I guess I should just be fortunate that it wasn't worse." He paused. "How much of what happened over the last few days do you two know?"

"…A great deal." Hikari answered.

Naruto looked down. "I guess you're pretty disappointed then, huh?" He laughed hollowly. "Here I am, the great 'Wielder of Twilight," and I couldn't admit to myself that I feared the darkness…I'm sorry that I failed you like that."

"…" The next thing Naruto knew, there was a hard blow to the back of his head.

"Ow!" His hand flew to the place he was hit as he glared at Yami. "What the hell was that for-ttebayo?!" She didn't even bother to answer, instead letting Hikari get her own hit in. "Stop that!"

Yami sighed. "Yes, you had fear of the darkness. Yes, fearing it is the worst thing that someone who uses it can do. And yes, it ticked me off, big time. But you got over it, right?" Naruto slowly nodded. "Then don't bring it up again, or I will hit you…again."

"I'm afraid that I must agree." Hikari admitted. Naruto blinked owlishly at them. Slowly, a grin appeared on his face.

"Got it."

"Good. Now let's change topics. There's a couple of things that we should probably talk about." Yami instructed. "Let's focus on who made your darkness act like that." Naruto gained a pained look.

"Misa…" He whispered. "Why would she…I never thought…"

"You never thought that she would betray you like that." Hikari quietly finished for him.

"Yeah…" He scowled, but it soon turned into a conflicted look. "I want to blame Orochimaru for it. I want to say that he made her…But Kuro made me think…What if it wasn't him? What if she was never really my friend and was only pretending?" _That_ hurt more than anything. Hikari and Yami remained silent as he talked. "I've known her since I started the academy…She was always that friend who was a little older and looked out for me when she could. We've done so much together and I trusted her to always have my back."

"…You may not want to, but you have to decide. What do you think, did she willingly betray you, or was she forced to?" Yami asked.

"I…" Naruto shook his head. "I really don't know. I have no idea what to believe. She has always been open and friendly, not even hesitating to jump in when I needed help. We've laughed together so much…and those emotions were just so _real._ " He paused. "The last thing she said was that 'it's been fun,' but…was that a lie?" He asked himself.

"I could have been." Yami said quietly. "We can't be sure."

"Yeah, we can't…" Naruto gained a determined look. "Then I will just have to find out." This declaration earned him raised eyebrows.

"How will you do that?" Hikari asked.

He met her eyes. "By finding her and getting her to tell me. I'm not just going to leave it like this. I will find her, make her answer, and then make a decision."

"I doubt she will just answer if you just ask…"

"Then I won't 'just ask.'"

Both of them were once again surprised by his words. "You'll fight her?" Hikari asked, gaining a nod in return.

"If that's what it takes." He confirmed.

Yami wasn't so easily convinced. "What will you do if you find that she willingly did it? That she betrayed you by choice?"

Naruto took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "If it comes down to that, then I will…treat her like any other enemy." He really wanted to say otherwise, but he wasn't stupid enough to think that there were always happy endings. This wasn't some fairy tale; it was real life. "But I won't draw any conclusions until then."

They traded silent glances before turning back to him. At the same time, they adopted small smiles. "That is a good choice." Hikari said.

"Good to see you understand what happened and are actually being reasonable about it." Yami added. "I honestly wasn't sure that you would. But speaking of Misa, shall we address the topic of what she used to do it?"

Naruto stared at her blankly before his eyes widened in surprise. "She had a keyblade-ttebayo! Misa is a keyblade wielder?!"

Twin shrugs. "Apparently so." Hikari said.

Gaping at them, Naruto tried to wrap his head around the fact. "But…" A glare quickly formed. "Did you two know that she was?"

"Don't you think we would have told you if we had known?"

"How could the two of you, of all people, possibly not have known?!" He asked incredulously.

"We have already told you, Naruto. The two of us are not omnipotent in any way." Hikari said. "Remember, you are a special case. It is not as if we meet with every keyblade wielder on a regular basis."

"Right, sorry…So Misa is a keyblade wielder…" That gave way to another possibility, one that would make her betrayal hurt even more. Deciding to focus on that when he could confirm his thoughts, Naruto spoke up. "Okay…I knew that there would be other keyblade wielders out there who would be fighting on the other side, but the fact that Misa is one of them makes it worse."

Yami shook her head. "It's painful, but you can't avoid it."

"I know…"

"Let's talk about the help Orochimaru had." Hikari suggested.

"Alright…" His eyes widened. "There was someone…something else that was working with Orochimaru. Some giant cat thing named Pete." Naruto tilted his head. "I'm pretty sure he is from another world."

"He is. Pete originated from another world, but he was banished a while back." Yami informed him.

"Huh…Well, I won't let my guard down, but he seems like a bit of an idiot and coward. How strong could he be? I seriously doubt he is in the same league as Orochimaru and Sephiroth…"

Hikari nodded. "That is most likely an accurate guess. The two of them are some of the strongest people out there. You are lucky to have survived your battles with them."

Naruto laughed weakly. "Sometimes I didn't think I would...I mean, Sephiroth definitely had the chance to kill me, but stopped when…" He froze.

How the hell did he forget?!

Raising a hand, Naruto summoned his keyblade and it appeared in a flash of twilight. "Do the two of you know what happened to my keyblade during my fight with Sephiroth? And at the end of my fight with Kuro?" He asked.

Like before, Hikari and Yami traded looks. "…You already have a good idea what happened." Yami eventually said. "Do you really need us to say it?"

"…It turned into the χ-blade…" He breathed, getting two nods in confirmation. "But…how? Why?"

"You've always had the power to form it, it's only been a matter of doing it." Hikari told him. "During your fight with Sephiroth, you momentarily achieved it, but not completely. That happened because you stopped thinking. All that you had in mind was staying alive and keeping your promise. No worrying about your darkness corrupting you, no holding back, only that. At the end of your fight with Kuro, you accepted your darkness and merged it together with your light. Light mixing harmoniously with darkness is the very core of the χ-blade, so it happened again."

"So I can form it at will now?" Naruto didn't even bother attempting to hold back the excitement creeping into his voice and face.

"Not a chance." Yami shot him down immediately and with a grin.

Naruto deflated. "But…why not?" They said he needed to accept his darkness and he has! So why couldn't he wield it?!

Once again, Hikari and Yami traded a look, but unlike the others, they held this one for several long moments, as if debating something. When they finally turned back to him, Yami spoke up. "You can't form the χ-blade yet because you are still missing a vital piece of information." Naruto opened his mouth. "No, we won't tell you what, so don't ask. That's something that will come later. You don't need the χ-blade now, so please don't ask."

The denial brought a frown to his face. "You're sure?" They nodded. "…Fine. I'll trust you on this."

"Thank you." Hikari said. "Was there anything else you wanted to talk about?"

He crossed his arms. "During my fight with Kuro, I wielded a different keyblade. That's fine, but so did Kuro. Only his actually _changed_ into another one partway. Two Become One almost did with the χ-blade, but I consider that to be a special case. How was it possible for his to change?"

Hikari raised an eyebrow while Yami rolled her eyes. "Is there something wrong with a keyblade changing forms?" Hikari asked.

"Um…Yes?" Naruto said hesitantly. "That isn't normal, right?"

"Of course it is." Yami answered, prompting a surprised silence from Naruto.

"…What?"

"She said that it is normal for a keyblade to have the ability to change forms. She is right." Hikari said. "Keyblades can change forms, and each form has different properties. Some deal more damage with physical attacks, some grant more magical ability, and some even boosts your speed when attacking."

Naruto closed his eyes, sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose. "And when was I going to find out about this?"

"We didn't tell you?"

"No, you didn't!" Something like that would have been extremely useful to know! "How do I do it?"

"The change Kuro's keyblade underwent was a unique case." Yami explained. "If you want to change your keyblade, then you need a special keychain to do it. Each one grants power to a keyblade." Naruto's head immediately snapped back up.

"A keychain?" He repeated. "I need a keychain to do it?" Tilting her head, Hikari was the one to answer.

"Yes, you do. Why does that catch your attention?"

A small bolt of lightning attached to a chain entered his mind. A grin made its way onto his face. "Because I have one." He had nearly forgotten about the thing.

Their eyes widened. "You do?" Yami asked.

"Yeah, I got it after my fight with Aoi Rokushō. I have no clue where it came from, but it was there. Something about it made me want to keep it, so I did. It's a keychain of a lightning bolt. You think that's one of the keychains?"

"Could be…" Hikari considered. "The way to find out would be to press it against the keychain on your current keyblade. If it is one, then the process should happen automatically. Then just tug on the keychain to reverse it."

Naruto nodded excitedly. "I really wanna go test it out."

Yami snorted. "Too bad. You still have a couple of days of rest." Her words served as enough incentive for Naruto to deflate again.

"Dammit…"

Hikari smiled apologetically. "If it is any consolation, you should be able to prompt the change in here after the first time you do it."

"…That doesn't help me now…"

* * *

Naruto let out a weak groan as his body stirred. Cracking open an eye, he jerked away when he was met with two faces only a few inches away from his own. "What?!"

Natsu and Happy grinned widely. "You're finally awake! I've been waiting forever!"

"It's feels like years have gone by!" Happy added.

"I doubt it has been that long." Naruto leaned away. "Now would the two of you please get out of my face?" When they gave him some room, Naruto took a look around. "Where are we?" It looked like a hospital.

The pink haired teen shrugged. "Some place called Kabob."

Happy tilted his head. "I thought it was Yumo?"

"Oh, was it?" Naruto gained a disbelieving look.

"…You mean Kumo?" Natsu pointed a finger at him and grinned again.

"Yeah, that's it." Not giving Naruto a chance to speak any further, he reached out a hand and latched it around Naruto's wrist. "Now that you're awake, we can finally figure out how we can get back home!" He began tugging Naruto out of the bed and towards the door while walking backwards.

"What did I tell you about letting him rest?" A deadly voice asked, freezing Natsu and Happy's blood.

Shivering, Natsu turned towards the door to see Kushina standing there. "N-Not to wake him up or m-make him overexert himself…" He answered.

Nodding, Kushina continued. "And what do you think taking him out of bed and dragging him around will do?"

"Overexert him…"

Happy's paw shot up and pointed accusingly at Natsu. "I told him not to do it, but he wouldn't listen!" White wings appeared behind him, surprising Naruto. Happy flew over to Kushina and landed in front of her in a kneeled position with his head bowed. "Please, I swear I had nothing to do with this, Kushina-sama!"

"Hey!"

"I know how important it is for your son to rest! I would never do something to stop him from recovering completely! It was all Natsu!"

"You agreed that he had enough rest by now!"

Happy shot back up and whirled around at Natsu. "Silence! I would never do something as irresponsible as that! Especially not after Kushina-sama told us not t-"

"Both of you shut up." Their mouths snapped shut, making Kushina smirk a bit in satisfaction, but it quickly faded as she gave Naruto a worried look. When she walked up to his bed, Natsu scrambled away and cowered in the corner with Happy. "How are you feeling?"

He looked himself over. "I'm fine."

"And do you mean it this time?" They turned to see Yoruichi standing in the doorway.

Naruto rolled his eyes, but allowed a small smile to appear. "Yes, I a mean it this time. I'm sorry for not saying anything before, but I really didn't think I would pass out…"

"Hm, I would hope not." She joined Kushina at his bedside. "But I bet you took the chance to finally get some answers and think when you should have been resting, right?" Naruto grinned unrepentantly. "Of course."

Kushina glanced dubiously between the two. "How could he do that if he was unconscious?" Her question brought a small frown to his face.

Locking eyes with Yoruichi, Naruto quirked an eyebrow. Understanding his silent question, she answered. "It ticked them off, but I haven't told them anything. I figured it would be best for us to wait for you before explaining." Naruto nodded. "So, are you ready for that talk now, or do you need some more rest?"

Naruto sighed. "Let's get this over with. The sooner the better." Yoruichi smirked.

"Good. It would be better to not put this off." She looked over to Natsu and Happy. "I want you to go get Minato-san and your friend. Tell them that Naruto has woken up and to come back here." They saluted her and ran off.

Their departure gave way to an awkward silence between the occupants of the room. Not wanting to just wait in this atmosphere, Naruto spoke up. "Why do they need to be here?"

Yoruichi smirked. "You don't remember? I'm pretty sure that they are in the same situation that Kisuke and I are in." Naruto's eyes widened.

Knowing that the verification would come in a bit, he changed the subject. "So we're in Kumo now?"

Kushina jolted when she realized that he was speaking to her that time before registering the question and nodding. "Yes, we are."

"Alright. Have the others made it yet?"

"Yes." She smiled. "Narumi and Menma have gotten into multiple fights with Natsu-san and Happy-san when they tried to get in here to wake you up." Naruto also smiled at this. Suddenly, a yellow flash announced the arrival of Minato.

His eyes immediately went to Naruto. When he saw that Naruto was awake, he smiled as well. "It's good to see you awake, Naruto." Naruto opened his mouth to speak, but didn't get the chance to when a speeding cat flew in the room.

After slamming against the wall, Happy spun around and stared at Minato with wide eyes. "You really are that fast!"

Minato's smile turned just a bit smugger. "I told you so." It was then that Natsu rushed into the room.

"Who won?!"

Happy pointed at Minato with an annoyed expression. "He did!" Natsu's jaw dropped.

"No way! You actually beat Happy when he was flying at top speed?!"

Naruto sighed. "You know he just teleported, right?" He probably used a marker that Kushina had on her or something.

"He did?! That's cheating!"

"Can you please just shut up?" Gray requested as he walked in. He came to a stop next to Natsu. "So? Why did you ask me to come here?"

Yoruichi gestured to Naruto. "Now that he is awake, we can finally tell you about how you got here."

"Good, because I seriously have no clue where we are. None of your maps have any areas I recognize." The entire situation reminded him too much of Edolas for comfort.

Kushina frowned. "How is that possible?" Her question earned her a shrug.

"No clue. I was hoping one of you could tell me." He walked over to a chair and plopped down in it. "So, let's talk." Natsu sat down in a chair next to him with Happy taking a rest on the top of his head. Following his example, Minato leaned against a wall on the side of the room with Yoruichi doing the same on the opposite side. Unlike the others, Kushina chose to sit on the edge of Naruto's bed.

Naruto sighed. "Before we do, could you please put up a privacy seal?" Minato blinked at the request, but agreed easily enough. Once it was up, Naruto continued. "I'm going to start with how you three probably got here. You said you were from some place called Fairy Tail?"

Natsu, Happy, and even Gray sighed while hanging their heads. "Man, there used to be a time that everyone has heard of Fairy Tail, but now, we're nobodies…" Natsu lamented.

"Uh, sorry? But I don't think whatever you have in mind is the reason I don't know what you're talking about." They looked back to him. "What country is Fairy Tail in?"

"We are based in the kingdom of Fiore." Gray answered, confirming Yoruichi's hypothesis.

Minato and Kushina gained skeptical looks. "I've never heard of such a kingdom…"

"You wouldn't have." Naruto said tiredly. "It doesn't exist here." Those who didn't know what he was talking about grew confused.

"What do you mean by that?" Kushina asked.

"He means that they are not from this world." Yoruichi clarified, earning a stunned silence from the other occupants in the room. "Let's talk about that first." Sighing both internally and mentally, Naruto launched into an abbreviated explanation.

* * *

 **One Partial Explanation Later**

"So this is a world of ninjas?!" Naruto could practically _see_ the stars shining in Natsu and Happy's eyes. "Really?!"

Gray's head dropped into his hands. "Out of everything we just heard, _that_ is what you got out of it?" By the time he looked up, Natsu had already wrapped his scarf around his head and was making various hand seals.

"Nin nin!" Happy was right there with him.

Naruto couldn't help the sweat drop. "We normally use the term 'shinobi' and don't go around saying that, but yes, basically." He chanced a glance at his parents. Their silence was starting to make him slightly nervous.

"So, like I thought, this is another world…" Naruto didn't expect to hear this from Gray. Immediately, his head snapped around.

"You knew about other worlds?" He asked incredulously.

"Yeah, nin nin!" Natsu said. "We've all been to another world already!" He froze. "Does this mean that there's another version of me here that's a ninja?! That's awesome!"

"…Why would there be another version of you here?" Yoruichi asked curiously.

Gray frowned as a pit of worry grew in him. "That's how it worked with Edolas, the other world we went to. Isn't this just another alternate world?"

Comprehension dawned on Naruto. "That explains why you were so okay with this…" He muttered. "No, you seem to misunderstand. This isn't just some alternate world, this is an _entirely different_ world, completely separate from your own." Gray's worry skyrocketed.

Natsu shrugged carelessly. "So? It sucks that there isn't a ninja me around here, but so what?"

"Yeah, who cares?" Happy agreed.

"You said this world was completely separate…" Gray began. "How separate are we talking here? With Edolas, there was a portal that we went through that took us back home. We can just do the same here, right?"

Naruto traded a glance with Yoruichi. "No…You can't." He said. "If I had to guess, your world and this other one had some special connection, allowing that to happen, but your world doesn't have that connection with this world." He could see that Natsu and Happy didn't understand what he was getting at.

Happy tilted his head. "So…How do we get home?" The cat asked.

"That's…another problem." Naruto admitted. "I…don't think your world is there anymore."

Dead silence.

"WHAT?!" Natsu and Happy leapt out of their chairs with wide eyes. Even Gray had gone pale. "What do you mean our world isn't there?! Did it just leave us?!" Natsu yelled in panic.

"No! I liked that world! I don't wanna be stuck here and get forced to become a ninja cat!" Happy wailed. They ran around in circles while shouting.

Gray grit his teeth. "Both of you be quiet so he can tell us what he means!" They stopped yelling, but Natsu turned to Gray with a scowl. "You didn't even give him a chance to fully explain! So shut up!" He turned to Naruto. "So what did you mean by that? If it isn't there anymore, how do we get back?"

Naruto nodded in thanks. "Each world has a heart, remember? When that heart gets consumed by the darkness, the world disappears. We aren't too sure of what happens to them at that point, but they and the inhabitants go into some kind of stasis, understand?" It was clear that while Natsu and Happy didn't, Gray did to an extent.

"I think so…But how did that happen?"

"Let me ask you something. Before you wound up here, did you guys have a mass outbreak of some strange creatures that no one has ever seen before? Things with yellow eyes that turned into some purplish-black stuff when killed?" He didn't see it, but Naruto could feel the eyes of his parents snapping to him.

Natsu nodded rapidly. "Yeah, we did. They were so annoying! We kept getting missions to get rid of them in places that had a lot, but they just kept coming back!"

"Of course they did…" Naruto said. "The heartless wouldn't stop until they had found the heart of the world and devoured it."

Gray's face turned grim. "How do we undo the process?" He didn't like the expression Naruto gained when he asked that question, at all.

"I…I don't know." Naruto said quietly and looked away.

Natsu growled and took a step closer to Naruto, prompting Yoruichi to prepare to interfere. "What do you mean you don't know? How do we fix this? What about our friends?! We can't just leave them like that!" He was about to reach out and grab the front of Naruto's top, but Yoruichi stopped him.

"…I'm sorry. I don't know what else to tell you." Naruto admitted. "Your world isn't the first to be consumed by the darkness, but I don't that any worlds have ever returned afterwards."

"Then our world will be the first!" A raging fire was burning in Natsu's eyes. "I don't care what it takes! I won't stop until it and our friends are back!" He turned and started walking towards the door.

Yoruichi frowned at him. "And how do you plan on doing that?"

"I'll figure it out!"

"No, you won't!" Natsu stopped and turned to Gray with a furious and betrayed look, but it faded when he saw Gray himself gritting his teeth and shaking in anger. "I'm just as worried as you are, but rushing out there in a whole different world and with no clue what to do won't get us anywhere!" They stared at each other for a minute, but it ended when Natsu cursed and sat back in his chair with his arms crossed. Gray's eyes moved to Naruto and Yoruichi. "If we wanted to undo this, where would be the best place to start? You must have some idea." Yoruichi nodded.

"I'll introduce you to someone. Him and myself are also not from this world, so we know what you're going through." Gray nodded and leaned back in his chair.

"What does all this have to do with my son?" All eyes in the room went to Kushina. She was staring blankly at Yoruichi. "Why does my son know about all of this, how does he know you, and how is he involved?" Instead of answering her, Yoruichi instead quirked an eyebrow at Naruto.

 **Play Kingdom Hearts OST: It Began with a Letter - Extended**

Preparing himself, Naruto answered. "I have a special role in all of this. A long time ago, all of the worlds were one, but a war destroyed that…It was a war between light and dark." Something in the back of Minato and Kushina's memories stirred. "The battle resulted in the world being plunged into darkness. Although the light was later restored, the damage was done; What used to be a single world was now many. These are the worlds we live in now." That feeling of familiarity grew in them.

No one interrupted him as he spoke. "After this, there were people who wanted to protect the newfound peace…To ensure that the past didn't repeat itself, they took on the roles of 'guardians.'" For some reason, the back of Naruto's hand heated up when he said this, but he dismissed it when the sensation soon faded. "These guardians all wielded a certain type of weapon…" He took a deep breath and raised a hand. In a flash of twilight, Two Become One appeared. "The keyblades."

Minato didn't like where this was going. "Why do you have one?"

"…I have one because I was chosen to be one of the guardians." Naruto replied. The eyes of the people in the room that didn't know widened. Naruto looked to Kushina. "There were signs of this when I was younger, remember?" His question made her frown slightly, but realization soon came to her.

"Those dreams." She whispered. "And the drawings! Those were…" Naruto nodded.

"Yeah, those were the signs. They weren't just dreams; They were visions of the past. Of previous keyblade wielders and the fights the were in." Naruto looked down to the keyblade in his lap. "I didn't realize it until I was six."

"…When exactly did you realize?" Minato was almost afraid to ask.

"On that birthday after I passed out." Both Minato and Kushina winced, clearly remembering what happened. "I was brought into what basically amounted to my mindscape, where the information was then given to me." He wasn't about to tell them about Hikari and Yami. Shrugging, Naruto continued. "From there, it was only a matter of learning how to use it, so I looked for a teacher."

"Which is where my friend comes in." Yoruichi supplied.

Kushina didn't know how to feel about someone she didn't know training her son since he was six. "Who is it?"

Smirking, Yoruichi turned to Minato. "You've already met him, but I don't think he gave you the best impression." Minato's eyebrows rose.

"I have? When?"

"You don't remember? He even helped you take out the revived kage…"

Blond eyebrows rose even higher. "It was that man? The one that just appeared out of nowhere?"

"Yep. He really got a kick out of getting the jump on two kage like that."

Minato laughed faintly. "I'm sure he did…But we can talk about that more later. Naruto…What does this ultimately mean?"

"It means that if we want to have any chance of stopping this world from getting consumed, then I need to find that keyhole and lock it." He closed his eyes. "…It also means that I can't just stay on this world." Minato was in the process of speaking, but his mouth snapped shut at that.

"…What?" Kushina's voice was shaky she asked that.

Naruto met her eyes. "I can't stay here. The war between light and dark is going to pick up again, and I am going to help."

"B-But, why you? Can't someone else do it?"

"Because I would never forgive myself if I sat around and did nothing when I could have done something." Natsu smirked at that. He was starting to like this kid. "I was chosen to be a keyblade wielder, so I will do my best to live up to that title."

"You're only twelve! There is no way I'm allowing something like that!" Naruto's eyes narrowed while his mind went back to the conversation they had during the third exam. "You aren't going off to fight in other worlds against something as evil as darkness."

Naruto's face turned into a full blown scowl. "'Evil as darkness?' What the hell does that mean? There's no such thing as evil darkness." While Minato only frowned, Kushina opened her mouth. Cutting her off, Naruto continued. "The only thing that can be considered as 'evil' is the way that some people use it. Do I seem evil to you?"

Kushina paled. "You use darkness?"

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Naruto raised a finger. The occupants of the room watched as a purplish-black aura appeared around his hand. "Yes, I do. But that's not all." He brought up a finger on the other hand. Soon, an identical aura formed around it, but this one was a silvery-white. "I also use light. I have been training to use both of them for the last six years."

Minato's eyes widened. "'When light and dark come together as one…'" He recited, gaining some confused looks. "The prophecy." Kushina's expression mirrored his own.

Done with his demonstration, Naruto lowered his hands. "…What prophecy…?" He wasn't sure that he liked where this was going.

"Jiraiya-sensei came to me eight years ago and told me that the toad elder-" The three Fairy Tail members adopted disbelieving looks. "-had made a prophecy." He closed his eyes.

 _"_ _The worlds shall soon be brought,_

 _Into an ancient battle that must be fought._

 _And when it seems like the final hour is near,_

 _Only the heart can persevere._

 _But alas, alone the heart will fall._

 _However with the chosen, it shall stand tall._

 _When light and dark come together as one,_

 _That is when the war shall be won."_

"…It didn't make sense at the time, but now…" Cerulean eyes opened back up. "Now it makes more sense than I would like…We had thought it referred to Narumi and Menma, as the holders of the Yin and Yang chakra of the Kyūbi." Fighting in a war on this world was one thing, but getting sucked into an ancient war across an unknown amount of worlds?

' _That explains a lot…'_ Naruto couldn't deny that he was somewhat pissed off about that. "So you started training Narumi and Menma first because of a _prophecy_?" His parents winced.

"Naruto, you have to understand, we-"

"Save it. We can talk about this later." Preferably when he has time to think some more. "Let's get back to the here and now."

"The prophecy probably refers to you." Yoruichi chimed in. "It makes perfect sense and it all fits."

Naruto grimaced. "And it also confirms that things are only going to get worse." His hand balled into a fist. His eyes went to Kushina. "Don't you get it? This just shows even more that I can't stay here. I'm going to help."

The redhead scowled. "No, you aren't. And that's final." Naruto snorted.

"Is it? And how do you plan on stopping me?" He wasn't going to say that Urahara was building him a ship, but there was something else he could say. Naruto closed his eyes for two seconds. When he heard the surprised gasps of the other people in the room, he opened them back up. In the corner of the room was a **Corridor of Darkness**. "You see that? That is a portal that literally leads me to anywhere I want to go. I can just use it." He was grateful that he was able to conjure one so much more easily now.

A hand rested on his shoulder. "That's enough. Kushina-san, this is something that Naruto can't just run away from. Orochimaru is also aware of other worlds, and he knows that Naruto is too. It is likely that he will come after Naruto again, getting him involved." Kushina stiffened. "And Naruto, you and I both know that you can't use a corridor to travel to other worlds yet, so don't bluff like you can." Naruto scowled. While he was sure he could last in one for a longer period of time and travel further, he wasn't too sure he would be able to travel between worlds without any practice.

When Naruto dismissed the corridor, she continued. "Let's stop talking for now and give us all a chance to think about everything we just heard, alright? We can talk finish this discussion later." Hesitantly, the others nodded.

* * *

An old man sighed sadly as he watched another star go out. "This is not good, not at all…" It was obvious that things were starting to pick up pace. He wasn't fooled by the time of relative peace that has prospered over the last decade or so. Soon, things will come to a head and all the world's will become involved and the newest threat revealed itself. The old man leaned back into his chair and stroked his long beard in thought.

But what could be done? How can you prepare for something when you do not know what you are up against? Something -or some _one_ \- was plunging the worlds into darkness, but who? For what reason? And were they the same person that had been behind the increase in the number of heartless on the worlds housing the known princesses of heart?

The old man sighed again. So many questions, so few answers. Only time would tell…but did they have such a thing? Even from his own world, he had felt the sudden dark disturbance that echoed across the Ocean Between. It had disappeared, but it seemed to originate from the same world that had a similar experience with darkness not too long ago. He was going to look into it, but the source vanished, just as the last one had. The world was still there, so he could only assume that someone on the world had stopped whatever caused it, which led to more questions.

Who could have stopped it? A keyblade wielder? He felt a small pit of hope swell in him, but he refused to buy into it without further details. The old man was fairly confident that he at least knew of most of the current keyblade wielders, so the potential existence of one that was powerful enough to finish the problem was somewhat alarming. Who could have trained them? How had they remained hidden all this time? The old man shook his head. He was starting to think as if he had already confirmed that it _was_ a keyblade wielder. Anyone powerful enough could have just as easily stepped in.

But alas, he was straying from the original problem. An ever increasing number of worlds were falling to the darkness, and something needed to be done. But what? And who could do it? For a brief and painful moment, he allowed himself to mourn the loss of the three youths that would have gladly volunteered to help. Pulling himself from his memories, the old man looked down onto his desk to the letter he received from his student. Picking it up, he read it again.

 _Dear Master,_

 _I'm sure that you already know, but there is trouble brewin'. More and more stars have been goin' out lately, and it makes me uneasy. What could be makin' all of these worlds disappear? If somethin' doesn't happen, then I fear that things will only get worse._

 _Recently, I have been playin' with the thought that I should go out and put a stop to it myself. The problem is that I have responsibilities here…but at the same time, I'm not sure as to who else can do it. One with a "key" has yet to appear, and time is runnin' out._

 _What do you think I should do, Master? Your advice has always been somethin' I regarded highly._

 _Best wishes from your student,_

 _Mickey Mouse_

Yen Sid allowed a small smile to bloom on his face.

His student was always so impulsive, but there was no denying the caring and selfless heart he had.

 **End Music**

* * *

 **Kumo**

Naruto relaxed as he looked over the village from the roof of the high class hotel they were staying at. He had only just got away from Narumi after she had smothered him with her worry. Despite being so different, Kumo was a nice place, all things considered. His thoughts were soon interrupted when a voice called out to him.

"Yo yo yo! Mr. Nine, it is good to see you doin' fine." If it wasn't rude, Naruto would have sighed. Turning, he saw Killer B walk up to him.

"Hello, B-san. It's good to see you as well." This was sure to be a tiring experience.

B stayed silent as he regarded Naruto for a moment, quickly making Naruto grow uncomfortable. "Um…Is there something on my face?"

"You seem…more at peace with yourself than the last time I saw you." Never having heard it before, Naruto wasn't expecting the serious tone of B's voice. "The last time we spoke, you had a lot on your mind. You still do, but it seems like you are more relaxed and comfortable with yourself."

It didn't take long for Naruto to catch on. The last time they had talked had been at the start of the preliminaries. At that point, they had only recently found out that an extremely dangerous shinobi was in the area and that he had control over darkness. Not only that, but Naruto had also had another experience where he let the darkness corrupt his thoughts for a while.

Now however, while Orochimaru was still a threat, Naruto had accepted his darkness. This came with the added benefit of not doubting himself nearly as much. He knew he would be able to remain in control and not endanger the people around him.

Naruto smiled. "Yeah, I guess you can say that." He couldn't see it, but an interested gleam entered Killer B's eyes behind his glasses.

"…Would you say that you have overcome your negativity?" Naruto gave him a startled look. "Have you accepted your negative emotions as something that are a part of you?"

Relaxing, Naruto nodded. "Yeah…" He lips twitched. "I would." It had only taken an actual fight with himself, but he had done it.

B grinned widely. "Yo, then let's go!" He reached out a hand and grabbed a fistful of the back of Naruto's jacket. Yelping, Naruto was caught off guard when the man suddenly started dragging him.

"Hold up! Go where?!"

"Shut up, ya fool! Just wait n' be cool!"

"Are you serious-ttebayo?!"

* * *

Naruto glared at the back of the grinning B as he followed him through a forest that could easily rival the forest of death in creepiness. "You've dragged me off to some kind of island forest straight out of hell and still haven't told me why."

"You really should chill, we only gotta go up one more hill." Those rhymes were starting to piss Naruto off.

"Would you at least tell me that you got permission to kidnap me?"

"Yo, I got permission from my bro!"

Naruto sighed. "And my parents?"

"…I think blondie was in the know?"

' _Kami damn it.'_ It was at that the sound of running water reached his ears. Curiosity peaked, Naruto looked ahead. In front of them, the trees thinned to give way to a cliff with a large waterfall flowing from it. The waterfall spilled into a pond with a single small piece of land in the center of it. Naruto quirked an eyebrow. "We came here for a waterfall? Ow!" B's hand had shot out and whacked the back of his head.

"Don't talk about things you don't understand." And there was B's serious tone again. "Now you talk the talk, but can you walk the walk?"

The crimson blond slumped. "What are you talking about?"

B pointed over to the small island. "You say you accepted your negativity, now get over there and let me see!"

His darkness? B wanted him to prove that Naruto had accepted his darkness? "And how will this prove anything?"

The question made B sigh sadly. "It hurts that you have no trust. Just give it a shot, I promise this ain't gonna be a bust." Although reluctant, Naruto resigned himself and water walked over to the island.

"So how do I do this?" He called back.

"Just sit down and close your eyes like you wanna nap! The waterfall will do the rest in a snap!"

' _Just like that?'_ Wanting to get this over with, Naruto sat down on the island and closed his eyes. _'So do I need to meditate?'_ He controlled his breathing until it was steady and his mind was going into a trance, but he was also careful not to accidentally slip into the Station of Awakening. Unexpectedly, something softly tugged on the edge of his eyes. Alarmed, Naruto snapped his eyes back open and looked around, but the feeling was already gone. _'What the hell was that?'_ It was then that something in the corner of his eye caught his attention. Turning back to the waterfall, Naruto's eyes widened.

Standing in front of the waterfall was Kuro. When he saw that Naruto was looking, he smirked and nodded in acknowledgement, only to disappear immediately after.

When Naruto's mind finally caught up to what he just saw, his lips rose into a small smile. Closing his eyes again, Naruto slipped back into reality.

"Yo, so how did it go?" Naruto rolled his eyes and stood up, smile still in place.

"You could have warned me that would happen." There was a broad grin on B's face.

"Maybe, but that would have made it too easy."

Naruto shrugged. It would be better for his sanity if he just thought of it as part of the test. He turned around and took a step back towards B, but stopped when a bright light suddenly lit up from somewhere behind him. In front of him, Naruto saw B's jaw drop a bit. Whirling around, Naruto's jaw soon did the same.

Shining in the center of the waterfall was a glowing keyhole.

"That's…" He whispered. The light emitting from the keyhole pulsed, and Naruto felt something in him pulse in response. Without being called, Two Become One flashed into existence in his hand.

As if on auto pilot, Naruto's hand slowly rose and pointed the keyblade at the keyhole. A strong aura of light formed around the tip of the keyblade. A moment later, a beam of light shot out and into the keyhole.

Click.

The keyhole flashed and the light coming from it and the keyblade started to fade away, but the moment before the keyhole completely vanished, something shot out of the keyhole and straight at Naruto.

"Crap!" Startled, Naruto only caught the small object out of reflex. His free hand shot up and stopped it a few inched from his face. "Now what…?" Opening his hand, he saw it was a multi-colored object that was shaped like an elongated egg. Naruto immediately recognized it for what it was and quickly pocketed it.

"Yo, what's with the light show?!" Naruto glanced back and grinned.

"Something that just solved a lot of problems."

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 35!**

 **Glad that's over with…Now I just gotta finish the other part. But on the bright side, if things continue as planned, then we will be going to other worlds extremely soon!**

 **Am I doing Happy, Natsu, and Gray right? I'm not referencing the manga or anime, only going off of memory to decide how they should act. As far as I can remember, despite having his occasional stupid moment, Gray is actually a reasonable person.**

 **Ha! I win! There were a lot of guesses, but no one said the keyhole would be at the Waterfall of Truth! But…it wasn't always going to be. Up until about three or four chapters ago, it was at the Valley of the End. I like this too.**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	37. Forming The Team

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 36!**

 **It's our 6-month anniversary! We actually got this far without the story going to complete shit! (Partial shit doesn't count, so shaddup) Our current story statistics are: 460 Favorites! 502 Follows! 548 Reviews! And 2 Communities! Thanks for favoring/following/reviewing/and reading!**

 **Holy shit, we actually got to 500 follows. That's pretty awesome given the fact that there are only 6 other Kingdom Hearts crossovers on the entire site that have reached this point. And I'm still blown away that only** _ **1**_ **has over 1k follows…And it is from freaking 2007.**

 **I envy those people who have such good timing that they follow a story only like an hour or two before there is an update. That's always a good feeling.**

 **Good to know I'm doing their personalities right. The only problem I can foresee is forgetting to include Gray's stripping habit.**

 **I'm glad to see that you guys liked the location of the keyhole.**

 **I don't like the first portion of this chapter much. I just felt like it was a mess.**

* * *

 **LordGhostStriker: I'm gonna be honest. I have no idea what you're talking about. Even after looking it up, I don't know what a mini heart is. Can you give me an example?**

 **OmegaDelta: Short answer is no, she won't.**

 **Yatsushiro Ryko: Thanks! I like to think that I set things up pretty well, so it is nice when I get people who say that. As for the update schedule and length of the chapters, I don't** _ **really**_ **stick with it too well, but I try to not let it get out of hand. And I really didn't expect for this thing to be so long when I started!**

 **DarkLord98: Yep. This story is set before the first game.**

 **Kairitrion Cerulean: If you** _ **had**_ **thought of it then I wouldn't have felt as satisfied with using it. Catching you people off guard makes this thing a lot more fun. :) And get out of my head!**

 **HeartlessNobody13: One of the things I keep coming back to in the planning is which characters to add to other worlds. And finally! Someone who actually realizes I can't do those worlds yet!**

 **Cha0ticM3ss: Why are you suggesting them? I haven't even mentioned One Piece at any point in the story. And Port Royal is a world that is still being considered!**

 **redlox2: Pretty much, yeah. I'm not even going to bother to avoid that question as there is no point to keeping it a secret. As for worlds that Sora visited… :P**

 **prototype gear: Please…Never do that again. It seriously took me up until "shine" to realize what you were doing. Just…No…**

 **Dark Natsu Dragneel: No worries, I wasn't planning on it.**

 **BlackxDragonxEmperor: I originally began with the intention to make this a Gen fic and that is something that is still very possible. I'm just entertaining the idea of a pairing.**

 **risengaku: I realized it was a bad choice for music after. The reason I used it was because I wanted Magical Mystery during the Yen Sid scene, but I felt that it would have given away that it was Yen Sid before the end of the letter. So to counter, I began it earlier. After this, I remembered that It Began with a Letter would have fit just as well and probably wouldn't have given away that it was Yen Sid, but I forgot to move the start of the song. And nope, not in the least. I have never touched WoW. The game started with a different letter, but the game's timeline starts soon. I want to keep the group relatively at this number.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else. I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Deity Talking: " **Insert witty remark here**."

Biju/Deity Thinking: _'_ _ **Insert witty remark here**_ _.'_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

The Konoha delegation wrapped up their business with Kumo a few days later and made their way back home. Because of their current situation, Natsu, Gray, and Happy decided to head back with them, and while many of the Konoha shinobi were curious who the strangers were, they didn't ask questions after Minato assured them that the three meant no harm.

Despite saying that they would, the discussion from the hospital room was never finished. This was partly due to Naruto himself trying to sort out how he felt about his parents and because Yoruichi again suggested they wait, only this time so Urahara could be included.

When the group arrived back in Konoha early in the morning, Naruto sent the Fairy Tail members off with a clone that took them to Urahara's place before dispelling. While this was happening, Minato dismissed everyone and told the jōnin to report in the next day for further discussions. Because of his duties, Minato was needed at the Hokage tower, but he, Kushina, Naruto, and Yoruichi would be meeting soon after.

* * *

 **Uzumaki-Namikaze Household**

"So, you think they are being manipulated like we were?" Minato had a heavy frown on his face at Naruto's theory.

Naruto shrugged. "I can't be too sure, but it wouldn't surprise me. It wouldn't hurt to check, at least. I only noticed the darkness in you two recently, so there is a good chance that I missed it in them as well."

Kushina bit on her bottom lip in worry. "But how do we tell? Are you going to…read their hearts like you did for us?"

"Yeah, that is the only way I know how to check."

"How are you going to do it?" Yoruichi asked from her spot where she was leaning against the wall. "All at once? Or one at a time?" Naruto considered the question.

"All at once would probably be best." He glanced over to Minato. "How long until they get here?"

Checking the time, Minato answered. "Should be here any minute now."

A scowl appeared on Kushina's face. "And what about Kakashi-kun?"

Minato smirked. "I gave him the correct time." At the disbelieving stares, he continued. "I threatened him to be here on time or he would be stuck on D-ranks with Gai and his team for the next year." Kushina grinned at that.

Their attention was drawn by the sound of the front door opening and a someone entering the house. "Hello?" Apparently Tsunade was the first to arrive.

"We're in the living room, Tsunade-sama!" Minato called. A moment later, Tsunade walked through the doorway. Her eyes swept over the room and took in everyone who was present, but she stopped on Yoruichi. Not recognizing her, she frowned.

"Nice to meet you." Yoruichi said neutrally. "I'm Yoruichi Shihōin."

"…Tsunade Senju." Tsunade greeted. "So, what's this about?" Minato shook his head.

"Sorry, but we're still waiting on two others before we discuss the reason. For now, please take a seat."

A delicate eyebrow rose. "Others?" When she got no response, she huffed and walked over to the nearest chair. She had only just sat down when a large plume of smoke exploded out from the center of the room.

"Never fear, ladies! Lord Jiraiya is here!" The Konoha natives all sighed in unison at the over the top entrance. Standing there in a ridiculous pose was Jiraiya. Unlike the others, Yoruichi was actually slightly amused by the sannin's antics. Almost at the speed of light, Jiraiya's eyes zeroed in on the unfamiliar woman, only to turn into hearts. "Why _hello_ there!"

Naruto blinked, only to realize that Jiraiya had vanished in the time he had taken to do so. Looking over, he gained a slightly disgusted look when he saw the pervert fawning over Yoruichi.

"My name is Jiraiya, beautiful." A hand slowly moved its way towards her backside. "You may know me as the man of your dream-Gah!" That was as far as he got when Yoruichi punched him in the jaw, sending him into the opposite wall. After watching his flight, everyone turned back to Yoruichi.

She shrugged. "I'm all for a little flirty fun, but touching is off limits."

"Ugh…Understood."

Tsunade snorted. "Not very likely…" She muttered. Internally, she was surprised by the speed the woman, Yoruichi, had used to beat the idiot back and the strength that was behind it.

It was at that point that another person entering the house attracted their attention, but unlike Tsunade, this person didn't call out to the others, instead choosing to silently walk into the room. While the face was hidden behind an orange book, the silver hair gave away who it was.

Kakashi came to a stop and glance up. His eye lingered on Jiraiya and Yoruichi for all of half a second each before moving to Minato. "You wanted to see me, sensei?"

Minato smirked again. "Good to see you're on time."

"…How could I not be…?" Kakashi couldn't completely suppress the shiver that went down his spine.

They watched as Minato walked over to the wall with a privacy seal and activated it. Pausing to think about what to say, Minato spoke. "I've requested that the three of you came here today because it has been brought to my attention that some of our mental processes may have been compromised." The mood in the room turned tense immediately. Tsunade sat up from her slouched position, Jiraiya shot to his feet with his usual goofy countenance nowhere in sight, and even Kakashi snapped his book shut and put it away.

"Please define 'compromised', Minato." Jiraiya said seriously. "Are you saying that we are being controlled and don't even realize it?" It was then that his eyes moved to Naruto and Yoruichi. "And is it really the best idea to have this conversation here and now?"

Minato nodded. "Yes, it is. This directly involves Naruto." He sighed with a pained look. "We only realized it happened because of Naruto."

"Maybe an explanation would be a good idea…" Tsunade said slowly.

"I'll explain, but when I'm sure that you are in your right state of mind." Minato replied.

"Sensei…What makes you think something is wrong?" Kakashi asked. "I'm not sure how much me saying so is worth in this situation, but I don't feel any different than I always have."

Yoruichi shook her head. "You wouldn't." All eyes snapped to her. "Let me ask you this, why did you dedicate so much time training Menma-kun and Narumi-san over the last six years."

"Well…" Kakashi would have shifted if he wasn't as experienced as he was. "Because they needed it if they were going to become shinobi." Naruto's lips twitched down minutely.

"Is that so…Then what about Naruto? Shouldn't he have also received the training?"

Tsunade had a blank look on her face. "He got training from us too." Yoruichi's eyebrow rose.

"Did he?" A nod. "When did you train him?"

"Obviously wit-" Tsunade cut herself off with a perplexed expression. "When…" Why couldn't she remember when?

"You can't remember because it never happened." Yoruichi supplied. For a brief moment, she felt a surge of protective anger on Naruto's behalf, but she kept in under control. "That's what this is about. Someone made you all become indifferent to Naruto."

Jiraiya rolled his eyes. "Yeah, sure. Sorry, but I think we would have noticed something like that happening. Not only that, but what would the point of that even be?" He shook his head. "I don't know what convinced you guys of that, but I'm sorry to say that you've been misled." Minato traded glances to Kushina.

Suddenly, Kushina thrust her arms out and launched chains at the three of them. Because they didn't expect something like that to happen, all three targets were unable to evade them. The chains wrapped around their bodies, constricting their arms to their sides and keeping them in place.

"What the hell?! Kushina! What are you doing?!" Tsunade shouted in anger. Like the others, she was struggling, but not even she could break free.

Kushina had a conflicted look on her face, but she didn't release them. "I'm sorry about this, but we need to be sure-ttebane!"

"Senpai, please be reasonable!"

"I'm sorry…" Minato said quietly. "But the fact that none of you are even taking this seriously makes me think that it's true."

Naruto formed a hand seal. " **Shadow Clone Jutsu**." Two puffs of smoke announced the creation of a pair of clones. "Just give me a sec…" Each Naruto stepped up to one of them and placed a hand on the sides of their heads. Closing their eyes, they concentrated. For some reason, it wasn't as strong of a connection as with a fist bump, but it worked well enough.

"What are you doing, gaki?" Jiraiya asked menacingly, only for Minato to slap a silencing seal over his mouth, which was soon followed up by two more on both Kakashi and Tsunade. After a minute, Naruto finally dug deep enough to feel the aura in their hearts. What he found brought a scowl to his face, which the others noticed.

"…Well?" Minato asked nervously. "Did you find something?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, I did. The same darkness is here…but it is still active, unlike with you. They're still under its influence." Minato frowned.

"Can you do something about it?"

"…I think so…From what I can tell, it has weakened considerably over the years, so it should only take some light to break its hold…but…" He trailed off. _'This darkness absolutely has some of his mixed in, but not all of it is his…'_

"But what?" Yoruichi prompted, only to get a shake of the head.

"Nothing. I'm going to proceed now." Not waiting for a reply, Naruto and his clones drew upon some light and started to channel it towards the bound shinobi. All three of them squirmed slightly at the strange feeling, but then they jerked as if shocked before finally going completely still. Like he expected, it didn't take much. The foreign darkness contaminating their hearts died away upon contact. Once it was all gone, the three sagged as a wave of inexplicable exhaustion hit them.

Removing their hands, Naruto and his clones stepped back. "Done. Just give them a minute and they'll be fine. The darkness is gone now. Taking a closer look at it, I can confirm that some of Orochimaru's aura was definitely present." Kushina and Minato scowled at the information.

Releasing her chains, Kushina spoke up. "But when did he get the chance to? It doesn't make any sense!"

Naruto shrugged absently, too preoccupied with his thoughts. "I don't know, but it obviously happened…" He turned and made for the door. "I'll leave explaining the fact that they were manipulated to you. I don't really want to go through another explanation." That, and Naruto was also unsure how he felt about them. It could be argued that because they weren't his parents, Naruto did not feel as hurt by their indifference as with Kushina at Minato. However, this also meant Naruto himself did not feel as inclined to reconcile with them.

"W-Wait! Where are you going?" Kushina asked.

"I'm going over to Urahara's. I need to talk to him." He only got partway before Minato's voice stopped him.

"You are? Great! Do you mind waiting for us? I would like to have a word with Urahara-san as well."

The request made Naruto blink and turn to his father in question, but he only got a smile in return. After some thought, Naruto slowly nodded. "Yeah, sure…I'll be by the front door." With that, Minato deactivated the privacy seal to let him out.

Stepping into the hall, Naruto's steps came to an abrupt halt. He could feel a battle between amusement, exasperation, and fatigue begin inside him as he stared at Narumi and Menma…who were crouching right outside the door.

Narumi smiled nervously at him. "Um…Hi, Nii-chan?" She offered, earning a snort from her older brother.

Naruto crossed his arms. "You know…People normally set up privacy seals when they don't want any unwanted listeners." He said offhandedly.

A smirk grew on Menma's face as he and Narumi stood up. "That's true, but so is the fact that it isn't normal for a privacy seal to get set up in said person's own home. So…You wanna tell us what that was all about?"

"Nope." No consideration was needed.

"Oh, come on, Nii-chan!" Narumi whined. "Please? We can keep a secret!"

"I'm sure you can, but you don't need to know this one."

"Then why did you get to hear it?" Menma asked suspiciously.

"Probably because I'm the one that found it out?" Their eyes widened. "Anyways, forget about it…I honestly wouldn't be too surprised if you find it out eventually."

"Then there shouldn't be a problem with you telling us now-ttebane!" Narumi said with a grin.

Naruto denied her. "Not happening." The next few minutes were spent with Naruto shooting down each and every plead his siblings made. Their persistence proved to be both slightly surprising and slightly expected, but Naruto's resolve on the matter didn't waver.

"Is this how you guys spend most of your time together?" An amused voice asked. Turning, the triplets saw a smirking Yoruichi standing there.

When he registered the question, Naruto shrugged with a smirk of his own. "Sometimes. You know how it is…The big brother has to put up with the younger siblings."

"Hey!" Two indignant shouts were heard at the same time.

"No fighting." Kushina moved to cut them off before they could really begin. On the inside, she was happy to see the three of them were able to get along so well. The other adults soon joined them in the hall. Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Kakashi were all giving Naruto poorly disguised looks of regret and shame.

Jiraiya opened his mouth, but Naruto cut him off. "So? You ready?" Naruto asked, looking pointedly at Yoruichi, Minato, and Kushina.

Minato placed a hand on Jiraiya's shoulder, eliciting a sigh from the sage. "Yes, we're ready." The Hokage said.

"Where are you going?" Narumi asked curiously.

Naruto's smirk returned. "We're going to meet that candy shop owner I know. You remember how I've mentioned him a couple times?" Her eyes widened.

Nodding, Narumi replied. "Yeah, but most of the time you're cursing his existence or something…" She said dryly.

"Ha, I can see that." Yoruichi grinned. "But don't let it fool you, Naruto keeps going back because he can't get enough." Naruto snorted.

"Yeah…In the same manner that a genin keeps going back for D-ranks. There's a point to it somewhere, but it's overshadowed by the fact that it's arguably the biggest pain in the ass in existence." His eyes shifted to Narumi. "And no, you can't come. This has to do with what we were talking about in there."

"Aww!"

* * *

 **Urahara Shop**

Naruto, Yoruichi, Minato, and Kushina walked through the front door of the shop and found the owner actually present for once.

Urahara glanced up from the stock listings he was reading from. "Hello! Welcome to the Urahara Sh-" His smile froze in place and the words died on his lips at the blank look Minato was giving him.

Dead silence.

The two men stared at each other in silence while the other occupants of the room looked on. Eventually, Urahara seemed to unfreeze.

"Hello! Welcome to an average, every day, ordinary, boring, and run of the mill candy shop!" He greeted cheerfully. "I am the equally average, every day, ordinary, boring, and run of the mill owner! How may I help you today in this fine establishment? Please keep in mind that we only have candy here, nothing else of significance in any way whatsoev-"

Naruto slumped his shoulders and groaned. "For the love of Kami, Urahara, shut up. You know perfectly well that the fact that I've brought them here means the situation has changed." Hell, the entire reason he said all that was because he _knew_ that and wanted to mess with them.

Like magic, Urahara's fan was in his hand and he was waving it lazily. "Well, why didn't you say so? Welcome, welcome! It is a pleasure to finally officially meet the parents of my loyal minion!" Naruto took a deep breath to calm himself. "I don't believe we had the chance to speak properly the last time we met, Hokage-sama."

Minato was extremely confused by the man's behavior, but he nodded in greeting. "Right…You don't have to use titles…" This was seriously the man that taught Naruto kenjutsu? "I've been meaning to talk to you ever since the chūnin exams, but I recently learned that you were the one has been teaching my son over the past six years…"

Urahara nodded with a lazy smile. "Yes, yes. Naruto-kun has been a fantastic student. Should we continue this discussion in the back? It would be more comfortable that way…" Getting a nod, he turned around. "Then please follow me!" He led them towards the back of the building and into the tea room.

The moment Naruto walked into the room, he found two impatient faces in front of him. "Finally!" Natsu yelled. "Now you can take us to that friend you mentioned that can help us!"

Gray sighed from his seat. "Idiots. You do know that Urahara-san is most likely the friend they mentioned, right?" The jaws of Natsu and Happy dropped as they turned to said shop owner.

"Y-You are?" Natsu asked in disbelief, getting an amused look in return.

"Yes, I am."

"But you said you were just an average, every day, ordinary, boring, and run of the mill candy shop owner!" Happy cried. Naruto closed his eyes and restrained himself from showing any other visible reactions.

Was it really possible for people to be this stupid?

Urahara shrugged unrepentantly. "I apologize for any deception given, but it was necessary." He gestured towards the other seats. "Now then, how about we all sit down so we can start talking?" He suggested. Once they had done so, he continued. "I don't think I've properly introduced myself to anyone yet. My name is Kisuke Urahara, proud owner of this fine establishment and researcher." He looked over to Naruto and Yoruichi. "Would someone please catch me up on recent developments? I'm still out of the loop here."

Yoruichi nodded. "I'll keep it short. Orochimaru showed as expected and confronted Naruto, but I interfered. After a brief skirmish between him and myself, Minato-san and Kushina-san appeared and restrained him. It was the betrayal of Naruto's friend, Misa, who gave him a chance to escape." Naruto kept his face carefully blank at this mention. Natsu and Gray both simultaneously scowled and traded looks at this new piece of information.

"…I see…" Urahara muttered while glancing over to Naruto. "How did she create an opening."

With a sigh, Naruto answered. "Apparently, Misa is a keyblade wielder. One that's fighting for the enemy." Urahara's eyes sharpened.

"…What happened?" He could tell that Naruto was hurt by this fact, but had already reached his own conclusion on how to react, so Urahara would trust his student for now.

"My darkness went out of control and I had to fight it in my heart." Naruto explained. "While this was happening, my body was moving on its own and was attacking the others. During that fight, they" He gestured to the Fairy Tail members, who waved in sync. "apparently fell out of the sky and got involved."

Urahara raised an eyebrow and glanced at the three. "I'm assuming their world was consumed by darkness?"

"Got it in one." Yoruichi confirmed. "Anyways, the fight went on, Naruto eventually undid the damage and woke up, but passed out soon after. He regained consciousness a few days later while in Kumo and we explained to them the concepts of other worlds, keyblades, and a little about light and dark." She shrugged. "And that pretty much sums it all up." Naruto smirked.

"Well, maybe not." He got a couple curious looks. "B-san later took me to a waterfall where jinchuriki go to confront their darkness. He said he wanted me to get the chance to go while I was in Kumo."

Yoruichi nodded slowly. "Makes sense, but you have already done that, right? I can't imagine that the trip was very productive for you."

Naruto shrugged. "Maybe not the waterfall itself, but the what it held _definitely_ made the trip worth it."

"And what exactly did the waterfall have?" Yoruichi asked.

Minato's eyes widened in realization. "Are you saying that…"

The smirk Naruto had turned into a full grin. "If you think I'm saying that I both found and locked the keyhole for this world, then you would be correct." He greatly enjoyed the stunned silence that his declaration created.

Happy tilted his head and traded a confused glance with Natsu. "Um…That's good…right?" He asked, getting a shrug in return from the dragon slayer.

Gray rolled his eyes. "Yes, that's _extremely_ good."

"Great!" Happy and Natsu instantly began to cheer. Their noise spurred the others out of whatever stupors they had found themselves in. Urahara smiled at Naruto.

"Great job. That really does take care of a lot of our worries." Naruto nodded in agreement.

"I was actually really surprised that I got so lucky with it." He admitted. "I'm not sure how long it would have taken to find otherwise." Naruto leaned back. "So we're all caught up to what's going on now." He looked over to the three that were new to this world. "As he said before, this is Kisuke Urahara. He is the one that Yoruichi and I mentioned to you back in Kumo. Both of them are from a world that was consumed by darkness."

Natsu shot to his feet in his excitement. "So you know how to fix it?!" He asked.

Urahara frowned behind his fan. "I thought they explained to you what happened to your world?"

Sighing, Yoruichi nodded "We did explain. Natsu-san, we already told you that we don't know how to undo the process. As far as we know, a world has never returned after the darkness consumed it…" She hated saying it, but it was true.

The response Naruto got was a growl and a violent shake of the head. "And I told you that I'm not leaving it like that!" He rounded on Naruto. "You have one of those key-thingies! Can't you fix it?!"

Naruto rubbed his eyes tiredly. "I can't give you any definite answer. It may be possible, but it has never been done, as we have now said three times. If it is possible, no one has ever found out how to do it."

Gray chose to interject when Natsu opened his mouth to yell again. "Urahara-san, you said you were a researcher, right?" A nod. "I'm guessing one of the things that you research is light and darkness?"

The candy shop owner nodded his head. "That has especially been a main focus of mine since arriving in this world."

"And you have never come across something that may have indicated how the process is undone?" Gray couldn't keep the hope completely off of his face, but it died when Urahara shook his head.

"I'm sorry, but no. Much of my breakthroughs have only happened in recent months, and majorly in thanks to Naruto. He would know just about as much as I do, if not more."

Gray grit his teeth. "So there is no hope whatsoever?" Natsu's anger spike again while tears formed in Happy's eyes. This question immediately made Naruto shake his head.

"I never said that. I'm just saying that I don't know how you would do it. I would have helped Yoruichi and Urahara a long time ago if I did." Naruto said.

"Then let me ask you again." Gray began. "What would be the best place to start if we wanted to undo this? Who should we talk to?"

Naruto frowned. "I can say with near certainty that all of the people who are knowledgeable when it comes to this subject are in this room." He paused. The other occupants of the room were surprised when he suddenly slumped. "…I'm freaking stupid…" He muttered. Not giving anyone the chance to ask, he sat up and got into a meditative position. "Give me a bit. I can probably get some more information." Urahara and Yoruichi's expressions showed they understood what he meant, but the rest were left confused.

"Wha…?" Happy tilted his head.

Yoruichi smirked. "You heard him, just be a little patient." Although curious, they relented.

* * *

 **Station of Awakening**

Naruto opened his eyes and saw that he was in the station. Taking a quick glance around, he spoke up. "Hikari? Yami?"

"Naruto?" Turing his head, Naruto saw them standing nearby. Both of them had expressions of slight surprise on their faces. "What are you doing here? We didn't think you would be back until it was time for us to get back to training." Hikari said.

Rubbing the back of his head, Naruto answered. "Sorry about that, I just have a quick question for you two."

A dark eyebrow rose. "Go for it." Yami instructed.

"I can't believe I've never asked this before, but what happens to the worlds that get consumed by the darkness? I know you've said they go into some kind of stasis, but is that it? Is there no way to bring them back?"

They frowned and traded looks. "…There is a way…possibly…" Hikari considered. "When a world is consumed by the darkness, a small fragment of that world's heart remains. It…could be possible to restore a world using that fragment."

Naruto's eyes lit up as a wide grin split his face. "Really? And that fragment? Is it just in the place that the world used to be in?"

Yami shook her head. "No…As the rest of the world is consumed, it would not stay in place. It would drift through the Ocean Between. We can't say for certain where it would end up, but it is likely that it and other fragments would congregate in one spot…Maybe even make up a pseudo world of their own."

Although this piece of information is slightly disheartening, Naruto didn't give up. "So it would be harder to find, but it _could_ be found eventually? And it is possible for the damage to be undone with the inhabitants coming out of the stasis as well?"

"…Yes, it would be possible."

"Awesome-ttebayo!" While it would be difficult, that was still very doable! "Thanks for the help!" They gave him slightly amused expressions.

"No problem."

"Happy to help."

* * *

 **Urahara Shop**

Naruto opened his eyes back up and grinned widely. Leaning back again, he gained the attention of the others.

Upon seeing the expression on his face, Urahara smiled. "Judging by the look on your face, I would say that you have some good news?" The answer he got was shrug, but the grin was still there.

"I have some good news and I have some bad news, but I think the good news outweighs the bad by far." He admitted. "I was able to learn that when a world is consumed by the darkness, a piece of that world's heart remains. It is possible to use that piece to restore the entire world and its inhabitants." Grins all around were formed. "Finding the fragment could be problematic, but a saving grace is that it eventually gathers with fragments from other worlds, and they possibly form some kind of world of their own. Looking for that would be easier."

Natsu grinned excitedly. "So we just have to find that to fix it? No problem, we can do that! Right, Happy?"

"Aye!"

Urahara took in the new information. "That is some welcome news. And it relieves much of my worries…"

"Uh…" Minato began. "That's great, but how did you get that information, Naruto?" Naruto's eyes snapped to his. "It seemed like all you did was meditate for a bit…"

Naruto's grin dimmed as he thought about how to answer. "That's something that keyblade wielders can do. We can enter our hearts and get information on certain things that way. I'm not too sure on how it works, but it does." He half lied. It was true that keyblade wielders could sometimes enter their stations and hear some voice, especially when undergoing the trial to receive their keyblade, but he was pretty sure that he was the only one that was able to directly ask Hikari and Yami.

Not knowing this, Minato nodded in acceptance. Without letting his relief show on his face, Naruto turned back and was amused to see that Happy and Natsu were now dancing together as they cheered. "So, we just need to find this world with the fragments and restore them?" Gray's newest question brought a nod from Naruto. "Alright…Thank you for the information." He said sincerely.

"No problem, I'm happy to help…but…" He sighed, which prompted Natsu and Happy to quiet down and give him confused looks, along with the others. "…How the heck would we look for the world? We can't exactly walk there and I can't yet use a corridor for that…" Who knew how long it would take for Urahara to finish the ship?

While Natsu, Happy, and Gray wilted, Urahara grinned widely. "Oh, is that all?" His dismissal got him the full attention of everyone. "I thought you had a serious problem." Naruto frowned at him, but his eyes soon widened in realization.

"You didn't…" He said quietly.

Instead of answering, Urahara got to his feet and turned towards the door. "Ladies and gentlemen, if you would please follow me!" Yoruichi shrugged and moved to follow while Naruto scrambled after him with an excited look, everyone else soon following as well.

"As you know," Urahara began. "I have been studying into the gummi block that was recently acquired in order to build a ship." They walked up to a blank wall. Tapping a part of it with his cane, Urahara revealed a hidden hallway that slid into view. Unlike the other parts of the house, this one was completely metallic and led underground, but not to the training ground. Urahara continued walking. "It took some time, but I was eventually able to make a breakthrough with it and replicate it." Reaching a door, Urahara placed a hand on the panel next to it and turned to them, grin still in place. "And I am now happy to tell you…" The door slid open.

 **Play Kingdom Hearts 2.5 ReMIX OST: Sora**

"That I have succeeded in making a ship." He took great pleasure in the shocked looks he was getting. The door opened to large, underground hangar. On the far side of the hangar was a big tunnel. All eyes were on the thing in the center of the hangar's floor.

Docked there was a large ship. Many of its features were cubic, but there was no mistaking the general shape of it. The flight deck of the gummi ship was in the center of a red hull and encased in a blue dome. Attached to either side of the hull was a pair of yellow stabilizers that had extensions going toward the front of the ship. On the outside of the stabilizers were wings that were colored purple and red.

Urahara led his awed audience down into the hangar and up to the ship. "This here is the Stingray. It is a gummi ship that is nearly capable of traveling between worlds while housing a small crew, even complete with a kitchen. The Stingray is fully armed and capable of dealing just as much damage as it can take. And of course, it has a communication system that, if I'm right like I usually am, can be used to communicate from anywhere in the Ocean between." He stopped and turned to them. "And you wanna know the best part? It even has a built in cappuccino maker." He wagged his eyebrows. "So? What do you think? Feel free to lavish me with your praise and or worship now. I promise to only let my ego inflate a little."

Naruto took in the ship with an unhinged jaw before looking to Urahara. "You actually did it. You really made this damn thing in…What? Two weeks?"

" _Well_ , if you want to go into specifics, then it took me about thirteen and a half days. I had to also make the hangar, after all…" Urahara said smugly. "You should have never doubted me. I said I would do it."

"I have to admit that I was wrong, this time…" Naruto muttered as he shook his head in disbelief. His eyes drifted back to the ship. Soon, he smirked. "So…You said _nearly_ capable. Would the reason that it isn't completely capable be because you are still missing a navigation gummi block?" Urahara's smiled dimmed.

"Yes, I'm afraid that without it, this ship isn't going anywhere." He said, but paused when Naruto hummed in thought.

"Is that right? Well, then I guess it's a good thing I have _this_ then, huh?" Grinning, Naruto reached into his pocket and pulled out the thing that shot out of the keyhole. This time, Naruto was rewarded with a rare look of surprise on Urahara's face.

"You found one?" Urahara asked.

Shrugging, Naruto held it out to the man. "Did I forget to mention that? It kinda shot at me when I locked the keyhole. I am nearly positive that this is a navigation gummi."

Smiling, Urahara accepted the gummi. "Well, I would need to check, but you're probably right…" He turned and walked over to a nearby computer. Inserting the gummi block into a device identical to the one he used to analyze the first block in his lab, he started scanning it. After a minute, his smile grew. "Well, what do you know? It _is_ a navigation gummi! With this, the ship will be ready to go as soon as I upload this information."

"Awesome." Naruto said. Feeling a hand come down on his shoulder, he looked over and was greeted with a grinning Yoruichi.

"Now you have a ship to get to other worlds with." She said, getting a nod in return. Off to the side, Kushina frowned.

"Great!" Slightly surprised, they turned and saw Natsu jumping up and down. "We can go with you to other worlds! It works perfectly!"

Happy flew in circles above their heads. "Aye!"

Gray smirked with a shrug. "I admit; this does work out pretty well…" He looked over to Naruto. "Would you be cool with us travelling with you? We would also be willing to help out however we can…Especially in fights." Kushina opened her mouth to cut in, but didn't get the chance to.

"Of course he would be!" Natsu yelled. "If he is gonna be fighting against this darkness stuff, then it would be better for other people to help out!"

"Uh…" Naruto hesitated. "…I…guess…?" Did he really want to deal with their antics on a permanent basis?

Urahara clapped his hands, gaining their attention. "Wonderful! I was actually slightly worried about Naruto having to travel alone, but this works out perfectly!"

Naruto frowned at him. "You weren't going to come with me?" His eyes moved to Yoruichi. "Neither of you were going to?" Naruto was slightly hurt by that, but he would wait to hear the reason.

Yoruichi shook her head. "I'm sorry, but we weren't planning to. I would have if it was absolutely needed, but this works better." Urahara nodded.

"She's right. We would gladly help, but there are still…other things that I want to look into. And travelling with you would have made it, if not impossible, then extremely difficult to do so." Urahara explained.

"Oh…" Cerulean and violet eyes went back to the Fairy Tail members. "Then I guess…Sure?" The backup would be something he gratefully welcomed.

"Yes!" Natsu and Happy cheered while Gray nodded. Off to the side, Kushina's frown deepened and she was about to speak up again.

Noticing this, Urahara beat her to it. "Why don't the four of you go ahead and take a look around the ship?" Natsu and Happy looked excited by the idea. "I'm sure you're curious about it. Just go to the panel on the back of the hull to access it." The words were barely out of his mouth before Natsu and Happy raced over to it, Gray following behind with a sigh. Urahara looked over to Naruto. "You should take a look as well." Naruto frowned and glanced between his parents and Urahara. Seeing this, Urahara continued. "Yoruichi and I are going to stay here. I'm pretty sure that your parents still have some questions for the stranger who taught their son since he was six."

Naruto frowned deeper, but eventually nodded slowly. "…Alright…" He turned and made his way over as well.

 **End Music**

Once he was out of earshot, Urahara and Yoruichi looked to Minato and Kushina. The four of them stood in silence for a few minutes, but Minato was the first to speak.

"What's the real reason?" He asked, only to get a raised eyebrow in return. "You didn't just stay here so we can question you, so why did you?"

Urahara considered the question. "…I couldn't help but notice the silence the two of you exuded throughout most of the talking." The usual carefree and relaxed persona was nowhere in sight. "I was wondering if you would be willing to share your opinions on what you've learned. What do you think of the role Naruto plays in this?"

Kushina scowled. "Our opinions? We are completely against it! How can you actually think that we will let our son leave the _world_ so he can fight in a war?" She demanded.

"You think he shouldn't?" Yoruichi asked.

"No-ttebane! He is twelve! Why should he get dragged into this?!" Minato remained silent as Kushina spoke.

"You heard what he said back in Kumo." Yoruichi responded. "He was chosen to be a keyblade wielder. He is one of the guardians. You can say it is his destiny. And according to you, there is even a prophecy about it." Urahara filed that tidbit away for later.

"So? I refuse to let him leave like that! He should stay here, with his family, not getting involved in a battle like that." Something flashed across Yoruichi's face during Kushina's words, gaining the attention of Minato. With a small theory as to what it was, he spoke up.

"What do _you_ think?" He asked quietly, drawing all attention to himself. His eyes looked between Urahara and Yoruichi. "What do you think of Naruto staying on this world with his family?" In just the interactions between them and his son that he has seen, Minato has been able to spot the obvious attachment he had to them. When Naruto learned that they didn't plan to travel with him, it was easy to spot the deep disappointment and hurt that he felt.

Instead of answering right away, Urahara and Yoruichi stayed quiet. After a minute, Yoruichi sighed. "I'm going to be completely honest with you, Minato-san, Kushina-san…I don't like you. At all." They seemed taken aback by her words. "I met Naruto when he was five. And you know how I met him? I came across him in one of the local parks as he was crying to himself." They were both shocked.

"He…He was crying?" Kushina whispered.

Nodding, Yoruichi continued. "Yes, he was. It turns out that he was crying because his parents were ignoring him and acting indifferently towards everything about him in favor of his siblings." They flinched as if struck. "I didn't tell him who I was at the time, but I made sure to listen to him as he spoke about his worries and feelings…I don't even know if you ever did that much for him."

"B-but, we were-"

"Manipulated by someone else, I know" Yoruichi interrupted. "But that doesn't change the fact that, instead of his family, the only one who was willing to listen to a child and comfort him as he cried was someone he met in a park…" She sighed and looked up. "…I guess you wouldn't know that he refused to give up on you?" Their eyes widened. "For years, Naruto tried to remain positive and understanding of you two. He was always saying how it would eventually get better, but until then, he would have to wait…It never did."

"…"

"Yes, it's true that you were manipulated, but Naruto still underwent years of questioning himself. Questioning if he did something that drove you away. Questioning that maybe he deserved it in some way…"

"No! He didn't!" Kushina denied.

Yoruichi nodded. "Of course not. After he met Kisuke and we became a bigger part of his life, we did our best to convince him of that."

Urahara joined in at this point. "When Naruto came to me to learn how to use a sword, he was just a small boy. I've had the pleasure of both watching and helping him grow into who he is today, and I have no doubt that he will continue to grow in the future. He has been a great student…I didn't even need to teach him what he needed to put into a blade to be effective. Naruto has spent the last six years putting up with me and my antics while he trained himself to the ground. He has passed out from exhaustion so often that we even gave him his own room here…And you know why he works so hard? The reason that he does his best to get stronger?"

"…"

Urahara smiled softly. "When I asked him after a month of training, he smiled and told me that it was because if someone had to be at risk, then he was going to make sure that it was him. His friends and family were the reason that he was doing it…A six-year-old told me that. And I have no doubt that his reason to fight has not changed since then." His gaze sharpened. "Naruto has now been working for half of his life for this. He is inspired to go out and help in a way that is just about unique to him because he knows that there are few others who could help in the same way." His grip on his cane tightened. "And I _refuse_ to let you stop him." If Naruto asked him to, he would erase their memories of the last month and let Naruto leave without saying goodbye.

From her spot next to him, Yoruichi nodded. "I agree with Kisuke completely. I consider Naruto to be like a little brother, and seeing his relationship with his family is something that really pissed me off. I know he can really make a difference in this. He wants nothing more than to help however he can." Kushina and Minato stood there in silence.

"Hey!" They turned and saw Natsu running up the them with a wide grin on his face. Trailing behind him were the others. "The ship is awesome!" He came to a stop once he reached them. Noticing the atmosphere, he gained an uncertain expression. "Um…Am I interrupting something?"

Naruto frowned at the adults. He knew it was a bad idea to leave them behind to talk. "…Did something happen?" He asked.

Urahara shook his head, but didn't look away from Minato and Kushina. "Nothing serious. I was just asking your parents on their opinion on you leaving this world."

Frown deepening, Naruto turned to his parents. "And? What is their opinion?"

"…" Minato thought about everything he has heard and seen since being let in on this part of his son's life. "Naruto…" Said genin looked to him. "You aren't leaving this world." Kushina smiled at him while Naruto glared. Urahara and Yoruichi's faces gained frowns. Off to the side, the Fairy Tail members looked unsure if they should be there.

"I'm not?"

"No, you're not. Like your mother said, you are twelve years old an inexperienced. You have your keyblade, yes, but what else? Those other skills? They're good, but you can still be defeated. Just look at Orochimaru. Do you think that you can beat someone like that?"

Naruto grit his teeth. "I know I'm not strong enough, but I don't care. I'll still fight." Natsu nodded approvingly.

Minato frowned and shook his head. "I'm sorry, but that is a naïve way of thinking that will only get you killed." Naruto was about to speak, but stopped when he saw the cold eyes of Minato. It was clear that Minato was as serious as he could be. "You'll never make it."

"Then I shouldn't even try?"

"…No, you should get stronger." Naruto and Kushina blinked. Minato smiled softly at his son. "You aren't strong enough now, but that can be fixed."

Kushina turned to him. "Minato-"

"Kushina…" Minato cut her off. "We can't stop him. If we forbade him from leaving, he would just do so anyway as soon as he could. And…they're right." He said quietly. "Do we even still have the right to decide for him like that?" Kushina's eyes widened. "If Naruto really wants to do this, then I won't stop him." Kushina considered his words. "…What do you think?"

"…I don't agree. Not in the least" She finally said. "…But I understand what you're saying." With a heavy sigh, she nodded. "If you really want to do this, Naruto…Then I won't interfere."

Naruto's eyes widened even further. "You…You two will let me leave this world? Really?"

Minato nodded, smile still intact. "Yes." A grin formed on Naruto's face. " _But_ on one condition."

Blinking, Naruto nodded. "Um…Sure?"

Minato raised two fingers to Naruto. "Two months. I want you to wait two months before you leave. In these two months, you will be training with us."

Naruto tilted his head. "You really think I can learn a lot in two months?" He wasn't expecting Minato to smirk.

"You may not have the chakra of the Kyūbi, but you're still an Uzumaki. The beauty of that is the massive chakra reserves." Kushina grinned proudly. "You can use that to train with **Shadow Clones**. Things should be easier with that." He lowered his hand and quirked an eyebrow. "So? Do we have a deal?" Naruto smirked.

"Yeah…sure." He was extremely surprised that they were going to let him leave, but he could ask Urahara the real reason why later.

"Good. Then we start tomorrow."

"Great!" Urahara said with a wide grin. "Then that gives you two months to learn how to operate the gummi ship and navigate! We can do that in between training." He paused as a thought came to him. "Who is going to be the copilot?"

Natsu looked excited by the idea, but Gray cut him off. "Me." He said hurriedly. "I'm copilot." There was _no way_ he would let Natsu ever touch the controls.

The dragon slayer rounded on Gray with an angry expression. "And why the hell do you get to do it?!" He crossed his arms. "If someone gets to decide, then it's Naruto!" They turned to him at the same time.

"…Gray is copilot." There was no way he was ever letting Natsu touch the controls.

Natsu slumped. "Aww…"

Happy patted his shoulder. "It's okay, Natsu. There has to be _someone_ who is useless. Just look at Lucy!" Naruto sweat dropped at this.

He didn't know who she was, but he felt bad for this Lucy person.

* * *

Yen Sid sat in his tower, writing a letter to his student. After heavy deliberation, he decided that the best thing for Mickey to do at this point was to wait a little while longer. If things did indeed get worse, then perhaps leaving his kingdom to investigate would be the best course of action.

He paused when someone knocked on his door. Frowning, he tried to think about who it could be. Yen Sid noticed the person's presence the moment they had stepped foot on his world, but he didn't recognize them. Putting his pen down, he leaned back.

"Enter." The door opened and the person walked in. After briefly taking in their appearance and taking note of a particular feature, Yen Sid raised an eyebrow. "I do not believe we have met. Would you please tell me who you are and why you have come here?"

Instead of answering, the person raised a hand to the side. Yen Sid's other eyebrow rose to meet the other in surprise at what happened next and he leaned forward with his hands steepled.

"Yes, I see…Very interesting."

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 36!**

 **Hey, I've been thinking about this for a while, but would it be better for me to mark this story as completed and start the Kingdom Hearts storyline in a new one? I have some doubts about the point of doing it, but I thought I would ask anyways.**

 **Do I say "on" or "in" when talking about location of a person in respect to a world? For example, I had Urahara say "…of mine since arriving in this world." Is that right, or should I switch "in" out? I feel like what I have is correct in this context, but I'm confused because I'm pretty sure that "on" would be used in real life…like when talking about an astronaut on the moon.**

 **I'm not even going to even begin to think that I can do a good job describing that damn gummi ship. You wanna know what it looks like? Then look up the Kingdom Hearts Final Mix Stingray gummi ship. To be sure that you're looking at the right one, go to the khwiki. Or if you're lazy, use this link. (Remove spaces and replace "dot" with ".")**

 **khwiki dot com / File : Model_ Stingray_ KHFM dot png**

 **Props to everyone who noticed that DBZ reference.**

 **For those of you who couldn't predict that 3 comes after 2, yes. Natsu, Happy, and Gray are the ones I have chosen as Naruto's travelling companions. I have literally had them written down as such since around chapter 4.**

 **So…Guess what happens next chapter! We're finally here!**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	38. Meet The Rival

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 37!**

 **I seriously need someone sitting next to me who is willing to whack me upside the head while I write. Either that, or eliminate all the internet available to me. I get distracted so easily…**

 **The idea of starting a new story obviously didn't happen. It may come back again at some point in the future, but not now.**

 **I think I'm going to stick with "in" in terms of phrasing for location. It just sounds correct to me.**

 **I've been looking forward to this part of the story for a long time…**

* * *

 **Kairitrion Cerulean: Eh…You're probably right. I was thinking more along the lines of how leaving the world to fight a totally different war is completely different form doing it on this world, but yeah.**

 **megaslayer321a: That would work if Sora and them didn't appear in Birth by Sleep, which has already happened.**

 **redlox2: Yeah, the teachers aren't my priority. The fragments referred to the End of the World. And spoilers! Spoilers! Not saying anything!**

 **LordGhostStriker: I don't think that they ever confused a boss heart with a world heart, did they? Every time they defeated a boss, they found a keyhole for the world. Return visits to worlds didn't happen until Kingdom Hearts 2.**

 **jonnywolf: Don't buy the cheap stuff for dinner next time. :P**

 **keyblade master cole: They aren't traitors, I just never really had much of a use for them yet, so I almost forgot they existed while I was scrambling to wrap everything else up.**

 **Cha0ticM3ss: Oh, I gotcha. Maybe, I guess. I still have some world openings to fill. And thanks! I really enjoyed doing that part with Sephiroth. Sorry about that! If I miss part of your review, just send me a PM and I'll eventually get around to responding. To answer your question from last time, yes…And maybe sooner than you think.**

 **risengaku: …I can always count on you to give me the longest review of them all, can't I? Yeah, that's what I meant when I said it was a mess. It was originally meant to be part of the previous chapter, but it got cut off. Because of that, I took a break in the middle of it and had to try to get back into the flow of it. Haha, the multiverse has actually made some progress, it's just that no one has noticed. It's still a long way off until I can do it in the way that I want. And holy shit, those are some big spoilers. I'll answer just one of them. Ventus' heart in Sora? It will come up, yes. Zack** _ **is**_ **dead at this point, so it would be harder.**

 **Yatsushiro Ryko: That's along the lines of what I was thinking, yeah.**

 **prototype gear: Boo! You suck! I honestly don't know how much chaos I want. I know I want some, but I usually write it as I go. There are some things that I want to happen, but other than that? I dunno.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else. I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Deity Talking: **"** **Insert witty remark here** **."**

Biju/Deity Thinking: _**'**_ _ **Insert witty remark here**_ _ **.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **Last Updated: 3/29/17 (Minor grammar revisions and detail improvements)**

* * *

 **Station of Awakening (Two Months Later)**

Cerulean and violet eyes opened and looked around. "I'm in the station…" Naruto muttered.

"Yes." Turning his head, Naruto saw Hikari and Yami standing nearby. "We've called you here because there are some new developments that you need to know about." The seriousness of Hikari's tone made him frown.

"Like what?" He asked warily.

"It has…become even more important that you set out soon." Yami said.

Naruto blinked. "Why? I'm leaving the world soon, yeah, but why is it so important all of a sudden? You guys have never really expressed any sort of rush before…"

Hikari sighed. "That's because…we've learned that someone has been kidnapping the Princesses of Heart."

She just got a blank stare.

"…Did we not explain that either?" A silent shake of the head. Hikari and Yami glanced to each other.

"…Whoops?" Yami offered. "Okay, let's go back to the original discussion we had with you years ago when we first told you about light and darkness. As you know, the χ-blade was shattered into twenty pieces."

Naruto slowly nodded. "Right…Seven of light and thirteen of darkness…" He _still_ wasn't sure how that was an even ratio.

"Yes." Hikari confirmed. "And we also said that there are some individuals out there with pure hearts of light that are free of darkness, remember?" She got another nod. "And we didn't say it back then, but the seven light pieces of the χ-blade didn't just disappear over time…"

 _That_ was new to him. "They didn't? Then what happened to them?" Naruto never really thought about it before.

"They…" Hikari seemed to struggle to find the proper words. "The seven light pieces of the χ-blade later went on to create seven hearts of pure light."

His eyes widened in realization. "And those seven hearts are the Princesses of Heart." He concluded.

"Exactly." Yami said. "Because of their special connection to the χ-blade, they have the ability to open the Door to Darkness when gathered together."

The pristine white door that once plagued his dreams came to mind. "So…That means that someone is after what lies within?" A chill ran down his spine. "Xehanort?"

"…No. We do not _think_ it is him. Although we are not sure as to who it is, it is likely someone else…"

"Great…An unknown enemy…" Naruto muttered, but he soon scowled. "What are the chances that it is the snake?"

Yami blinked. "There's a thought…It's possible, but we don't think so…But he may be involved."

"And why not?" Trying to reach Kingdom Hearts sounded like something Orochimaru would do.

"Because there were signs of this happening starting before two months ago." Hikari explained. "While the Princesses of Heart weren't being kidnapped, or at least it wasn't noticed if they were, there has been a sudden increase in the number of worlds consumed by darkness over the last few months. We think that it is probably related."

Naruto crossed his arms. "Got it…So whoever is kidnapping the princesses could also be the person who is throwing the worlds into darkness…How many of the princesses have gone missing?"

"As far as we can tell, four of the seven have disappeared from their worlds…Whether their world was swallowed by the darkness or not."

"Four of them? Already?" Naruto asked in shock. "More than half of them have gone missing?"

Hikari sighed. "We would have told you sooner, but we were unable to confirm it until recently and there wouldn't have been much of a point to it unless you had a way off the world. The decision was also sped up by the increasing number of worlds disappearing."

"Crap…" Why did things always have to be complicated? "Okay. So, four of the seven princesses have been kidnapped. More and more worlds are getting consumed by darkness. It is probably the same person, and Orochimaru may or may not be involved in some way. The culprit wants to gain access to the Door to Darkness to reach Kingdom Hearts. Did I miss anything?"

"…No, that's it."

"Alright…I guess that provides a goal to this trip…" Naruto muttered. "This would also mean that this person is responsible for what happened to Gray, Natsu, and Happy's world…And maybe even Urahara and Yoruichi's. Stopping them should be my priority. Finding the location of the fragments left by the lost worlds would probably be easier if we go after this person…" He looked between the two of them.

"Thanks for the update."

* * *

 **Gummi Ship**

"Alright, Naruto..." Urahara began warningly. "Think carefully, or you _will_ die."

Naruto tried ignoring all the warning lights and klaxons he glared at the module in front of him, furiously thinking over the delicate procedure in his head. After another few seconds of thought, his eyes lit up and a triumphant grin spread across his face.

Reaching a hand over he flipped a few switches into the correct positions. The very next moment, the entire room began to shake. "Activate the entry protections..." He grasped a handle and slowly lowered it. "Begin to stop the propulsion..." He moved his hand to another handle next to the first and moved it up, causing there to be a sudden jerk, but it was subtle. "Start up the front facing thrusters..." Next, Naruto put his hand back over to the main control. "And guide is in for a smooth landing." The vibrations in the room died down.

Grin growing even more, Naruto turned to Urahara. "Well?" The man didn't answer right away, instead looking over all of the dials and gauges spread across the module. When he finished, he nodded and turned back to Naruto with a smile of his own.

"Congratulations, Naruto. I can now safely say that you are qualified enough to fly a gummi ship."

"Finally." Naruto said quietly as he slouched in his chair. "That was harder than I expected it to be..."

Urahara shook his head. "I don't know what you were expecting. In actuality, it is astounding that you've gotten this good at this in such a short amount of time." He turned back to the module and flipped a switch, making the black window in front of them change back into its transparent state. "In just two months of simulation and instruction, you have done what I'm pretty sure would take other people much longer to do."

Naruto shrugged. "Sure, but like you said, it's been two months. We're supposed to leave in a couple of days and I still didn't all the controls down."

"Well you do now, so what's the point of worrying about it?" Urahara asked. "Anyways, let's head back." Naruto nodded and got up to follow Urahara out the gummi ship. They walked in silence for a bit, but it was soon broken by Urahara. "So, are you excited to go out and see all the different kinds of worlds out there?" Grinning, he poked Naruto's cheek with his fan. "Maybe find a lady friend out there in the stars? Hm?"

Scowling, Naruto swiped at the offending item, but it was pulled away before he could grab it. "This isn't some kind of vacation. Looking for a girlfriend that's from a completely different world is _definitely_ not a priority of mine…And two people from different worlds dating? Would that even work out?"

The candy store owner shrugged. "Who knows? You would certainly know more about that than I would." He waved a hand dismissively. "You should relax a bit. I agree with you in that there will be times in this that you need to be serious, but you shouldn't spend all of your time focusing on the end product. Enjoy the journey."

This earned him a quirked eyebrow. "Right…" Naruto said slowly. "I guess it makes sense…" Who knew how long this would take? It would be stupid of him to spend all of his time with only the objective in mind.

"Great! Then I expect you to have a girlfriend by the next time we meet!"

"I never said I would get a girlfriend-ttebayo!"

"Meh. I read in between the lines."

"You're reading the wrong story!" What the hell was wrong with this jackass?

Urahara's smile died down to a small one. "Have you already said goodbye to those that you need to?" He asked.

Although slightly surprised by the sudden change in topic, Naruto replied. "Somewhat. I've said goodbye to the genin already, but I still need to say goodbye to my teammates." It had been a very awkward conversation between him, Ikusa, and Wataru. After extensive questioning, it was confirmed that neither of them knew about Misa's treacherous intentions, but they still felt as if they were partly responsible. They said that they should have at least been better friends so that they would have noticed something. Naruto spent a great amount of time trying to dissuade them of that belief. "They know I'm leaving, but we're supposed to meet tomorrow, so I'll say goodbye then." Urahara nodded.

"Just out of curiosity, what's the story you've been using?"

Naruto shrugged. "Nothing serious. Just that I'm leaving on a long-term training trip. It works because Jiraiya has expressed interest in taking Narumi and Menma out of the village to do the same. People just assume that I'm going with them."

"You say 'expressed' as if it isn't a sure thing." Urahara said, gaining a slightly amused look from Naruto. "What?"

"It isn't a for sure thing." He explained. "Kaa-san already had trouble letting me leave, but Narumi and Menma too? She actually put Jiraiya in the hospital for a bit when it was first brought up." He didn't have a problem admitting that he enjoyed the show. "But even though she reacted like that, it probably will happen in the end…Especially if she still sees them every few months."

Urahara smirked. "Oh, is _that_ why she was so angry last week? I wasn't sure why." They finally exited the metallic hallway and entered the main building. After Urahara sealed the path to the hangar, they began walking to the tea room. "Are your siblings in the know yet?"

Naruto grimaced. "No…But that isn't because of a lack of trying on their part." Narumi especially was getting increasingly persistent on learning what the big 'secret' was. Her badgering even tripled after she found out Naruto would be leaving somewhere, although she didn't know any more than that.

" _Are_ you going to tell them?"

After a moment, Naruto hesitantly nodded. "I think so, yeah." Urahara nodded in satisfaction as they entered the room.

Gray glanced up from the manual he was pouring over. "So? How'd you do?" He asked, receiving a smug smirk from the crimson blond.

"I passed, of course." He plopped down into a seat adjacent to Gray. Glancing at what Gray was reading made his smirk widen. "Last minute cramming?"

"Yeah." Gray said quietly and turned back to his manual. "I'm still a little iffy on the smaller dials that aren't used that often…" He frowned. "I've been sitting here and trying to make sure I remember them all. I've barely even registered the world around me for the last two hours."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "I can tell…"

Blinking, Gray gave him a confused look. "How?"

"You're only wearing your underwear." Naruto deadpanned.

Eyes widening in alarm, Gray looked at his current state of attire. "What?!" He looked around frantically, but his clothes were nowhere in sight. "I didn't even leave the room!" He ran off to look for them.

"Idiot…" Naruto sighed. Hearing a chuckle, he shot Urahara an annoyed look. "Glad you find the antics of the company I'm going to be putting up with so amusing."

"Hey, you have to admit that it _is_ a little amusing."

* * *

 **Training Ground 12 (The Next Day)**

"Alright, team! Pack it in!" Yūgao instructed.

Yakumo slumped in relief at her words. "Finally…" She muttered before glancing to her tired teammates. "Is it just me, or did she make these things harder?" She asked quietly.

Nodding, Naruto shot Yūgao a suspicious look. "I think she did. No matter how many training sessions pass, I never feel like they get any easier. So either we have not improved at all or she has been making them steadily harder as we progress."

Yūgao grinned. "That's exactly it. You didn't think I would just leave the difficulty of the training exercises alone, did you? What would the point of that be if you didn't find them challenging at all?" She received two dry looks and a blank one.

"…Right. You always know best, sensei…" Naruto finally said, although it was done in monotone.

Ignoring the obvious tone of voice, Yūgao crossed her arms and nodded sagely. "If there is one think I am proud of you for learning, that would be it." She uncrossed her arms and gave him a small smile. "So, this is it?"

Naruto gained a small smile of his own as his teammates turned to him. "Yeah. I'm scheduled to leave tomorrow."

Yakumo looked sad at this confirmation. "So you're really leaving then?" A nod. "But…what about team 12? It isn't the same unless we are all here…"

"I…" Naruto felt bad about it, but he was determined to go. "Team 12 isn't being disbanded or anything. It's just…taking a break while I'm gone." His time on this team has been something he has really enjoyed, and he wouldn't trade it for any other teams. "We'll definitely be back in business then."

Sai stared silently at his leaving teammate. Strangely, there was something pooling in his stomach, but he couldn't identify it. "You are leaving to become stronger. I do not see a reason to be apologetic for this." Although he said it, the corners of his mouth still twitched down minutely.

Hearing this, Naruto rolled his eyes. "Just a huge softy as always, huh Sai?" Sai just tilted his head at him. "…Never mind."

"So, if you're leaving tomorrow, then you know what that means?" All three of the genin gave Yūgao curious looks, not understanding what she was getting at. Seeing their looks made her grin again. "That means that team 12 is going out to eat! Right now!" Naruto and Yakumo blinked in surprise before smiling.

"Sure, but you're paying, sensei~" Yakumo said, getting a nod from Naruto.

"Yeah, it's only fair that the sensei does."

It was Yūgao's turn to roll her eyes this time. "Stupid brats, I was going to do so anyways." They grinned at her. "Now let's go!" She started walking away, the genin soon following.

* * *

 **Uzumaki-Namikaze Household (The Next Day)**

Kushina walked into the kitchen with a wide yawn, but froze in place and stared at Naruto, who was already sitting at the table and eating a bowl of cereal. It took her a moment to get over her surprise at him being there and smiled. "Good morning."

He smiled back. "Morning." The kitchen was thrown into silence. Spending the past two months with his parents allowed him to get over the initial animosity he felt deep down, but there were still some awkward moments.

"I…I didn't think anyone would be up this early…" Kushina began hesitantly.

Naruto shrugged. "I had some trouble sleeping. After waking up a couple hours ago, I gave up." He admitted as he looked back to his cereal. Naruto didn't say it directly, but she understood what he was hinting at.

"Oh." She smiled softly and took the seat next to him. "Is it because you're nervous or excited?" She asked.

"I…" Naruto thought about it. "I don't really know. Both, I guess?" He said quietly.

"Want to talk about it?" Naruto frowned, making her quickly continue. "I-If you don't want to, that's fine." Kushina was still trying to find out where exactly their boundaries were. She wanted to have him trust her completely and feel comfortable around her, but she didn't know how to go about it after everything that has happened.

She was relieved and pleasantly surprised when Naruto spoke up. "No, it's fine…I just…I've been working towards this for years now…It's kinda hard to wrap my head around the fact that this is finally happening."

"And you don't know how to react now that it is time, right?" She guessed.

"Right…Part of me feels like I'm ready for it. I've trained and learned what I needed to, so I should be good to go…But there's also a part of me that…"

Kushina's eyes lit up with realization. "You're doubting if you can do this, aren't you?" Naruto nodded silently. She sighed, making Naruto look at her. "You are so much smarter than I was at your age, Naruto…But you really do have your stupid moments, don't you?" Naruto's draw dropped a bit at the bluntness of her words.

' _Why do people keep on saying that?'_

She stared into his eyes. "I've said from the beginning that I don't like this plan…I told you all that I hated it. I don't want you to go out to different worlds to fight some grand war that you shouldn't have to fight in. That hasn't changed." Her eyes softened. "But I've come to get over myself and realize that this is something that you want to do and I should support it." She reached out and pulled him into a hug.

"I…I haven't been a good mother to you. I know that. I've done my best to make it up to you over the past few months, but there is no way to apologize for or excuse what I've done to you…During the last two months, you let me in on an aspect of your life that I didn't have any idea existed. As much as I would love if it _wasn't_ part of your life, I know it is. You are a keyblade wielder, and I know that you are ready for what comes with that."

Leaning back a bit but not letting go of him, she looked down, letting Naruto see the tears brimming in her eyes. "I can honestly say that I'm prouder of you and who you've become than I could ever possibly describe." She pulled back completely to wipe at her tears. "I just wish I was there to help you become who you are."

"The same goes for me." Startled at the new voice, Naruto turned to the owner and saw Minato standing in the doorway. The Hokage smiled and walked over to his wife and oldest son. "Naruto, there is no amount of apologies or reasoning that could excuse us for what we've done. You may not like us, or you may even hate us, but that doesn't change the fact that both your mother and I love you from the bottom of our hearts. I'm eternally grateful that you were willing to be near us for the last two months and let us have a hand in your life. Just as your mother said, you're ready for this." He smiled softly. "So please don't doubt yourself like that."

Naruto stared at them with wide eyes for a minute, but he soon had a small smile of his own. "Right…Sorry about that." His smile turned into a full grin. "It won't happen again-ttebayo!" It was stupid of him to even _think_ that he wasn't ready for this!

"Wh…What won't happen again." A yawn interrupted Narumi's question as she walked into the room. "…And morning, I guess…" It was too early for intelligent thought.

Gaining a smirk, Naruto responded. "I won't doubt if I'm good enough to help save all the worlds from falling into darkness again." He said.

Narumi blinked blearily at him. "Hm?" She tilted her head. "Oh, I'm still dreaming then?" She nodded and plopped down into a seat. "If that's the case, then I demand the world's best ramen!" When nothing appeared in front of her, she pouted. "Where's my ramen?"

The eldest of the triplets rolled his eyes. "Sorry, Narumi. You're not dreaming." She stared at him. "I'm leaving this world today on a ship that that candy shop owner made for me."

"…Huh?"

Kushina grinned. "It's true. Your older brother is leaving to go to other worlds to save them from darkness. He even has people who are from other worlds travelling with him."

"…What?"

Minato nodded. "Yep. He's been preparing for this for years now."

"…I…But…"

Naruto's smirk grew. "What did you think the big secret was? Or what I've been disappearing so much for the over the last two months? It was all to get ready to leave this world."

"You're leaving _what_?" Oh, when did Menma appear at the door?

"I'm leaving this world." Naruto answered simply with a shrug. "No big deal, really. Comes with the job."

"…WHAT-TTEBANE?!" Ah, Narumi's fully awake now.

* * *

 **Urahara Shop**

"Pleeeeaaaassseeee~"

Kushina gave her daughter a flat look. "No."

"But why not?!"

"Because I said so."

Narumi pointed defiantly at Naruto. "But Nii-chan gets to! That's totally not fair-ttebane!"

Their mother sighed. "Narumi, you aren't going with him. Period." When Narumi opened her mouth again, Kushina cut her off with a glare. "Ask me again and you won't like what happens!" Choosing the wise option, Narumi shut her mouth. "Good choice." Kushina shifted her eyes to Menma. "And you?" He shrunk back at her gaze and rapidly shook his head. "That's what I thought."

Knowing that she had lost the argument, Narumi moved onto the next topic. "I can't believe you never told me about all that, Nii-chan!" She whined. "How could you be so mean?!"

Naruto sighed and closed his eyes. "I didn't tell you because it was supposed to be a secret, Narumi."

"But I can keep secrets!"

"And you're especially good at keeping a secret when you don't know the secret in the first place." Naruto retorted. "Just be happy that we even told you this much. The suggestion of just telling you that I was leaving on a training trip was brought up."

She glared at him. "You wouldn't have!"

"Trust me, I would have." He opened the door to the shop and was instantly greeted with two faces in front of him. Fighting down the reflexive attack, Naruto took a step back. "Is this going to become a normal thing?" Kami, he hoped not.

Natsu just grinned at him, unrepentant. "Finally! You were taking forever!"

Happy floated in the air next to him. "Aye!"

"No, I wasn't. Just like the last time you said that. And the time before that." Naruto replied. While their antics _could_ be amusing every once in a while, certain ones like Gray's stripping habit or Natsu's impatience were questionable. "Is everything ready to go?"

"Yeah." Gray chose that moment to walk into the room. "Everything has been checked three times over. The only thing we were waiting on is you." He smirked. "Are _you_ ready to go?" Naruto smirked back and nodded. "Good. Then let's head on back." He turned back towards the back rooms and walked off, the others following behind him. As they walked he glanced back. "I'm guessing by how your siblings are here that they know?"

Narumi pouted and crossed her arms. "Yeah, but we only just found out!" She blinked before looking him, Natsu, and Happy over again. "Wait. Are you the people from a different world?" This question drew Menma's curiosity as well.

Happy flew in front of her and raised a paw in greeting. "Aye! The three of us are wound up here a few months ago!"

"Really?" Menma asked with some surprise. "I really couldn't tell a difference between us."

Gray snorted. "What did you think we would look like?" Menma blushed and stayed silent. They reached the hallway leading to the hangar, which was already open. "I guess it's understandable. When people think of something from another world, they normally don't think of something that looks the same…"

The dragon slayer placed his hands behind his head with a thoughtful expression. "Hm…I wonder; do you think that fire from other worlds tastes different?" A bit of drool escaped the corner of his mouth.

"The fire?" Menma muttered.

"And the fish!"

"Idiots. You've already eaten both on this world and there wasn't a difference. Why would it be any difference somewhere else?" Natsu glared at Gray.

"I was just wondering! Just because you have no imagination doesn't mean the rest of us don't!"

"What was that?!"

"Having trouble hearing me? You should clear out the ice clogging your ears!"

"I'll get on it right after I put out the flame that makes you think you're hot stuff!"

"Bastard!" Naruto groaned as the others watched in interest.

Narumi glanced over to him. "Um…I've changed my mind. I don't mind not going." She didn't want to be around these people for extended periods of time.

"Fighting again?" Yoruichi announced her presence with an amused tone in her question. "Try not to break anything on the ship, okay?"

"Only thing that will be breaking is this lizard breath dumbass!"

"But seriously…" A wave of spiritual pressure silenced them. "Knock it off." Natsu and Gray shuddered.

"A-Aye, sir…" Why were there so many scary females around here?

"Good." She looked to the rest of the group. "Kisuke is running some final tests…again. Come on." She led them over to Urahara, who was engrossed on the information that console was giving him. "They're here, Kisuke."

The man glanced up and smiled. "Ah, good! Everything is set and ready to go! There isn't a thing out of place and we made sure that the kitchen was fully stocked." His eyes drifted over to the two younger siblings. "Hello, we haven't met yet, have we?"

They shook their heads. "No, but we've heard Aniki talk about you." Menma answered.

"Oh?" Urahara's smile widened. "And what did my loyal minion say about me?" He ignored the glare he got from Naruto.

Narumi smirked. "Sorry, but we can't repeat a bunch of what he said because our parents are here, but it can be summed up to the 'stupid, idiotic, insane, annoying, wiseacre, and smug' candy shop owner." Urahara had deflated by the time she was halfway with the second adjective. While everyone else had amused looks, Naruto's was the most prominent.

"…Right." He whirled around to Naruto and wrapped him in a tearful hug. "Why are you always so cruel to me, Naru-chan?!"

"Get off-ttebayo! And who the hell are you calling 'Naru-chan'?!" Menma and Narumi stared in disbelief at the man who apparently taught their brother.

When Urahara finally had his fun -and Naruto had threatened to sic his mother on him- he relented. "But back on to the important matters. The gummi ship is ready to depart whenever you are. I assume you've already wrapped up everything you need to?" Naruto nodded. "Then just give me the word and I'll start the initial launch protocols." He grew quiet and the smile slipped off of his face.

Seeing this, Naruto grew slightly worried. "What's wrong?" When Urahara looked like that, it was usually because of something important…Unless he was being an ass.

"I have known you since you were six, Naruto." Urahara began. "I've trained many people in my life and there are only two that I can think of that truly surprised me at every turn by not only meeting my expectations, but completely shattering them. It has been an honor to be your teacher and I thank you for putting up with me all this time. I know you do well." The smile was back, but more subdued.

Naruto stared at him in shock, but he soon recovered with a small smile of his own. "You're an idiot and insane, but I can't imagine having anyone else teaching me what you have, so thanks for being my teacher." Urahara nodded. Naruto turned to speak to Yoruichi, but he didn't get the chance to when the woman pulled him into a hug.

"Be sure to kick some butt out there, alright?" She requested. "I won't forgive you if you die on us. You're a part of the family now, so that isn't allowed." She released him. "If you are stupid enough to lose, then Kisuke and I will find the way to this world's afterlife and kick your ass ourselves. But I know there is no way you will fail." Naruto grinned and nodded.

Once she was done, his parents gave him their last hugs. "We've already talked your ear off about the dangers and how we believe in you, so we will spare you of that." Minato said. "But let us say this one last time; be careful out there."

Kushina was tearing up again. "You better stay in contact or I will kick Kisuke-san's ass until he makes me a ship of my own so I can find you teach you the importance of staying in contact with your mother!" Urahara shot her a wary look.

Laughing quietly, Naruto nodded. "You got it." He wasn't even free of them for a second before Narumi tackled him to the ground. "Gah! What the heck was that for?!"

"I'm just saying goodbye!"

"By attempting to kill me?!"

"Whatever!"

Rolling his eyes, Menma pulled his sister off of Naruto. "Try not to damage his head. He kind of needs that to fly that ship…" Narumi pouted, but nodded. "Good. Be sure to stay in contact, Aniki. I want to hear what the other worlds are like."

Narumi gasped at the reminder. "I didn't think of that! You've gotta tell us about them-ttebane!"

"Sure, sure…"

"And the people!"

"Right…"

"And the adventures!"

' _Ugh, here we go…'_

* * *

Naruto, Gray, Natsu, and Happy were finally seated in the cockpit of the gummi ship after Narumi delayed them by her babbling. Glancing to the others, Naruto smirked. "Ready for launch?"

 **Play Kingdom Heats OST: Blast Away! ~ Gummi Ship 1**

Gray supplied his answer with a smirk of his own. "Ready."

Natsu grinned. "Ready!"

Happy nodded from the seat he _insisted_ on having. "Aye, sir!"

"Good. Then let's get going. You hear that, Urahara?"

" _Loud and clear. Lighting up the tunnel."_ Urahara's voice said over the com. Immediately after, the large tunnel on the far wall lit up. _"Because the hangar is under the village, you will need to use the tunnel to reach an exit point nearby. Once you leave this world, you will be able to set a destination to the next one…You are clear to leave. Good luck."_

"Understood." Naruto replied. "Starting up the ship."

The control console of the ship came to life, prompting Naruto to glance over everything. Not seeing anything out of place, he continued. "Starting up the engines." A small vibration reached them, but it died down soon after.

Suddenly, Natsu gained a look of fear. "Uh…"

"Releasing safeties."

Natsu swallowed nervously. "G-Guys…" Happy gave him a questioning look.

Not hearing Natsu, Gray continued the next part of the procedure. "All lights are green and nothing is obstructed."

"Hold on…" Realizing the problem, Happy smiled innocently.

"Awesome." Naruto grinned. "Starting up propulsion. We're a go!" The gummi ship lifted off the hangar's platform. Unnoticed to all but Happy, Natsu turned green. "Take off in three. Two. One!" Naruto pushed up on the controls for the thrusters of the ship. Responding to the command, the gummi ship began to fly into the tunnel, picking up speed as it went.

Natsu's cheeks swelled comically as he covered his mouth with a hand. "W-Wait!" He shouted, finally gaining the attention of Naruto and Gray.

"What's the problem? Is something going wrong?" Naruto asked back.

"T-This is…" Natsu turned a darker shade of green. "Transportation!" Gray's head snapped around at that and stared at Natsu in incredulous disbelief.

Not getting the problem, Naruto responded. "Yeah, so?" They were nearing the end of the tunnel now and it was starting to slope upwards. Natsu tried to answer, but didn't get the chance to when another wave of nausea hit him.

Seeing that Natsu couldn't speak, Happy did. "Natsu gets motion sickness just by the thought of being on a vehicle!"

Naruto was dumbfounded by this information. "Then why the hell didn't you say anything sooner?!"

"I-Urg…I forgot!"

"How did you forget something like that, you flaming moron?!" Gray shouted. "Well, it's too late to do anything now! We've already began leaving!" Just as he said this, the ship exited the tunnel in a mountainous area. "Leaving the world in three! Two! One!"

The area around them distorted and warped. Soon, they found themselves flying through and endless expanse of stars.

"Whoa…This is…amazing." Naruto whispered. Equally stunned, Gray nodded without talking. They were so caught up in the view that they didn't notice Natsu falling out of his chair. Finally catching up to himself, Naruto flicked the necessary switches and turned around to face the dragon slayer on the ground. "So you're telling me that you get crippling motion sickness all the time?"

Gray sighed. "Yeah, he does. While I admit I probably should have remembered that before now, there's no way _he_ could have forgotten." He said with a glare.

"Ugh…Help…"

"Freakin' idiot…"

Naruto shook his head. "That's something that can cause problems…Give me a second." He walked over to Natsu and raised a hand over him. "I haven't tried this spell before, so I'm not sure how well it will work… **Esuna**."

A golden glow shrouded Natsu, and when it died down, the dragon slayer stared at Naruto with wide eyes. Registering that the paralyzing feeling was gone, Natsu grinned and jumped to his feet. "I'm alive!"

"You're alive!" And of course Happy couldn't help but join in…

Natsu spun around to Naruto and engulfed him in a hug. "You're a life saver!"

"Get off of me!"

"I'm eternally in your debt!"

"Get off of me and consider your debt repaid!"

"Done!" Natsu released him. "Now we're even." He declared proudly. Not giving Naruto the chance to say anything, he gained a suspicious look and leaned in to examine Naruto closely.

Unsettled by the proximity and look, Naruto leaned back. "What?"

"Hm…Are you a sky dragon slayer?" Naruto just stared at him. "What do you think, Happy?"

"He must be! That was a sky dragon slayer spell!" Happy insisted.

Groaning, Gray turned away in his seat. "No, he isn't a sky dragon slayer. He just has a similar spell to the one Wendy has…" Natsu blinked and stopped leaning towards Naruto.

"Oh…"

Naruto shook his head. "If you're done, then we can start figuring out where exactly we are heading." Seeing no objections, Naruto moved back to his seat. After quickly looking over the controls, he found what he was looking for and pressed the desired button. "There…" A map of the Ocean Between appeared in front of them.

Seeing it for the first time, Gray frowned. "Are those all the worlds? Shouldn't there be more?"

"No, this is right…" Naruto answered, gaining all attention on him. "Urahara said that the navigation gummi we have only has the information for these worlds. If we want to go to more, then we will need to find another one at some point."

"Oh…" Gray muttered. "So where to first?"

"Oh! Oh!" Happy exclaimed excitedly while pointing. "That one!"

Naruto quirked an eyebrow. "Why that one?"

"Because it looks interesting!" Naruto and Gray sighed.

"No, that one!" Great, now Natsu was joining in. "That looks like a place where some strong people would be!"

Ignoring the two, Gray turned to Naruto. "So? What do you think?" Naruto considered the options. When he made a decision, he enlarged a world on the screen.

"We're going here first." Naruto declared to the disappointment of Natsu and Happy.

Looking at the world, Gray nodded. "Any reason?"

"Proximity, for one." Naruto explained. "Another is because of the fact that Urahara made a note that there is a lot of motion going in and out of the world. So if we want some sort of information, a world where there could be people who actually know about other worlds would be a good place to start."

"Good idea. You ready to go?"

"Yep. Let me just set the course into the system…" A moment later and he had done so. Naruto was about to continue, but he paused when a thought came to him. "Um…Exactly how many heartless do you think we are going to come across before we get there?"

Gray shrugged. "Can't say."

"Ha! Bring it on! We'll take them all on!" Naruto closed his eyes at Natsu's shout.

Maybe it would have been better to leave him sick?

 **End Music**

* * *

 **Later**

Naruto scowled as they entered through the large doors of the town. "Why the heck would you tempt fate like that? 'Bring it on'? Really?"

"Hey! How was I supposed to know that they would have ships of their own that can shoot us!" Natsu defended.

"By actually listening when Urahara and Naruto speak? How about that?" Gray asked. When Natsu looked away, he growled. "We were under constant fire out there!"

"I shot them down, didn't I?!"

" _After_ they shot at us!" Naruto replied before shaking his head. "Whatever. We know in the future what it will be like." Calming down, he took the chance to look around. "Now, where are we?"

They seemed to be in the middle of some kind of Victorian age plaza with various shops and restaurants. Despite it being it being the middle of a starry night, there was still activity present. People were bustling through the plaza and talking to one another as they headed to the brightly lit shops. Subconsciously, Naruto's posture relaxed some more, and a small smile pulled at his lips.

"What're you smiling about?" Naruto turned to the speaker, only to see Happy hovering in the air with a curious expression on his face.

Naruto blinked. "Huh?" Was he smiling? "I didn't even realize I started to smile." Looking around again, Naruto shrugged. "I dunno. There's just…something about this place. I feel…comfortable here."

Gray quirked an eyebrow. "And why is that?"

Considering the question, Naruto shook his head. "Not a clue. I just do."

Hearing this, Happy titled his head. "…You're weird." He determined, making Naruto twitch.

"…I'm done with this conversation." Naruto muttered. Deciding they wouldn't figure it out by staring, Naruto walked up to a woman who was standing nearby. "Um, excuse me, ma'am?"

Blinking, she turned to him and smiled. "Yes? Can I help you?"

"Sorry, but I have a stupid question. Can you please tell me where we are?"

The woman frowned minutely. "Sure…" She wasn't going to ask why he didn't know. "You're currently standing in the middle of the First District of Traverse Town." Her eyes widened. "Are you new to this world?" At his shocked look, she smiled gently. "Don't worry, everyone here is someone who lost their original world. We're all refugees." Digesting the information, Naruto nodded. "Then let me help you out." She pointed off to the side towards a staircase. "You see that shop over there at the top of the stairs? The man who owns that shop is named Cid. He and his friends can help you get settled in. They know the most about what is going on."

Rolling with the misunderstanding, Naruto smiled at her. "Thank you."

"It's not a problem. Happy to help."

Turning around, Naruto walked back over to his companions. "We're in a world called Traverse Town." He informed them. "Everyone here is a refugee that has lost their original world." Seeing their looks, he smiled. "Which of course means we may find some people you know here."

"Then what are we waiting for?!" Natsu shouted. "Let's get looking!" He rushed off with Happy flying after him.

"Wait!" Naruto cursed and looked to Gray. "We have to follow them. I don't trust them on their own and that woman told me that there was this group that we can talk to that might be able to answer some questions."

Gray groaned. "Damn it…Let's get going." They rushed off after Natsu and Happy.

As they turned a corner after running through the doors that led into another district, Naruto nearly bumped into someone, only barely avoiding them by some quick reflexes. Taking a quick glance to see that they were alright, the only things Naruto noticed about the person were the spiky brown hair and bright yellow shoes. "Sorry about that!" He yelled as he rushed off.

The boy rubbed the back of his head and opened his mouth to call after him, but froze when he saw where they were going. "Hey, wait! There are these heartless things over there!"

Naruto frowned at the warning, but didn't look back. "Thanks for the heads up! We'll be fine!" He and Gray continued after Natsu.

"But…" The boy shook his head. "He said he'll be fine…I should focus on finding that leader!" The boy turned and ran off.

* * *

 **With Natsu**

Natsu came to a stop in a back alley next to drainage vein and looked around. "You see anyone, Happy?" The cat joined him in looking around.

"No!"

"Damn. Then let's keep looking!" He made to run off again.

"Hold up!" Natsu and Happy turned to see Gray and Naruto running up to them. Glaring, Naruto shouted.

"Where have you two been?! We need to look around!"

Gray glared back. "We've been chasing after you in a world that all of us are new to! Why would you just run off like that?!"

"You heard what Naruto said!" Natsu answered. "People from other worlds wind up here when their original one is swallowed by darkness! That means our friends can be here!"

Naruto sighed. "Yes, Natsu, that's true, but there is no guarantee. And what I was about to say when you ran off was that the woman told me about some people who could give us some information. They apparently help out new people get settled in. If there is anyone that would be able to tell you if one of your friends is here, it's them."

"Oh…" Natsu deflated with a frown. "Sorry about that…"

"It's not a problem." Naruto turned around. "Let's just get out of here before the heartless we were warned about show up." He took a step forward, but stopped when a soldier heartless appeared in front of him. "…Damn it."

Happy grinned. "You're the one who jinxed it that time! You're an idiot!"

Kami, he hated that cat sometimes…

* * *

Naruto ducked under the swipe of a soldier heartless' claw and retaliated with a stab of his keyblade. "We're almost done! How are you guys holding up?!"

"Fine over here!" Gray shouted. " **Ice Make: Lance**!" A group of heartless were killed off by the shirtless male.

"Ha! This is nothing!" Natsu proclaimed.

"Good job, guys! Keep it up!" Happy cheered from the safety of the air. "Be sure to watch out for their claws!"

' _Thanks, I didn't realize they were dangerous!'_ Naruto said in his head. Suddenly, movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. "Happy, move!" A new type of heartless was floating behind the flying cat.

It had a smooth, conical, red boy with a heartless emblem on its chest. Glowing yellow eyes peeked out from beneath what almost looked like a wizard's hat.

Knowing that it had been caught, the heartless began to quickly charge up a fireball. Happy was caught so off guard at a new enemy that could reach him that he wasn't able to react to the threat.

"Happy!" Natsu moved to save Happy, but he was too far away. Naruto shot up a hand, but he knew that he was also too far away for a spell to make it in time.

" **Blizzard**!" Out of nowhere, a blast of ice impacted the side of the heartless, killing it. "Well…That was close." A male voice said. Gaping for half a second, Naruto spun around to see where it had come from. "You know, just because you can fly doesn't mean you are out of danger."

Standing on one of the balconies above them was a boy who looked to be around Naruto's age. He had spiky red hair, blue eyes, and wore a short sleeve green shirt underneath a light blue tunic. He also had on a black belt, yellow pants, brown boots and bracers, a white headband, and an orange ascot around his neck. Completing his outfit was an armor pauldron on his left shoulder.

The boy smiled at them. "You guys are really strong. They didn't stand a chance."

Tilting his head, Naruto nodded and stood up from his battle stance. "Thanks for the assist. It was stupid of us to let our guards down because we were almost done..." There was something about this boy...

Happy flew into Natsu's chest with a fit of tears. "Natsuuu! I almost died!"

Natsu comforted him with a hug. "But you didn't, buddy. You're fine!" Happy let out another sob. "There's no way that you'd be done in by something like that."

Gray relaxed from his stance, but sent the newcomer a wary look. "That was ice magic?"

The boy nodded. "Yeah, I'm pretty decent at magic, so I use a lot of spells. I've kinda been forced to practice it a bunch…Stupid geezer." That last part was said under his breath.

Quirking an eyebrow, Gray accepted the answer. "Right…Thanks again for the help."

"I'm in your debt!" Happy cried.

"We're in your debt!" Natsu corrected with a grin. "The name's Natsu! This is Happy," The cat waved. "Naruto," Said crimson blond raised a hand, "And the ice stripper."

"The name's Gray, flame brain!"

The boy laughed at their interaction. "Nice to meet you. I'm Nox." His eyes moved to Naruto. "Your name is Naruto?" The amount of interest in his tone made Naruto frown.

"Yeah…?"

Nox's grin widened. "Alright then, Naruto…I challenge you to a fight!" Eyes all around widened.

"Wha-" Naruto was cut off by an excited Natsu.

"Wait! If you wanna fight someone, I'm game!" He deflated when Nox shook his head in denial. "Aww, but why not?!"

"Because…" Nox began. "He has a keyblade." Naruto's eyes widened even further. Before he could say anything, Nox jumped down from the balcony and into the space in front them. They watched as Nox raised his hand. In a flash, a keyblade appeared, shocking them.

The guard was designed to be two shooting stars, the blade was blue and decorated with more stars, and the teeth were a crescent moon and a star. The keychain of the keyblade was a crescent moon.

Nox pointed the keyblade at him. "I want to see how I compare against you."

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 37!**

 **I'm not sure if I learned how and I forgot or I never figured it out, but I don't get how 7 pieces of light is the equivalent to 13 pieces of darkness.**

 **Other worlds! Finally! The first one** _ **is**_ **Traverse Town, but it diverges from there.**

 **And yes, that was totally Sora.**

 **Nox is designed after Crono from Chrono Trigger. His keyblade is Star Seeker.**

 **Yeah, yeah. I remember that there were only a certain amount of keyblade wielders.**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	39. Meet the Other Hero

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 38!**

 **No matter how hard I try, I just can't force myself to put this freaking update cycle back on schedule…This thing should be getting updates Tuesday or Wednesday night…**

 **I absolutely _did_ replace the wrong chapter by accident, but I fixed it.**

 **Thanks to the people who explained the light to darkness ratio thing.**

 **Trying something a _little_ different for the music in the fight scene.**

* * *

 **Dark Natsu Dragneel: I'm going to make it so there are the same number of _main_ keyblade wielders, but with the addition of other ones. There used to be a bunch more, after all.**

 **Kairitrion Cerulean: That's what I was thinking. It makes sense for there to be more. And as it gets later into the night, more and more mistakes slip through the proofreading. :P Thanks for pointing that out!**

 **prototype gear: If you've been here that long, then it must have been around week two or something…Back when I was stupid enough to actually do daily updates of this length. And cultured tastes my ass! How the hell is shitty rapping cultured?!**

 **keyblade master cole: That's the plan.**

 **redlox2: The Riku thing is a whole pain in the ass I still need to flesh out. And yeah, the ones not captured are the same ones.**

 **risengaku: I'm not sure if I jinxed it, but HeartlessNobody13 beat you out for review length this time (That's not a challenge to make an even longer one!). Why should I ruin a perfectly good running gag? Natsu will get sick again (I may not write it every time though). Glider and Armor…Well, don't expect good designs from me. And no, Nox is not one of the multiverse developments. Blast away 3 was too serious for that scene. Blast away 1 had more of a light hearted feel to it.**

 **HeartlessNobody13: That pretty much follows my train of thought. I don't see the point of just having the number of keyblade wielders they had in the game. Why not add more as support or something? That's a big reason for why I'm doing that. And I don't think Jack has the potential…After all, Leon also held the Kingdom Key for a bit when he met Sora. Velvet's weapon is OP as hell! …And I like how you're acting like I already confirmed RWBY to be a world.**

 **shadowmwape: Define "team up" please. Work together? Sure. Travel together? Nope.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else. I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Deity Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Deity Thinking: **_'Insert witty remark here.'_**

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **Last Updated: 3/30/17 (Minor grammar and detail revisions)**

* * *

"I want to see how I compare against you."

Gray and Naruto just stared dumbly at the weapon in Nox's hand. Both of them were having a little trouble catching up to the fact that another keyblade wielder just showed up out of nowhere and challenged Naruto to a fight to test himself.

"Whoa, you have one of those key thingies too!" Happy exclaimed excitedly.

Nox was amused at their reactions to his keyblade. "Hello~? You still there?" He called. "Was that too much for you?"

It was at that point that Naruto and Gray finally caught up to what was happening. "You're a keyblade wielder." Naruto said quietly, but it was more to himself than to Nox.

Despite realizing this, Nox rolled his eyes and began to twirl his keyblade around in a nonchalant manner. "No way? I didn't realize." His smirk returned as he finished twirling his keyblade and pointed it at Naruto again. "Yes, I'm a keyblade wielder, just as you are. Now enough of this, I wanna fight."

Naruto blinked, finally registering the request. Quickly shaking his head, he gave Nox a wary look. "Hold on. Why should we fight? I have no reason to fight you!"

"Too bad!" Nox grinned wildly. "I have been waiting for a chance like this to come by. I'm not letting it slip!"

"But-" Naruto was interrupted when a hand abruptly thumped him roughly on the back.

"Come on, Naruto!" Naruto turned and glared at the grinning Natsu. "He challenged you to a fight! That means you have to accept!"

"Sorry, but I don't see how one leads to the other." Naruto muttered.

"That's okay." Happy glided over to his other side. "You don't have to understand it, just go with it!" Natsu nodded in agreement.

"Like I said, I-"

"He accepts!" Natsu said to Nox, ignoring Naruto completely.

"I never said I did!" Naruto snapped. "I don't want to fight him."

Gray sighed. "Just go with it, Naruto…" He said. "If you don't, then we will have to deal with these two whining about it for days."

Naruto scowled and considered his options. After a minute, his scowl deepened. "Fine…" He said, earning an even wider grin from Nox, who had been watching the entertainment silently.

"Awesome!" Nox slid into a battle stance, prompting Naruto to do the same as the Fairy Tail members walked off to the side. The two combatants stared at each other, waiting for the silent signal to start.

 **Play Pokémon ORAS OST: Battle! Rival - Extended**

"Show me what you've got!" Nox ordered before he raised a hand above him. " **Aerora**!" Spiraling wind appeared around Nox, who immediately followed up with a dash at Naruto, making his eyes widen in shock at the speed.

Not hesitating, Naruto shot his keyblade up and parried the strike, but Nox seemed to be expecting such a thing because his leg was already in motion in a direct path to Naruto's chest. Nox blinked in slight surprise when Naruto was still able to block his attack and he jumped back. "Didn't think you would be able to block that…" He admitted.

Smirking, Naruto shrugged. "You nearly had me. Using **Aerora** to boost your speed is similar to something a friend of mine does in battle."

"Oh, is that right?" Nox's grin returned. "Then I'll just have try harder to catch you off guard!" He rushed in again with a downward slash. Naruto sidestepped the attack and lashed his keyblade at Nox, who didn't even bat an eye as he titled his head out of the way. " **Tornado**!" Naruto wasn't prepared for a violent gust of wind to form and launch him high into the air, all the while blades of wind simultaneously cut into his body.

Gritting his teeth, Naruto flipped into an upright position and looked back down, only to not see Nox anywhere in sight. Mental alarms blaring, Naruto pivoted his body and raised his keyblade, only barely managing to get it up in time to intercept Nox's attack. _'Okay, so he is even_ faster _than I thought…'_ Naruto smirked. " **Shadowbreaker**!" Nox was expecting some sort of attack, so he was able to save himself from harm from the light imbued slash, but he was hit by the second slash filled with darkness.

"Wha-?!" Nox was launched back into a wall as Naruto fell back into the ground. He knew that something like that wouldn't be enough to put the redhead down, so he was unsurprised when Nox landed on his feet a moment later, wide eyes fixed on Naruto. "Darkness?! Are you serious?!" Naruto shrugged with a smile, earning another grin from Nox. "Awesome! I knew I wasn't the only one!"

Naruto's jaw dropped a bit.

"What?" He whispered, but Nox didn't seem to hear him.

"I knew other keyblade wielders would see that learning some darkness techniques was worth it!" His eyes practically _glowed_ with excitement. "And you seem way better than I am at balancing it with the light!"

' _Oh, so he just knows some darkness techniques, but he of course can't balance his darkness and light perfectly…'_

Nox slid into a battle stance again. "Let me show you what I can do!" He swung his keyblade in a wide arc. " **Dark Firaga**!" A volley of darkness coated fireballs launched at Naruto, with Nox moving a step behind the attack.

Tracking each fireball, Naruto dodged, ducked, dipped, dove, and dodged through the assault until he found himself face to face with Nox. A metallic clang rang through the back streets and sparks flew when keyblade met keyblade. The two of them were thrown into a rapid flurry of attacks and blocks as they attempted to land a hit on each other. Nox's speed boost from his starting spell had worn off, so they were now roughly even in speed.

Rolling under a horizontal strike, Naruto sprang back to his feet and attacked. Naruto grinned in satisfaction when his attack earned him a pained grunt from Nox. Not letting up, Naruto brought his keyblade back. " **Aerial Slam**!" The slash from below was stopped cold when Nox's Keyblade stopped it.

Nox and Naruto's eyes met each other, and Naruto was surprised to see the joy in Nox's eyes.

"I think I've got you figured out…" Nox began. "I'm sure that while you _can_ perform spells, you prefer to use actual keyblade techniques, right?" Naruto's eye twitched at the accurate assessment. "It works for you." Nox admitted. "You're both fast enough and strong enough for it to be effective. Me on the other hand…" His grin grew, making Naruto tense. "Like I said, I'm pretty decent at magic." Not giving Naruto the chance to gain some distance, he attacked. " **Fira**!"

Naruto's eyes widened in shock when fireballs formed around the two of them, _without_ Nox even moving his keyblade or hands. _'He can use spells without moving?!'_ Even he wasn't able to yet use any spells without at least pointing a hand at the target! Naruto cursed and hastily disengaged his keyblade to jump back while batting away the fireballs streaking towards him.

Using the chance, Nox pointed his keyblade at Naruto. " **Blizzara**! **Aerora**! **Triple Plasma**!" Blasts of ice, wind, and electricity rocketed towards Naruto.

' _Damn it!'_ Naruto knew he wouldn't be able to move out of the way in time, he brought his keyblade up into a defensive position in front of him. " **Reflera**!" A barrier of light appeared around Naruto, forming just in time to stop the onslaught of spells. Naruto buckled a bit under the pressure of the attacks, but he poured more power into the spell, allowing it to last. _'_ So _glad I bothered to learn some more defensive spells.'_

"Hey, so you _do_ know some spells!" Nox shouted in joy. "That was a pretty good barrier!"

The crimson blond glared at Nox. "Enough…" He muttered. Crouching, he pulled on some twilight. " **Sonic Blade**." Nox's eyes widened when Naruto blurred out of sight in a burst of speed. His whereabouts soon became known again when a leg impacted his back, followed by a keyblade cutting into his side, and then another strike from above.

Nox was relentlessly knocked around until Naruto finally launched him away. His body flew towards the waterway, and he was only barely able to adjust himself in time to land on his feet. Wincing, he gently rested a hand on his side. "Okay…That hurt…" Despite this, his grin was still there.

Naruto smirked at Nox and slid back into a battle stance. "What, are you done?"

"Ha! No way! I'm still good to go!" Nox proclaimed with a battle stance of his own. It was at that point that Naruto noticed that Nox was standing in front of the waterway, giving him an idea.

Smirk growing, Naruto brought his keyblade back before pushing all of his strength into hurling it. " **Spark Raid**!" Without wasting any time, Naruto began to flash through hand seals while Nox was focused on knocking the keyblade high into the air and intercepting the beams of light that came out of it.

Blocking the last beam of light, Nox turned his eyes back to Naruto. "Was that the best you can d-?!"

" **Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet**!"

Nox's eyebrows bunched together. "What?" That didn't sound like a spell. Suddenly, movement behind him made him spin around and prepare himself, but he was caught completely off guard by the large dragon made of water lunging at him. "The hell?!"

"A dragon!" Natsu shouted in glee.

"Gah!" The water dragon lunged at Nox and completely engulfed him.

' _I'm not done yet!'_ Naruto thrust a hand forward. " **Thundaga Shot**!" The surge of electricity was added to the water, making the pain Nox was feeling intensify. They all watched as the water dragon continued moving until it collided against a nearby wall. Not letting his guard down, Naruto recalled his keyblade and moved back into a battle stance.

Soon, the raging water died down, leaving by a soaked and injured Nox. With the force of the water not keeping him up anymore, Nox's body started to fall. Despite taking the combo of the water dragon and the spell that was added to it, Nox was still able to land safely on his feet, although he looked injured.

Wincing, he looked to Naruto. "Never been hit with a technique like _that_ before…" He said.

Naruto smirked. "Would have been surprised if you had. It's something from my world, meaning it wasn't a spell."

Nox grinned. "Oh, so now we're using trump cards that the opponent couldn't mimic? Well why didn't you say so?" Naruto's smirk fell. "Now I'm _really_ pumped!" He tossed his keyblade into the air. Naruto, not knowing what to expect, was surprised when the keyblade disappeared in a flash of light, leaving something entirely different behind.

In the keyblade's place was a winged waveboard. The glider looked to be designed after Nox's keyblade, as most of it was colored blue with various moons and stars on it. The wings of the waveboard were the same as the teeth of the keyblade where they were crescent moons with stars inside, while the front of the waveboard was shaped like a star.

Hopping on in the manner one would a skateboard, Nox's grin grew when he saw Naruto's expression. "So I'm guessing I was right to assume that you have never seen a keyblade glider?"

Naruto eyed the glider. He _has_ seen them before, but only ever back when he still had dreams of Terra, Aqua, and Ventus. Nox's keyblade glider looked to be the same kind as the one Ventus used, but designed after a different keyblade.

"Well whatever! Try to keep up now!" Nox rocketed towards Naruto. Alarmed, Naruto dove to the side to avoid him. Turning on a dime, Nox steered the glider to the side and thrust a hand out. " **Fira**!" He put on a burst of speed and pushed down on the back of the glider to make it jump. Once he was above Naruto, he pointed a hand at him again. " **Blizarra**!"

Back on the ground, Naruto batted the fireball away, but was not able to completely get out of the way of the follow up spell. Gritting his teeth, Naruto whirled around and saw that Nox was now back over by the water. He raised his keyblade. " **Thunder**!" Nox was long gone by the time the lightning bolt came down.

Nox laughed excitedly. "Come on! You're gonna have to move faster than that!" He performed a flip to avoid another attack. "You almost got me that time!" Naruto's eyebrow twitched at the taunting. "Should I slow down a bit?!" Nox launched more spells.

' _Oh, I'm gonna enjoy kicking his ass…'_ Forming a plan, Naruto smirked. Tracking the oncoming fireball, Naruto raised a hand towards it. " **Fira**!" Nox frowned in confusion when Naruto countered his fireball with one of his own, creating an even larger explosion between them and encasing the entire area in smoke.

When the smoke cleared, Naruto was still standing there, but he was panting from all of the fighting. Nox tried not to show it, but he wasn't that much better off after throwing around so many spells.

"You ready to give up?" Nox called.

"Nope. You?" Naruto's question made Nox's grin return.

"Never!"

Naruto matched Nox's grin. "Good! Otherwise this next part would have been pointless!" Nox blinked in confusion.

"Next part?" The question was answered a second later.

" **Spark Dive**!" Nox's head snapped up at the shout and he was greeted with the sight of another Naruto diving towards him from above with electricity coating him. Not wasting any further time on thinking, he urged his glider to the side while dispelling the clone with a fireball. " **Fire Strike**!" Startled, Nox made the glider lurch out of the way, barely managing to avoid a flaming slash from another Naruto. Like the other, this clone was also taken out by a spell.

"Ha! You almost fooled me!"

"No, I'm pretty sure I did get you." Nox looked up just in time to see another Naruto a few feet in the air above him. " **Strike Raid**!" Naruto hurled his keyblade down at Nox while falling.

Acting hastily, Nox raised a barrier and parried the blow. Eyes widening at the chance, Nox smirked and lashed out a hand to grab the keyblade. Now armed with Naruto's keyblade, Nox spoke up. "You lost your keyblade and I can counter any spell you dish out, give up!" He moved to the side as Naruto landed next to him.

He was not expecting what happened next.

"I don't need my keyblade or spells." Nox's eyes widened when a blue spiraling orb thrust into his gut. " **Rasengan**!"

"Argh!" Nox let go of Naruto's keyblade as he was launched back and into the water by the force of the attack.

Smirking widely, Naruto caught his keyblade. "I already told you that I have techniques from my world."

"And I can't believe I forgot about that." Startled, Naruto spun around to see Nox standing behind him with an annoyed look. "That would have sucked if I was actually hit…" Naruto glanced back over to the water to see that the Nox that was hit wasn't there anymore. Looking at the boy again, Naruto saw he was grinning widely. "What, you think that you were the only one to use that smoke as a cover? Or the only one able to create a replica?" He rolled his eyes. "Dream on."

Shrugging, Naruto grinned. "I admit that I didn't think of it." He gestured to the glider at his feet. "But I would say that I still won, wouldn't you?"

Nox matched the grin with one of his own. "Nah, I wouldn't." Naruto blinked and watched as Nox moved a hand to the armor on his shoulder. "Just as you have other trump cards to use, so do I." Naruto tensed and prepared himself. "But…I think I've seen enough." Nox dropped his hand back down.

 **End Music**

Naruto stared. "Huh?"

"What?! But it was just getting good!" Natsu shouted.

Nox shrugged. "I saw enough to get the idea. The only reason I challenged him was because I wanted so see how I compared, remember? I'm sure that there was more he could have dished out, but the same goes for me." He nodded. "Thanks for the fight!"

After staring at him for a minute, Naruto nodded back. "…No problem…" He relaxed. "I enjoyed it."

"Good! Because we will absolutely be doing it again sometime!"

"…What?" Did he hear that right? "We will?"

"Well, of course we will!" Nox said as if it was obvious. "I'm gonna challenge you again so that we can see how much stronger we become over time." He explained as the Fairy Tail members joined them.

"Hey, I'm always good for a fight!" Natsu said.

Nox took one glance at him before waving. "Nah, I don't see a point in fighting you."

"What?!"

"Yeah, I just want to fight other keyblade wielders." Nox said. "I'm sure you're strong, but I don't want to fight you." Natsu scowled. "Speaking of keyblades…" Nox walked over to the glider and reached out a hand. In a flash, his keyblade reappeared in the hand. "There we go…"

Naruto frowned. "Where did get the ability to turn your keyblade into a glider?" He asked.

Blinking, Nox turned to him. "The old geez-I mean from my master." He tilted his head. "Where else?"

"You're apprenticed to a keyblade master?!" There were still masters around?!

"Yeah…?" Nox said slowly. "I'm not sure of how many are left, but there are apparently at least two if you're here…" He frowned. "Why is that so surprising? Aren't you apprenticed to a master?"

A small grimace pulled at Naruto's face. "…I guess so…"

"Then it shouldn't be a surprise!" Nox said with a smile. "The ge- _master_ is the one who made me learn so many spells. It's what he specializes in, so he forced it on me." His eyes turned distant. "…Training was painful…" He said quietly.

Not knowing what was wrong with him, Naruto traded looks with the others. "…Right. Anyways, what are you doing on this world?" Naruto's question pulled Nox out his past trauma. "If you're apprenticed, shouldn't you be on your master's home world?"

Nox smirked. "I can ask you the same thing." Naruto rolled his eyes. "If you must know, my master was concerned about all the worlds getting consumed by the darkness, so he tasked me with going between worlds to lock the keyholes. I assume yours did the same?"

"Pretty much, yeah." That much was true.

"Sweet! Then that's another thing we can do whenever we meet!"

"Uh…" Naruto was confused by what Nox meant this time. "What is?"

"We can compare how many keyholes we've locked!" Nox proclaimed. "Not only do we do our tasks, but we can also see who is doing a better job! It's perfect!"

"Are you su-"

"Fine! Naruto will lock way more than you will!" Natsu interrupted.

"No way he can keep up with me!" Nox shouted back. "I'll lock three by the time you get one!"

Happy chose that moment to join in. "Naruto will win!" Naruto sighed as the three of them descended into bickering.

"You guys…" A hand on his shoulder made him look over.

Gray gave him a shake of the head. "Ignore the idiots. Just let them argue like little kids."

"…You're missing your clothes again."

"What the hell?!" Gray ran off to find them.

' _Is it a curse?'_ There had to be someone messing with him.

Nox spun around and pointed a finger at Naruto dramatically. "I'll show you! I'll show you how awesome I am by the sheer number of keyholes I lock!"

"…Fine. We can compare next time we meet." Naruto allowed.

"Then it's official." Nox agreed. He dismissed his keyblade. "Just don't be disappointed when you lose. It's hard being on my level."

Naruto snorted. "Modest, aren't you?"

"Well, I try to be." Nox replied. Suddenly, a beeping sound started to come from Nox. While Naruto, Happy, Gray, and Natsu grew confused, Nox's eyes widened in panic. "Crap! I gotta go!" Naruto frowned.

"Something wrong?"

"Yeah, I'm late!" Nox turned and started rushing towards the exit of the back street. "Sorry, but I'm outta here! See you whenever!"

They stared after him. "…What was that about?" Gray asked as he walked up to them, now fully clothed.

"He's crazy. Who knows what goes on inside the mind of a crazy person?" Happy answered easily.

"Yeah, because you're completely sane." Naruto muttered. Shaking his head, he spoke up. "Whatever. I'm tired and want to get out of here. Are we all ready to go?" He got nods. "Awesome. Then let's get back to the first district so we can talk to that Cid guy…" He began to make his way towards the exit.

Gray frowned. "…Hey, Naruto?"

"Yeah?"

"Do all keyblade wielders have different keyblades?" His question made Naruto frown.

"I'm…not sure. I'm fairly certain that we all have different keyblades when we summon them for the first time, depending on who we are as a person…But I'm not sure that there aren't any keychains that could turn a keyblade into a form naturally wielded by someone else."

"What does that mean? Keychains?"

Naruto blinked. "Oh, you don't know…" Naruto muttered. "There are keychains out there that can be used to make a keyblade take on a different form." He said. "These new forms come with different strengths and weaknesses. I'm willing to bet that Nox's master gave him a keychain that would make his keyblade take on that form. It would explain the sheer number of spells that Nox was throwing around…"

Natsu tilted his head. "Where do you get a keychain?" Naruto shrugged.

"Besides from another person that already has one? I have no idea. I'm already lucky with the one I have." All eyes turned to him.

"You have one?" Gray asked curiously.

"Yep. I got it a while back, but I only recently found out what it was."

"What does it boost?" Happy asked. "Oh! Is it your height? You're pretty short!" Naruto twitched and swiped a hand at the flying cat, but he missed.

"No, you stupid furball." He growled. "It doesn't."

Natsu grinned. "Then what does it do?" Naruto smirked.

"Nope. No spoilers." He was still annoyed with the pink haired teen, so why should he tell him?

* * *

 **First District**

The four of them stopped outside of a shop in the first district. Taking a quick glance around, Naruto spoke up. "That woman said that this was the shop...How exactly should we go about this? Walk in and ask for information?" Gray frowned as he considered the question.

"Hey! Tell us where our friends are!"

"Aye!"

Naruto grit his teeth and closed his eyes. _'That was stupid of me...'_ What was he thinking? Of course Natsu would make the decision pointless. The fire dragon slayer shouted the demand and kicked the front door of the shop open before storming inside.

"Ow!" A voice yelled. It seemed that someone had been standing in front of the door and was about to open it when Natsu acted. "The heck was that for?!"

"Tell us where our friends are!"

"I have no idea what you're talking about!" Naruto and Gray rushed inside to see Natsu gripping a boy by the front of his jacket and shaking him wildly. Naruto could practically see the boy's eyes turn into swirls as the shaking continued. "Let go!" The boy yelped.

"Gawrsh! Sora!"

A loud squawk was heard from nearby. "Who're you people?!"

The man behind the counter of the shop sighed. "Why does this have to happen in my shop?"

Acting quickly, Naruto and Gray lunged forward and grabbed Natsu before dragging him away from the boy. "What the hell are you doing, moron?!" Gray yelled.

"Naruto said that he knows where are friends are!"

"No, I said that Cid, the shop owner, _might_ know something!" Naruto corrected as they pulled Natsu to the other side of the room. "Not some teen who happens to be here-ttebayo!"

Natsu stopped struggling and blinked with wide eyes. "Oh..." He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "My bad…"

The boy clutched his chest and cast a wary glance at Natsu, but he soon lost the look and replaced it with a smile. "It's fine. You were just concerned for your friends." The boy blinked in recognition. "Hey, you're those guys that ran into the heartless infested areas earlier!"

It was at that point that Naruto recognized the boy. "Oh, it's you." He grinned. "Thanks again for that warning, by the way." The boy laughed and waved a hand in dismissal.

"No problem. I'm just glad to see you guys are alright!" He placed his hands behind his head. "I know you said you would be, but I still wasn't sure…" They were distracted by the sound of someone clearing their throat. Turning, Naruto was _not_ expecting to see a humanoid duck glaring suspiciously at him.

The duck had white feathers and a yellow-orange bill, but that was where most of the normal duck features ended. Not only was the duck the size of a human, it was also wearing some clothes. The duck's clothes consisted of a blue hat that looked like a beret and had a zipper going along it and a navy blue high collared jacket with sky blue lining and pouches. Around each wrist of the duck was a golden bangle, and draped over his shoulders was a short, blue cape.

It seemed the duck didn't appreciate Naruto gaping at him because he is glare turned harsher. "What?!" This proved to be enough to snap Naruto out of it.

"Oh, uh…Sorry about that." He apologized. "I just was caught a little...off guard by your appearance." That just seemed to make the duck angrier.

"And what is that supposed to mean?!" He squawked. Wincing, Naruto realized how that may have come across. Luckily, it seemed that the duck's companion was willing to rescue Naruto from the duck's temper.

"Aw, he didn't mean nothin' by that, Donald. You have to admit that we _do_ stand out a bit…" The duck was still glaring, but he seemed to calm a bit at those words.

Sighing in relief, Naruto turned to the one who had spoken, this time making sure to control his reaction.

The one who had assisted Naruto was a humanoid...dog(?) with dark fur, droopy ears, bucked teeth, and three short hairs. The dog(?) was wearing an orange hat with a blue band and a pair of small red goggles going around it. The dog(?) also had on a green turtleneck sweater with blue arrow-shaped straps on each cuff. Over the sweater, he wore a sleeveless, black combat vest with grey lining. Unlike the duck, the dog(?) wore yellow pants secured by a black belt and large, brown, steel-toed shoes. Completing the look was a pair of white gloves over his hands.

The dog(?) gave Naruto a friendly smile. "Sorry about Donald, he's just a little grumpy 'cause he forgot we needed to stock up before we leave."

"I did not! You forgot!" The duck, Donald, shouted.

"Hyuck, was that what happened?" Donald threw his hands up in frustration and proceeded to berate the dog(?).

Laughing nervously, the boy spoke up. "Sorry about them…"

Naruto shook his head. "No worries. You forgave us for him," He nodded towards Natsu, who looked away with a nervous expression while attempting to whistle. "so it's only fair we do the same." The boy smiled. "I'm Naruto. These are my friends, Gray," Gray nodded. "Happy,"

"Hi!"

"and Natsu." Natsu grinned.

Mirroring the grin, the boy introduced himself. "Nice to meet you. I'm Sora."

Sora looked to be a little older than Naruto. He had spiky brown hair and blue eyes. His outfit was made up of large yellow shoes, a white and black jacket over a red jumpsuit, and a pair of white with yellow gloves. Naruto's eyes lingered on the silver chain necklace Sora had on. It was extremely similar to the Naruto had on, except it had a crown instead of a heart.

Not noticing Naruto's distracted state, Sora continued. "And these are Donald and Goofy." He gestured to the indicated humanoid animals. Snapping out of the trance, Naruto shook his head a bit.

"And I'm annoyed." A gruff voice interrupted. "Now you mind telling me what you lot think you're doin' making all this noise?"

' _Oh, right…'_ Naruto almost forgot that the man behind the counter was still here.

The man had short blond hair, blue eyes, and some stubble on his chin. He wore a white shirt with two buttons, baggy blue pants with an orange waistband, and black shoes. Sticking out of his mouth was a toothpick.

The man, who Naruto assumed to be Cid, glared at them while crossing his arms. "The racket you're making is gonna scare away all of my customers." He shot Donald a pointed look, making the duck shrink in on himself.

"Sorry…" Donald muttered.

Cid rolled his eyes. "It's fine. Now, you've got your supplies and your ship is all prepped to go, so scram." He made a shooing motion. "Go on, get." Donald huffed at the attitude, but still spun around and marched towards the door.

"Fine! Goofy, Sora, let's go!" He walked out. Laughing, Goofy waved goodbye to the others and followed Donald.

Sora smiled in amusement before looking to Naruto's group. "Well, it was nice meeting you."

Naruto smiled back. "Back at you." Sora began walking towards the door, but paused before stepping out. After a moment, he turned around with a contemplative expression while glancing between them. Tilting his head in confusion, Naruto spoke up. "What's wrong?"

"It's just…" Blue eyes moved to Natsu. "You said you were looking for your friends, right?" A nod made Sora smile sadly. "So am I." He said quietly. "Why don't we help each other out?"

Gray quirked an eyebrow. "What did you have in mind?"

"Well, how about I keep an eye out for your friends, and you do the same for mine?" Sora grinned. "If nothing else, we can just pass along the message that we are looking for them."

Natsu grinned widely. "Great idea!"

"Awesome. You first. Who are you looking for?" Sora asked them. "I'll keep an eye out for their names."

The fire dragon slayer nodded. "There's Erza, Lucy, Mirajane, Lisanna, Elfman, Gramps, Juvia…" He began to list all the members of the guild, Happy pitching in a name every few seconds. The long list of names brought a wide-eyed look from Sora.

Deciding to save the boy, Gray interfered. "Moron, stop listing all the names. There's no way he can remember them all." Natsu paused, saw the expression on Sora's face, and smiled sheepishly. "Just look for anyone with this mark." He pointed at Natsu's guild mark. Unnoticed to them, Cid's eyes widened. "If they have this mark, then they are a friend of ours."

Sora sighed in relief and nodded. "Got it." He would be sure to remember the mark. "I just have two people I'm looking for. Their names are Kairi and Riku."

"Kairi and Riku…" Naruto muttered. "We'll remember the names." Sora grinned.

"Thanks!"

"Sora, hurry up!" Donald's voice shouted from outside.

Waving at them, Sora turned to leave. "Sorry, gotta go! Again, it was nice meeting you!" He ran out.

Naruto stared after Sora, even when the boy was gone. _'Why does it feel like…?'_ He couldn't explain it, but there was something…familiar about Sora.

A hand waving in front of his face made Naruto jerk back in surprise and turn to see Gray staring at him. "What?"

"You were spacing out. Are you alright?" He asked.

Cerulean and violet eyes drifted back to the door, but Naruto nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine…" He shook his head to clear his thoughts again and turned to Cid. "So, you're Cid, right?" He got a nod in return.

"That I am. And based on what you were saying, you aren't here to shop, are you?" Naruto shook his head. "Okay then…So what do you want?"

Natsu surged forward. "Where are our friends?!" He demanded. Cid eyed him like he was crazy.

Sighing, Naruto reached out and pulled Natsu back. "Sorry about him. When we entered this town, we were told that you and your friends might be able to help us out. As you can probably tell, we aren't from this world and haven't been here long." Cid snorted.

"You don't exactly blend in."

Ignoring the jab, Naruto continued. "So because of that, we were hoping we could ask you some questions. One of which would be if you have seen anyone with that mark." He pointed to Natsu's shoulder.

Cid hummed in thought. "Is that right…?" He was silent for a moment as he looked them over. "Well, you would be correct in saying that my friends and I may be able to answer some questions. Just let me call them over, they'll probably be here in a few minutes." Naruto nodded in acceptance.

They only had to wait a few minutes before a sudden explosion of smoke was created in the center of the shop. Instantly going on guard, Naruto and the others were about to attack when Cid's voice stopped them. "Yuffie! What have I told you about doing that?!"

"You can't stop greatness, Cid!" A female voice shouted back. Realizing that it wasn't a threat, Naruto lowered his hand as the smoke cleared.

Standing there was a girl with short, black hair and violet eyes. She had on a green tube top with two blue belts holding it up, a yellow scarf, tan shorts, and orange shoes. On her arms were mesh sleeves that disappeared into orange, fingerless gloves.

Yuffie grinned widely at Cid. "It's important that I make a grand entrance when I go places!"

"Like hell it is! Don't pull that crap in my shop!"

She stuck a tongue out at him. "Boo! You and Squall need to lighten up!"

"No, we don't. _You_ just need to realize that some of your antics are unnecessary." A male voice at the door said. "…And my name is Leon."

Standing there was a guy with long, brown hair and blue eyes wearing a black, short-sleeved jacket over a white shirt, silver necklace, black gloves, and black shoes. Going along with the rest of his outfit's color scheme, he also wore black pants. Finishing the outfit were brown belts on his left forearm and around his waist. He also had a scar running across the bridge of his nose.

"Meh…" Yuffie shrugged. "You can say it all you like, but I'll still call you Squall."

Leon stared at her flatly for a minute before turning his eyes to Naruto's group. He didn't say anything to them, only taking in their appearance, but his eyes seemed to stop on Natsu's shoulder. When he finished, he looked at Cid. "You called for us?"

Cid nodded. "Yeah…But wher-"

"Oh! Merlin wanted some help at his place, so we gave it!" Yuffie cut him off. "But we weren't quite done when you called, so…" She trailed off.

"Yeah, I get ya…And don't cut me off!" Cid demanded. Huffing, he spoke to Leon. "This lot wanted to talk to us. Apparently, they have some questions."

"Is that so…" Leon turned to them and crossed his arms. "Well, you are obviously from another world and yet seem to not be out of your depth, so I assume that means you came here by choice?" They nodded. "All right…Then what do you want to know?" Naruto got the feeling that this guy was the leader of the group.

Natsu opened his mouth to speak, but Naruto beat him to it. "You're aware that there has been an increase in the number of heartless recently, right?" Leon nodded silently. "Then that also means that you know about the worlds disappearing…" Another nod. "You have any idea what's causing the problem?"

Leon shook his head. "Sorry, but we aren't sure about it either. We just know that it is something that has been happening more frequently lately."

Naruto sighed. _'Well there goes that plan…'_

"Sorry we can't be of any help." Leon said.

"It's no problem…It isn't a surprise, really." Naruto said while glancing to his companions. "We're just going to have to find out somewhere else." Leon frowned minutely.

"Why do you want to know?" His question gained curious looks from them. "What good does you knowing do?"

"Well…We want to know because we're trying to put a stop to it." Naruto told him.

The eyebrows of Leon, Cid, and Yuffie all shot up. "Put a stop to it…" Leon repeated. "But how will you do that? Only the keyblade can lock the keyhole of a world."

Naruto quirked an eyebrow of his own at the singular wording of keyblade. "Yeah? And?" He raised a hand, making Two Become One appear in a flash of twilight. "Problem solved." He smirked at the sight of their dropped jaws.

"The keyblade?!" Yuffie shouted. "But how?! We just saw the keyblade's chosen one, and you're not him! And yours looks different!"

' _Oh, they met Nox?'_ Naruto shook his head with an amused look. "Sorry to burst your bubble, but there is more than one keyblade." His words stunned them. "In fact, there used to be a whole bunch of us, but now there are only a few." He lowered his keyblade.

Regaining his composure, Leon stared at the keyblade. "This changes things…" He quickly took in Naruto's appearance again. "At least you look more capable…" He muttered. "So, you are going to stop the heartless?"

"More or less, that's the plan." Naruto said. "We just need to figure out what is causing it…Hopefully, we can find something out while we travel between worlds."

Leon nodded. "I wish you luck." His eyes moved to Natsu. "Was there something you wanted to ask?"

"Yeah! Where are our friends?!" Naruto and Gray sighed at Natsu's demand.

"Idiot, you need to explain better than that." Gray rebuked. Looking to Leon, he spoke up. "Our world was recently consumed by the darkness. We were hoping that you would able to tell us if you have seen any of our friends. They would have this mark on them." He pointed to Natsu's shoulder.

"…Someone else with that mark appeared in this world a few months back." Leon said.

Immediately, Natsu was in front of him. "Who?! Who was it?! Where are they now?! Are they alright?!" Leon frowned at the proximity and noise level.

"They weren't hurt. In fact, they-"

"I'm sorry for being late!" All eyes turned to the door as a small body rushed through it. Standing there, was a panting girl. "Merlin-san needed a lot more help than I thought and then I had trouble finding my way back because I ran ahead of Aerith-san, but Carla helped me find it…I'm sorr-!"

"Wendy!" Natsu and Happy engulfed the girl in a hug, completely cutting her rambling off.

The girl, Wendy, squeaked at the shout before realizing who it was. "Natsu-san! Happy!" She hugged them back. "I'm so happy to see you!"

Gray grinned and walked over to them. "It's good to see you're alright, Wendy. Did you say Carla was with you?"

"She did say that." Naruto was shocked to see another flying cat glide in from behind Wendy, except this one appeared to be female. "I suppose it is nice to see that you bunch are unharmed…"

"Carla!" Happy shouted in joy. He attempted to embrace the cat, but she moved out of the way.

"Tomcat." She greeted.

"…As I was saying, they are still here." Leon finished.

"I think they noticed." Naruto supplied, making the newcomers notice him for the first time.

The female cat eyed him. "And who is this boy?" Wendy gasped at her.

"Carla! Don't be rude!" She hastily broke free of Natsu and bowed to Naruto. "I'm sorry about her."

Naruto sweat dropped. "It's no problem…" He grinned at her. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze!" Wendy blushed and smiled shyly at him.

"N-Nice to meet you. I'm Wendy Marvell, and this is Carla…"

Wendy was a girl who appeared to be Naruto's age. She had long, dark blue hair done into pigtails and brown eyes. Wendy had on a simple pink kimono that only went to her thighs with a black waistband and a small tie over it. She also wore thigh high socks and wing accessories that kept her hair up. On her shoulder was a guild mark identical to the ones that Natsu and Gray had, except her mark was light blue.

"Don't stutter when you introduce yourself!" Carla chided. "And make sure to keep eye contact!"

Carla was a cat that was nearly identical to Happy, except she had white fur, pink ears, and brown eyes. Unlike Happy, she chose to wear a pink top and skirt. Tied around her tail was a pink bow.

"I'm sorry!"

"And stop apologizing for everything!"

Naruto stared dubiously at the pair of them. "Oh, are they at it again?" His attention was drawn by the newest voice.

Standing to the side was a girl with long, brown hair made into braids and green eyes. Her outfit consisted of a pink dress with magenta lining and buttons going down the front. Around her waist was a loose, lilac belt with a black string tied into a bow in the same way that the string around her neck was.

She smiled at Naruto. "Hello, I'm sorry about all the noise. My name is Aerith. It's nice to meet you."

Naruto smiled at her. "Hi, I'm Naruto. And no worries, it isn't that bad." He has spent years dealing with people who are worse.

A few minutes later, the people who had just joined them were fully brought up to speed. Wendy looked at Naruto with awed eyes. "So you're one of those keyblade wielders? But you look to be my age! That's amazing!" She had been so disappointed that she didn't get the chance to meet the other one!

"Hmph. It's just a giant key…" Cid muttered.

"So Wendy, what have you and Carla been doing here?" Gray asked. "You've been here for the last two months, right?"

She nodded. "Yes. Carla and I woke up in this world two months ago…Apparently, Aerith-san found us passed out in the street. After being told what was going on, she let us stay with them!" Wendy said with a smile. "But it wouldn't be right of us to not do anything, so we've been helping out with fighting off the heartless!"

Yuffie appeared next to Wendy with an arm around her shoulders. "And what a help it's been. She's saved our butts a bunch of times with her magic!" Her praise made Wendy blush again. "Just ask Squall!"

"…It's Leon…Her magic has been a great help to us. She has earned her spot in the group." Leon said, further making Wendy blush. Ignoring the blush, Leon stared at Wendy. "So what will you do now?"

Wendy blinked at him. "Eh?"

"Will you and Carla stay here and continue to help us?" He gestured to Naruto. "Or will you travel with the keyblade wielder and save worlds while possibly finding more of your friends along the way?" Wendy's eyes widened in alarm.

"Uh, I…I want to…" She stammered.

"Squall!" Yuffie shouted in anger. "What are you doing?!" Cid frowned at Leon's words, but he remained silent.

"They need to decide, Yuffie." Leon replied.

Natsu grinned. "Of course she is going to co-" Gray's hand covering his mouth forced him to stop speaking. Seeing this, Naruto did the same to Happy. Glaring, Natsu turned to Gray, but he paused when he saw the serious look the ice mage had. Wendy looked between the people in the room in an attempt to find some help, but even Carla didn't offer any. After a minute, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"I…I want to stay here!" She declared, making Leon smirk and Carla nod in approval.

Eyes widening, Natsu freed himself from Gray. "But why?! Why not come with us?!"

Wendy gave him a small smile. "I'm sorry, Natsu-san…But I would only slow you down at this point."

"No you wouldn't!" Happy denied tearfully.

"I'm happy that you say that, but you don't need me for this." Wendy said quietly. "You guys are going to go save the worlds. I'm sure that I can heal you a bit, or maybe even fight, but I don't think I would make a difference." She gained a determined look. "But here, I _do_ make a difference. I see the smiles people give me as I walk by and I hear their thanks when I help them. I _know_ that I'm needed here more than with you." She smiled again. "I'm sorry, but they need my help more than you do."

They were silent for a minute, but Natsu soon broke it with a sigh. "Well, when you say it like that…"

Happy nodded. "Then it just makes sense…"

Gray smirked. "Good to see that you're making a difference here, Wendy. It sucks that you don't want to come, but we understand." Natsu and Happy nodded in agreement with smiles, making Wendy's smile grow.

"Yes!" Yuffie cheered and engulfed Wendy in a hug. "You're staying!" She stuck a tongue out at Natsu. "Ha! She likes us better!"

"No she doesn't!" Natsu yelled. "She just knows you need more help than we do!"

"Nope! She absolutely likes us better! Even after only two months!"

"That's not what she said!"

Leon sighed at the shouting as Aerith giggled. Turing to Naruto, Leon spoke up. "Again, I'm sorry we couldn't be more help to you."

Naruto shook his head. "It really isn't a problem. It's not like it changes anything." Glancing back to the argument, Naruto sighed. "We should probably get going." He decided. "I'm worried that Natsu is going to lose his temper and attack." Leon nodded.

"…Good luck out there." Leon said. This time, Naruto wasn't sure if he meant with the danger or his travelling companions.

* * *

 **Gummi Ship (Later)**

 **Play Kingdom Hearts 2 OST: Twinkle in the Sky - Extended**

Natsu sighed sadly in his seat. "I get why…But it still sucks that Wendy isn't coming with us…"

Happy nodded sadly. "Aye…"

"Yes, it's sad, but you get why." Gray said. "I'm also a little bummed that she said no, but it was for the best…And probably for more than what she said." Natsu and Happy blinked.

"Huh? Why?"

"Natsu…" Naruto began slowly. "Were you planning to invite _all_ of your friends to come with us?"

The fire dragon slayer nodded. "Yeah."

Naruto sighed. "That never would have worked out." He muttered. "Where would they have stayed? The maximum amount of people we could house is four. There's no way that something like that would have been possible." Natsu and Happy's eyes widened.

"Ahaha…Oh yeah…"

"…I don't understand how that didn't occur to you."

Natsu looked away nervously. "Um…Anyways, where are we going next?!" It was obvious that he was attempting to change the subject, but they all let it go.

Pulling up the map, Naruto spoke up. "We still have to decide. These are our choices right now."

"Oh! Let's go to th-"

"We _aren't_ going somewhere because it looks interesting." Naruto interrupted the blue cat. " _Or_ because it looks like a place where strong people are." Natsu had only gotten far enough to open his mouth. Shaking his head in reluctant amusement, Naruto enlarged a world. "We're heading here next." He told Gray, who nodded.

Happy's eyes lit up. "Ooohh! It's a castle!"

Naruto frowned and looked at the world again. "…It is?"

"Yeah! Just look at it! It's totally a castle!" Naruto wasn't sure that he quite believed Happy, but he still nodded.

"If you say so…"

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 38!**

 **There, he used jutsu! Now stop pestering me!**

 **I _really_ hate describing designs in words. That glider description was harder than it needed to be and I _still_ did a shitty job. Putting something that isn't a design into words? Sure, I can do that. Hell, I can bullshit it to the point that there are 38 chapters, over 300k words, and I have 500 people who actually seem to like it enough to get emails…What the hell is wrong with you people?**

 **I've been thinking about this for a while…What do I do about honorifics? Should I just drop them? Use titles like Mr. and Ms.? Use them only when I can? I don't care which.**

 ** _Just_** **realized that Wendy is a viable pairing option…They're actually the same age and everything! I am still leaning towards only crushes and stuff right now though.**

 **I don't care what _you_ call her. In the actual Kingdom Hearts game, her name is _Aerith,_ so that's what I'm using.**

 **Another thing I thought of is how much time passes? I mean does it take a few hours to get between worlds? A few days? How long do they spend on each world?**

 **Last part was a bit rushed, but I can feel my concentration slipping as time moves on. I'm getting tired.**

… **Castle…? It's pretty obvious…Well, to me it is.**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	40. It's Not A Game Anymore

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 39!**

 **When I said it was obvious, I meant that the fact that Happy called it a castle, and yet Naruto didn't see any resemblance to a castle was a big clue. This** _ **is**_ **a world that I have been planning on doing for a long time. It was also suggested a couple of times in reviews.**

 **So I decided to be inconsistent. If the situation/world calls for it, then I will use honorifics. Otherwise, I won't. There are a couple of worlds (Including this one) where I can't really imagine certain relationships between characters without honorifics…This is because I'm one of those people who doesn't like watching the English dubbed version of anime. This choice might be annoying to some people, but whatever.**

 **I don't feel as if the second part of the chapter is as good as the first half. I had a lot of trouble writing it…**

* * *

 **Kairitrion Cerulean: I went and looked, but I didn't find the mistake you were talking about…There could also be mistakes in this chapter. I'm tired. :P**

 **redlox2: Honestly, I forget his age too sometimes, but I think it works. As for what Naruto noticed… :P**

 **The Sith'ari: Harem? I haven't entertained that idea much. One girl is what I will probably be going with.**

 **prototype gear: The japanimarica thing made me laugh, so thanks for that. That's how a lot of my chapters are. I feel as if I can improve them, but people still say they were great…I guess the public has low standards? I'm calling bullshit on that rap thing.**

 **ImagineBreaker7: Lucy was choice #2, but I didn't use her for other reasons.**

 **Stick Figure man: Nothing solid, but I'm entertaining the thought.**

 **Risengaku: Maybe you're right, maybe you're wrong. Nox's master could be one of them, or not be one of them. Only I know for sure. "Geezer" applies to both. I've never touched Kingdom Hearts X, so I wouldn't know. Keyblade armor would be over the top right then! I just showed the glider! I dint forget that she was a ninja! It's just something I want to put in later.**

 **Vasto-Lorde26: Thanks, welcome aboard! Many of the world's already selected** _ **are**_ **anime worlds, so yeah. As for Aqua being the pairing, she is one of the top contenders. And Yen Sid's tower… :P**

 **HeartlessNobody13: …That must be the longest review to date. Holy crap. I'm not going to comment on your guesses for who else is going to show up, so yeah. :P I** _ **really**_ **want to put Ichigo in, but the problem is that the Bleach world has been lost for about 6 years now in this story, so I can't exactly put any humans in without aging them…Which I would rather avoid doing for reasons. As for the RWBY thing, I keep leading people on with that on purpose, so no worries. Who knows? It could be a world I've chosen. Well I know, but I'm not saying. :P And thanks! I dunno if I would say that writing is my passion, but I can't deny that I enjoy it.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else. I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Deity Talking: " **Insert witty remark here**."

Biju/Deity Thinking: _'_ _ **Insert witty remark here**_ _.'_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **Gummi Ship**

"I just…I don't see it."

"No, no! It's there! Try tilting your head!"

"…Still nothing."

"Squint your left eye a bit while opening your right one more!"

Naruto frowned. "I'm not doing that, Happy." He shook his head. "No matter how many times I look at it, _that_ just doesn't look like a castle to me."

"I don't know…" Gray mused. "It kind of _does_ look like a castle a bit." He held up his hands in surrender at Naruto's incredulous look. "I'm not saying it's a conventional castle, but I can sort of see what Happy's talking about." Naruto sighed at this.

"You're all crazy" He muttered. "The computer is picking up various environments in that world, so how is it a castle?" He glanced over to Natsu, who was staring at the world in front of them intensely. "I'm guessing you agree with them?" No response. "Nats-?" Naruto was cut off when Natsu suddenly grinned widely.

"I got it! It _is_ a castle, but it also has an outdoors on the inside!" Natsu said excitedly.

Naruto looked at him dubiously. "So…You're saying that it is a castle…But the castle has something that is - _by definition_ \- meant to be outside? Isn't that a paradox? Why would it be a castle then?"

"It just is!"

Gray shrugged. "Who knows? This is a different world, so different rules may apply. Let's just get down there. That would be the best way to find out for sure."

"…Sure…" But even if it _was_ a castle, why would it look like _that_? Naruto started to look for a place to land, but he soon came upon a problem. "Um…Where exactly should we land?"

"In the world." Natsu rolled his eyes. "Duh."

" _No._ I mean, in which part?" Naruto pointed to the world. "That thing is huge, so where do we land?"

"Oh…"

"That's a good question…" Gray said quietly. "Do you think it would be best to land in the middle?"

"No at the top!" Happy insisted. "That way we could see everything!"

"We wouldn't be able to see everything with that design…"

"Oh, then lets…" Naruto tuned out the conversation and focused on the world.

' _Where do we land…? It might be best to do it where we can find people to talk to…'_ His eyes roved over the world. _'But where would that be?'_

 _ **Ba-Bump.**_

Naruto's body jerked abruptly, gaining the attention of the others. _'What was tha-?'_

 _ **Ba-Bump.**_ There it was again.

Naruto's eyes glazed over. _'This feeling…'_ Something in that world was reacting to his presence. Unnoticed to Naruto himself, he began to direct the gummi ship to a certain part of the world. _'I need…to go there…'_

A hand waving in front of his face snapped him out of the trance. "W-What?" Turning, he was met with the concerned faces of the others. "Sorry, what was that?"

Gray frowned slightly. "We should be asking you that. Out of nowhere, you jumped in place before directing the ship to the world." He glanced back to the world. "Did you decide on a place to land?"

"Uh, sort of…" Naruto frowned. "I…Something in this world is calling out to me…"

"What do you mean?" Happy asked curiously, but was given a shake of the head in return.

"I…I'm not really sure." Naruto admitted. "It's just that _something_ in that world wants me to reach it…I was able to feel it from here."

"Should we be worried?" Gray asked seriously.

Thinking about the feeling for a moment, Naruto shook his head. "No…I don't think it's anything bad…Whatever it was, it resonated with my heart. I was momentarily able to feel its…emotions?" Was that the best way to describe it? "I felt…worry…loneliness…fear…But after it resonated with me, I felt relief, joy, trust, and…a sense of familiarity." He gained a determined look. "I don't know what it is, but I'm going to find out." He directed the ship towards the world.

* * *

Black eyes looked up to the sky and the owner frowned slightly when he spotted something streak across it and land nearby. _'What…?'_ The sound of metal clashing against metal pulled the owner back into the here and now. _'Don't get distracted!'_ He scolded himself. Getting distracted here meant death! The owner of the black eyes tightened the grip on his sword and raised it up. A moment later, the sword began to give off a bright light.

"Switch!"

* * *

 **With Naruto and the Others**

"It _really_ doesn't look like a castle from here." Naruto pointed out while staring pointedly at the terrain around them. They had landed the gummi ship in the middle of a small clearing at the base of a mountain. A second mountain was off in the distance.

"But…" Happy couldn't understand it. It had definitely looked like a castle! "I was sure it was a castle…"

"Hey, don't worry about it, buddy. It may still be one!" Natsu reassured. "Let's just go find someone and ask!"

"We can't do that, moron." Gray said while taking a look around. "That would be saying that we aren't really from this world."

"Exactly." Naruto walked over to a small panel on the side of the gummi ship and began to press a few buttons. "That is supposed to be a secret, remember?" He took a step back as the gummi ship vanished from view. "There, now the ship won't be found…" He surveyed the area again and sighed. "But where do we go from here?"

"Eh? What do you mean?"

"He means that now that we are here, what do we do?" Gray told the flying cat. "This world looked to be pretty big…Do we start looking for the keyhole? Ask around to see if there has been anything strange going on? Try finding the source of that thing Naruto felt? We need to plan a bit."

"Oh…Well Natsu already ran off to find some people to talk to."

Naruto and Gray's heads snapped around to stare at the cat. "He _what_?!" They shouted. Frantically looking around, they saw that the fire dragon slayer was indeed gone.

"Why didn't you say anything?!"

Happy shrugged at Gray's question. "I didn't think it was a big deal."

"Where did he go?!"

"I dunno. I only noticed he wasn't here, not the direction he left in."

"Damn it!" Why couldn't that idiot just stay in place?! "Come on, we better go find him." Naruto said before running towards the indicated direction.

"This is just like Traverse Town…" Gray muttered as he followed Naruto. "Next time he does that, say something!" Gray shouted at the cat.

"Aye~"

* * *

 **With Natsu**

"Hm…" Natsu came to a stop and took in his surroundings. "Now then…Where can I find people?" He muttered. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but maybe just running off in a random direction isn't the best way to find people that you don't even know for sure are there? Now he was standing in the middle of a forest with no clue on where he was or where he was going. "What should I do…?"

Suddenly, the sound of metal clashing against metal attracted Natsu's attention. "A fight?" He muttered. Having nothing to lose, he went to investigate.

"Hya!" Natsu's eyes widened in surprise at the scene he came across. Standing back to back was a pair of teenagers, but that wasn't the surprising part. What _was_ surprising was that the two of them were surrounded by these…humanoid lizard things.

Standing in a ring surrounding the two teens were some kind of monsters that resembled some sort of reptile, and yet were smart enough to wield swords and shields. A few of them even had helmets on! The monsters were watching the humans warily, as if waiting for the right moment to attack.

That moment came a second later.

As if acting on some unseen signal, the monsters all raised their blades at the same time. Natsu blinked when their swords started to glow with a golden light, but his curiosity was wiped away when the lizards then proceeded to charge the teens.

"Oh no you do-" Natsu's words died on his lips when the teens moved in sync with one another and dodged every attack sent their way, even going so far as to retaliating with their own swords as they did. "Whoa…" They were good!

The black haired boy moved out of the way of a slash from one of the lizards and stabbed the lizard in the back, while the chestnut color haired girl moved at extreme speeds to weave her way through the enemy. She was moving so fast that Natsu was barely able to see her attacks!

Seeing that the two of them were obviously in full control of the situation, Natsu decided instead to just sit back and observe…Who was he kidding? With a wide grin, Natsu charged into the fight.

* * *

The black haired boy parried a sword from the Lizardman Lord in front of him, forcing it to stumble back. Using the position his sword ended up in, the teen started to prepare his next attack. Just as every other time he desired it, his sword began to give off a bright glow. Tightening his grip, the black haired boy began to let his body glow into the familiar motio-

"Banzai!"

' _What?!'_ Out of nowhere, a person with pink hair got in between the teen and the Lizardman and punched the monster in the face. The teen's first reaction was that someone else with pink hair that he knew had just joined in, but that was soon overridden by the fact that the teen's sword _was about to cut into the person!_

Acting quickly, the teen attempted to halt his body's motions, but it was too late. Gritting his teeth, he instead turned his body to the side slightly. The black haired boy let out an internal sigh of relief when he was successful in doing so, causing his attack to miss the newcomer. Crisis averted, the teen turned to glare and shout at the pink haired teen, but another Lizardman Lord attacking drew demanded his immediate attention. "Are you an idiot?!" He shouted.

"Hey! _You_ nearly hit _me_!" The pink haired teen yelled back.

The black haired teen adopted an agitated look, even as he further cut down the enemies. "That's because you got in the way! What were you thinking jumping in the way of a «Sword Skill» like that?!" He wasn't even in their party!

"A what?!"

"…What do you mean 'a what'?!" _Everyone_ knew about «Sword Skills». That was an absolute fact. And even if this guy somehow didn't know about them, he wouldn't have been able to get _close_ to the front lines. Getting to this point without «Sword Skills» wouldn't be possible. Black eyes widened. _'Wait, didn't he…?'_ When the pink haired teen got in the way, he did it by… _punching_ the monster.

Risking a glance over his shoulder, the black haired teen felt his jaw drop when he saw _flames_ coating the pink haired teen's fists. _'That's impossibl-'_

"Pay attention!" His head snapped back around just in time to side step the blade that was about to decapitate him. "We can worry about his lack of knowledge _after_ we get out of this!" The chestnut haired girl reprimanded.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, the black haired teen crouched and raised his blade. "Right…" He said quietly. As directed, his sword started to give off a glow. _'Only a few more left…'_ He leapt forward.

* * *

 **A Few Minutes Later**

Natsu grinned and put his hands behind his head. "Man, that was fun!" He looked over to the other two. "You two are pretty tough!"

The girl smiled hesitantly at him. "Thanks…We appreciate the help."

"Ah, it's no big deal! Don't worry abou-Whoa!" Natsu was interrupted when the girl's companion suddenly pointed a black blade at Natsu's throat.

The girl gasped. "What are you doing?!"

The one holding the offending sword glared at Natsu suspiciously. "Didn't you see it? This guy was fighting the monsters with his fists…With his _flaming fists_." The girl's eyes widened. "That isn't normal. We have no idea who he is and he just approached us in the middle of a dungeon. We have no reason to trust him." Although clearly conflicted, she slowly nodded in agreement. Glaring harder, the black clad teen spoke up. "So? Who are you and how did you do that?"

"What's your problem?!" Natsu growled. "I just helped you out!"

"And it's appreciated. That doesn't mean we have to lower our guards though." Came the calm response. "Now are you going to tell us, or do we have to take you to the «Black Iron Palace» for questioning?"

Natsu wasn't sure what that place was, but he recognized the threatening tone. Scowling, he ignited his fists and tensed his body, making the two teens tense as well. "Oh yeah? I'd like to see you try, jackas-"

"Natsu!" All eyes turned to the tree line, where three familiar figures ran out. "There you are!" Naruto said, but he came up short when he saw the scene. "…And you have company…"

Gray sighed and began to prepare himself for a fight. "What the hell did you do now, flame brain?"

"I didn't do anything!" Natsu bit out. "I just helped them out in a fight and this was the thanks I got!"

Naruto eyed the two teens. "I don't know what your reason is for the hostility, but I'm sure we can resolve this without resorting to a fight…" He said slowly. "I would appreciate it if you would remove your sword from my friend's throat."

The black haired teen frowned harder and reevaluated the situation. "I will do so, but I don't want any of you to leave my field of view."

"That's fine." With a nod, the sword was pulled back, but not put away. Now that he didn't have a sword aimed at him, Natsu moved to the others.

"This is why we can't leave you alone." Gray drawled. Natsu would have argued back, but Naruto's glare made him realize that he may have messed up.

"Ahahaha…Sorry about that…" Natsu then grinned. "But hey, I did what I wanted to do. I found people we can talk to!" He said triumphantly while pointing at the two teens.

"And why do you want to talk to us?" The black haired teen asked, still heavily suspicious.

The crimson blond considered the question. "We…aren't from around here." He allowed.

The girl frowned slightly. "What does that mean?" She asked. "Are you from one of the lower floors?"

"Um…" Naruto wasn't sure how to answer that one, but he was soon given a way out, surprisingly by the black haired teen.

"No, I wouldn't say that…" He started. "Judging by their clothes and looks, I would say that they are from the higher floors. If I had to guess, you guys are from the ninety-fifth floor or somewhere around there, right?"

Naruto smiled, relief seeping into him. "Wow, I'm impressed you were able to figure that out so easily. Yeah, we're from the ninety-fourth floor."

Dead silence.

It took a moment, but Naruto soon had a feeling that he said something wrong. This feeling was also felt by Natsu, Gray, and Happy. Slowly, a smirk pulled across the black haired teen's face while his companion's face gained a look of shock.

"The ninety-fourth floor?" The teen repeated. "That's interesting…Especially given how the highest floor unlocked right now _is the seventy-fifth floor_." He shook his head. "If you're going to lie, then make sure you can't be found out by such a simple fact." The girl began to ready her weapon, but the boy's next words stopped her. "Forget it."

She blinked at him in confusion. "What? Why?"

The black haired teen shook his head with a small smile. "If they were PKers, then they would not have been found out so easily." He sheathed his sword on his back. "I only realized a minute ago, but there _is_ a possible explanation for how the pink hair guy was able to use flames while he punched."

"There is?"

"Yep." His smirk grew. "These guys must be NPCs…albeit higher quality ones" The girl's eyes widened. "In fact, they could very well be the flag for that unidentifiable event that popped up the other day." His smirk turned into a full grin. "And we just happened to find them first. Lucky~"

The girl rolled her eyes and sheathed her rapier. "You and your rare items."

"Hey, I'm still a «Beater». We're meant to be greedy."

The girl glared at him. "Don't say that!" He took a step back and nodded quickly.

"He's whipped." Happy said cheerfully, earning himself a glare from the black haired teen.

"I am not whipped!" It was then that he realized just what he was speaking to. "…A flying and talking cat?"

"Aye! I'm Happy!"

The black haired teen just stared. "…Right. I'm not going to look too deeply into that character design…"

Happy blinked and tilted his head. "Huh? What does that mean?"

"Uh, don't worry about it." The boy looked over to his companion. "What do you think?"

"I think we should see what their quest is!" Unnoticed to them, Naruto frowned.

' _They keep talking as if we are here for a specific reason that would grant them something…'_ Deciding to try and figure out what was going on, he spoke up. "Sorry to interrupt…" The two of them turned to him. "But who are you? And why do you think that we have something for you?"

The black haired teen smiled over to the girl. "This could be the last chance to back out. Are you ready to start the quest now?" She nodded excitedly. "All right then…" He turned back to Naruto. "It's nice to meet you. My name is Kirito."

Kirito was a slightly effeminate looking teen with neat black hair and eyes. A single glance at the boy's attire made one question if he was overly attached to the color black. Not only were his pants, belt, boots, fingerless gloves, and V-neck shirt black, but the trench coat he had on was also black. The only things that weren't black on him were the silver linings his clothes had and his a few plates he had for protection. However, what drew Naruto's attention the most were the two swords strapped to Kirito's back. One -the one that had been pointed at Natsu- was a pitch black blade with a black hilt, but all that could be seen of the other was an aqua-colored hilt.

' _Two?'_

Continuing the introductions, Kirito gestured to the girl, who waved. "This is Asuna."

Asuna had long, orange-brownish chestnut hair and hazel eyes. In contrast to Kirito's darker color scheme, Asuna wore brighter clothes such as a sleeveless white top with red lining and a coattail, a red skirt, white shoes, and detached white sleeves. A lot of her clothes had red as a secondary color and sported some kind of emblem that slightly resembled a red cross. Attached at her hip was a red sheath holding her rapier. Completing the outfit was a necklace that resembled a crystalline water droplet.

Naruto smiled. "Hey there. I'm Naruto. The others are Gray, Happy, and Natsu…I apologize for any trouble that he caused, it is sometimes hard to make him behave."

"Hey!" Asuna giggled at the interaction while Kirito just waved off the apology.

"It was nothing, really." Kirito dismissed. "We were just being overly paranoid." Black eyes drifted to Natsu. "Although I _am_ curious about what it was he was doing to fight…"

Natsu grinned. "Just some magic." He declared before Naruto or Gray could stop him. His words brought wide eyed looks to Kirito and Asuna.

"Magic?" Asuna repeated. "In SAO?" She asked in shock.

"In what?" Gray looked over to Naruto, Natsu, and Happy, but got shrugs. "Sorry, we don't know what that is." Asuna blushed while Kirito rolled his eyes.

"Oh, right…" Asuna said quietly. "Um…Can all of you do magic?"

' _Well, that cat is already out of the bag…'_ Naruto nodded tiredly. "Yes, we can."

"Magic?" Kirito muttered. "That is supposed to be impossible in this game…" He looked over to Asuna. "You think that it is a skill unique to them as NPCs?"

"It could be…" Asuna agreed. "I can't imagine a player getting something like that as a skill, so it probably isn't the event reward."

"Yeah, that's most likely true…" Black eyes moved back to the newcomers. "Sorry if I'm being intrusive, but is there a reason that you have come here?"

Now how to reply? Naruto frowned slightly. "We…We're looking for something." He said slowly.

"Oh? What are you looking for?" Asuna asked curiously, but when she didn't get a response, she backtracked. "Sorry, I guess it isn't really any of our business…Sorry for being rude." Great, what was the trigger for the next part of the quest?

"No, you're fine. We just…"

The same question that Asuna was thinking was running through Kirito's head. Tuning out the conversation, the black swordsman quickly ran over the facts again. _'Okay, just think about it. What do we know? They 'aren't from around here'. They can use magic. They are looking for something, but don't want to say what…Was there some other clue? Something that they didn't say, but instead did? Or is there some other thing that happened recently…?'_ His eyes widened. "Are you looking for whatever it was that fell out of the sky on this floor the other day?" His question cut them all off.

Tilting his head slightly in confusion, Naruto spoke up. "I'm sorry?"

"The other day, a…meteorite or something crashed on this floor. People have been trying to check it out, but these new monsters started to spawn around the area." Many people had given up in favor of focusing on finding the boss room, but there were still some that wanted to go and find the meteorite.

Naruto's eyes widened. "These…monsters. Can you describe them?" Gray quickly caught on to what Naruto was getting at.

After a moment of hesitation, Asuna nodded. "Sure, but it is kind of hard to. There are a bunch of different kinds out there. I've seen ones that look like knights, ones that looked like animals, even one that looked like a small dragon."

Kirito hummed in agreement. "The troubling thing is that these new monsters seemed to have…combined with some of the normal ones. There are normal monsters that now have characteristics of the new ones." He crossed his arms. "But they all have some common traits. They all have yellow eyes, many seem to have claws, and there is also this…emblem that a lot of them have. It kind of looks like a heart with thorns on the bottom."

While this confirmed Naruto and Gray's thoughts, Natsu finally grasped the situation. "Oh! Those sound like heartless!"

The black swordsman frowned slightly. "Heartless? What are those?"

Happy smiled widely. "They're hearts!"

"…What?" Kirito blinked. "Then how are they heartless?"

"Because of the way that they behave." Gray sighed. "Don't worry about it. Just know that they are called heartless. So I'm guessing that the heartless have been popping up all over the place?"

"No." Asuna's simple answer surprised them.

"Wait, what?" Naruto wasn't sure that there hadn't been some sort of misunderstanding. "Did you just say that they _haven't_ been appearing all over?"

"No, they haven't." Kirito responded, not getting what the problem was. "They have just been showing up around the place that the meteorite crashed in."

Naruto frowned. "That…isn't normal." When the heartless appeared in a world, they appeared everywhere, _not_ just one location. "You said they are gathering around the area that the meteorite crashed in?" A nod. _'What the hell could be so important that they would focus solely on it?'_ Normally, he would have guessed that it was the keyhole, but that didn't explain the meteorite.

Kirito immediately jumped on that thread. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that the heartless don't normally concentrate in one place. I'm guessing that the meteorite has something to do with it…"

"Hey Naruto, what about that other thing?" Happy asked, gaining a confused look from Naruto. "You know, that thing that made you all weird for a bit?" The cat paused. "Well, you know…Weirder than normal."

Happy's words earned a glare from Naruto, but it faded when he realized what Happy was talking about. "Oh yeah…"

Natsu scratched his head. "You think that the thing that Naruto's feeling is making the heartless act like that?"

Asuna glanced to Kirito, who shook his head with a slight frown. "Sorry, but we're not sure that we understand." The Fairy Tail members and Naruto blinked as if just remembering that they weren't alone. "What are you talking about?"

"Um…" Naruto crossed his arms and tried to think of what to say. "As we approached this area, something…called out to me. That's the best way that I can put it. I have no idea what it was, but I felt the pull come from this relative area."

Kirito cupped his chin as he thought. "Hmm…Something called out to you?" By the way it sounded, this event was going to have a plot revolving around this group. Most likely, the quest involved finding out what the thing that called out to Naruto was, and it was probably the meteorite. Which meant…

A smile slowly made its way onto Kirito's face. "How about this…Why don't we all go and try to make it to the meteorite together?" Understanding what Kirito was thinking, Asuna nodded with a smile.

"That sounds like a great idea!" However, while the two of them were enthusiastic about the idea, Naruto looked unsure.

"I don't know if that's a good idea…"

"But why not?" Kirito was furiously thinking over the conversation in his head. Had they missed a flag at some point?

"It's just…" Naruto looked to the others for help, but they also seemed to be at a loss for a reason. "You guys would be in danger."

' _That was the wrong thing to say…'_ A wave of dread washed through Kirito, who nervously looked at Asuna through the corner of his eyes. Just as he had anticipated, the rapier user lowered her head a bit at that, causing her hair to shadow her eyes.

"We would be in danger?" She asked quietly.

Not noticing the danger _he_ was putting himself in, Gray nodded. "Yeah. This doesn't concern you guys, so why should you put yourself in danger like that? And, we already work well together as a team, so adding two more people might slow us down a bit…"

In a flash, Asuna was in front of Gray with her rapier out and pointed at his throat. The ice mage stilled with wide eyes as Naruto, Happy, and Natsu all gaped at the sight. "I'm sorry..." Asuna's eyes sent chills down their spines. "Did you say something about us only being a burden?"

"N-No! Never!"

"Good, that's what I thought." A menacing aura surrounded the girl. "Then there is no problem with us coming along, right?"

"No objections from me! Glad to have you!"

"Oh, that's so nice of you~" Hazel eyes slowly turned to the other three. "And how about you? Are you alright with us joining you? We wouldn't want to _slow you_ _down_..."

Nervous sweat poured down the sides of Naruto's face. "N-Nah. On second thought, it would be a great idea for you to join us." He bowed formally. "Please come with us-ttebayo!" Natsu and Happy joined his action and bowed.

"Aye!"

Asuna smirked and sheathed her rapier. "Well, if you insist~" She looked to Kirito, who stiffened. "Are you ready to help them, Kirito-kun?"

"Y-Yeah. I'm ready whenever." Kirito nervously replied before pointing. "We should probably head out soon to save us much daylight as possible. The meteorite crashed at the peak of that mountain." Asuna nodded cheerfully.

"Okay, then let's go!" Humming, she turned and began to make her way towards the mountain.

Once she was a few feet away, Gray's entire body sagged in relief. "Holy crap..." He mumbled. "Why does that keep happening?"

"Scary..." Happy said quietly.

Natsu glanced over to Kirito. "She sounded both nice and terrifying at the same time." He shivered. "I had flashbacks again."

Naruto nodded. "She reminds me of Kaa-san..." This admission brought a surprised look to Kirito's face. "Let's just get moving."

Shaking off his surprise and filing this new piece of information for later consideration, Kirito spoke up. "Right. If we get moving now, then we will be able to reach the base of the mountain by sunset. We should only run into normal monsters on the way there, but we can start expecting...heartless once we get close. Getting to the peak should also take us the entirety of tomorrow, and that's if we don't run into too much trouble along the way."

"Got it." They moved to catch up with Asuna.

Neither Asuna nor Kirito ever noticed the lack of a quest initiation popup.

* * *

 **A Little Later**

The group of six made their way through the forest. The four off-worlders tried to hide it, but both Kirito and Asuna noticed that they were extremely interested in their surroundings. Eventually, Natsu spoke up.

"Hey, Kirito..." He began.

"Yes?"

Natsu pointed to something off in the distance. "...What is that?" Kirito followed the finger and frowned when he saw what the thing was.

"The tower?" Kirito's clarification caught Asuna's full attention. Natsu was actually asking about part of SAO's core features?

"Yeah?"

Kirito tilted his head as he considered the question. "That's the «labyrinth» of this floor. Most of the clearers are there."

Gray glanced over to him. "You mentioned similar terms before. What did you mean?"

"I meant..." These NPCs were seriously asking about that? If he wasn't here, then he would have had a lot of trouble believing it. "How do you not know? Everyone knows about it." Even the NPCs in cities did!

Naruto gained an uncomfortable expression. "Like I said, we aren't from around here." He shrugged. "So yeah, we have no clue what you mean by those things." It seemed that Kirito had come up with his own explanation as to why they wouldn't know, so be they would roll with that.

"...Okay..." Kirito scratched the back of his head. "How best to explain this...Do you at least know that we're are in «Aincrad»?" He got four blank looks. "You're kidding."

"Nope."

"Sorry."

"Nu-uh."

"Aye!"

"But…But that doesn't make any sense!" Kirito said in disbelief. All the NPCs were at least aware of the name of the game's setting and the floor they were on! His eyes widened in realization. "The meteorite fell from the sky…So it isn't from «Aincrad»." He adopted a conflicted look, as if he was debating something. "Are you guys…not from this…" How the hell was he supposed to word this?

"From this world?" Happy supplied helpfully, not noticing the startled looks he got from Naruto and Gray. "Aye! We just got to this world!" Asuna's eyes were the size of dinner plates at this.

Kirito's expression was an interesting mixture of disbelief, comprehension, denial, and confusion. "So that _was_ some kind of space craft that I saw earlier." Naruto looked to him in surprise.

"W-Wait, you saw our entry to this world?"

"Yeah. I wasn't sure what it was at the time and I had other things to worry about, but I saw it. I seriously thought that my mind was playing tricks on me." The black swordsman sighed. "This event is starting to get weird compared to the normal stuff…" He paused. "So, I guess that really does mean you don't know anything about this… 'world' then…" That term was bizarre to use.

Natsu rolled his eyes. "That's what we've been saying." He grinned. "You're not too smart, are you?"

Kirito's eye twitched as Asuna giggled. "How the hell was I supposed to come to such a conclusion?" Kirito said under his breath. This was an event with no warnings or information given. Even Argo didn't know anything! "Okay then…How to explain?" He crossed his arms. Was there something specific they needed to say? He wasn't sure how it would play into the quest, but it could

"Um…How about starting with «Aincrad» itself?" Asuna suggested helpfully. "This entire…world, I guess, is known as «Aincrad». Another name people use is SAO, but that one could be considered incorrect in some cases." She couldn't exactly explain that none of this -including themselves- were real.

"«Aincrad»." Naruto repeated. "Alright…And what was that you mentioned about clearers and floors earlier? I can imagine what you meant by floors, but why are only the first seventy-five unlocked?"

"To explain that, you need to know that there are one-hundred floors in total." Kirito started. "Each floor has its own environment, with some of them differing extremely, and they all have a dungeon with a labyrinth. The ultimate goal of everyone in «Aincrad» is to reach the top floor and conquer that final labyrinth."

"So why don't you?" Natsu asked bluntly.

"Because of the monsters on each floor, right?" Naruto guessed. "You mentioned them before." Asuna nodded with a smile.

"Exactly. Each dungeon has monsters infesting it, with the monsters on each floor increasing in difficulty as you ascend the floors. To get to the next floor of «Aincrad», you must find the boss room at the top floor of the labyrinth and defeat it."

Naruto sweat dropped. _'It almost sounds like some sort of game…'_ "And so everyone tries to find the boss room then?"

"«Aincrad» currently has a population of a little more than six-thousand." Kirito's demeanor turned somber. "There used to be more, but not anymore." None of them asked him to elaborate on that. "The entirety of the population all started on the first floor, and we have been making our way up to the top ever since. The people who are constantly fighting on the newest floors are known as the clearers. Out of the six-thousand people here, we only number a few hundred."

"We?" Happy echoed.

Kirito smirked. "Yep. Asuna and I are two of the strongest people out there. We have been on the front lines -the newest floors- since the beginning. If one of us isn't the strongest person in «Aincrad», then we are at least definitely in the top five." Asuna smiled at his bravado.

"It's true. And while we aren't too sure if we are the strongest overall, _I'm_ at least the strongest girl."

Gray whistled. "Impressive." He complimented. "And what do you get when you beat the top floor?" The moods of Kirito and Asuna immediately plummeted again. "Uh…"

"…We get our freedom." Asuna said quietly.

A feeling of dread was starting to pool in Naruto's stomach. "What does that mean?"

"It…It just means that we can finally leave this place." Kirito said. How could they explain the concept of reality to a bunch of NPCs?

His words stopped the ones who didn't know about it cold. "What?" Naruto asked, unsure if he had heard it correctly.

Asuna looked away. "We have been stuck in «Aincrad» for a long time now…The two-year anniversary is actually in a couple of days."

Kirito closed his eyes. "The creator of SAO said that the only way to escape is to clear the hundredth floor, therefore completing SAO." Natsu's teeth clenched in anger at this new information. "…A lot of people have died here."

They were thrown into a stretched period of silence, but it was soon broken by Kirito. "We should keep moving if we want to make camp by sunset." He said. None of them had even realized that they had stopped walking.

"Right…" Naruto said quietly. One person had condemned ten-thousand people to this place? _'So it really is a game…Just a sick, twisted one…'_

Noticing the mood, Asuna spoke up. "Come on, let's not talk about that!" She put on an uneasy smile. "Let's just focus on the here and now! If we keep up this pace, we should be able to reach the mountain in a couple of hours. We really are lucky to not have come across any monsters yet!"

Naruto and Kirito's eyes widened. _'She didn't jus-'_ At the same time, they opened their mouths to stop her.

"No!"

"Don't say-!" But it was too late.

No sooner did the last syllable leave Asuna's mouth than a group of the same lizard monsters from before appeared around them from blue pillars of light. Instantly, the group was on guard at the sight of the confrontation.

"What the hell?!" Gray eyed the ring of monsters. "These are some freaky geckos."

With a sigh, Kirito shot a sidelong glare at Asuna. "You would think that the 'strongest girl' would know not to jinx things. You're not new at this, Asuna!"

Asuna had a sheepish expression before playfully sticking out her tongue. "Sorry, I didn't think about what I was saying." She pulled out her rapier and brandished it briefly. "Well, it's not like we are in trouble or anything…" She was sure that they could take the monsters out.

"That's not the point…" Naruto said with an eye roll. "It would have been better to not have to face them at all."

Despite the danger, Natsu grinned excitedly and punched his fists together, creating sparks. "Whatever! This is way better anyways!"

Reluctantly, Gray allowed a smirk to form on his lips. "I hate to agree with Natsu, but I wouldn't mind a little workout right about now…" His smirk turned into a grin. "This will do nicely."

"Aye! You can do it!" Happy was safely floating in the air high above their heads. "I believe in you!"

Listening to the words of their companions, Naruto and Kirito sighed in unison. Blinking in surprise, they turned to each other with small smiles. Shrugging, Naruto spoke up. "Well, maybe it was a little boring just walking there…"

"And I wouldn't mind getting some more loot…" Kirito smirked and pulled out his black sword. "Oh well, might as well make the most of it."

"I guess so." Naruto held out a hand and summoned his keyblade. The sudden appearance of the strange looking sword made Kirito and Asuna do double takes. "So, who wants to start?"

It was a no-brainer, really. "I got this!" Directly following Naruto's question, Natsu leapt at the nearest monster with a flaming fist. " **Fire Dragon's Iron Fist**!" The surprise attack from the fire dragon slayer proved to be enough to kill the monster, as it shattered into blue shards that faded into the air. The death of one of their brethren spurred the other monsters into attacking. The rest of the group found themselves dodging swords sent their way by the monsters.

"Don't let them get behind you!" Kirito ordered. "Always have someone watching your back! And watch out for «Sword Skills»!" He paused as he remembered who he was talking to. "If their sword starts glowing, be ready to either evade or block!"

"Got it!" Naruto sidestepped a sword that came at him in a downward slash and retaliated with a stab of his own. Much to his surprise, the monster actually titled its body out of the way. Jumping back to avoid the next attack, Naruto called out. "They're smart enough to dodge?!"

"Yeah!" Asuna answered amidst a flurry of strikes from her rapier. "They are some of the smarter monsters, so you can't just expect them to take the hit when they are anticipating one! Some can even block!"

' _Great…'_ Frowning, Naruto came up with a plan. "Then I'll need to do better than that…" He raised a hand towards the monster. " **Fire**!" The moment the giant lizard jumped out of the way, Naruto was upon it with a smirk. He didn't have time to watch it shatter as another monster was already in its place with an attack streaking at him.

Off to the side in his own battle, Kirito considered the attack he just saw out of the corner of his eye. _'That was definitely some kind of magic spell, but it didn't look too powerful…'_ He risked a glance at Naruto and Gray. _'Like before, Natsu is using fire based attacks, but Gray is using ice attacks.'_ Sparks flew as he intercepted a sword aimed at his throat. Pulling himself out of his thoughts, Kirito glared. _'Stop getting distracted, idiot. Think about it later.'_ Jumping back, Kirito raised his sword into a stance that has grown familiar to him over the years.

' _Right now, just get to the mountain!'_

* * *

 **Base of the Mountain (Later)**

Kirito glanced up to the sky before checking his HUD for the time. "We should start thinking about setting up camp now." The group had made it to the base of the mountain safely, but they had been attacked frequently along the way. Luckily, the biggest issue came from Natsu and Happy aggroing a group of monsters…By calling them names.

"That's a good idea." Asuna agreed. "I don't want to be caught out here in the middle of the night."

"Sure." Naruto glanced up to the mountain. Ahead of them was a trail that led up the mountain. The mountain was placed in the center of the forest, towering above the trees until the peak was near the level of the clouds. It was so high up that Naruto could see snow near the top.

 _ **Ba-Bump.**_

Naruto's eyes widened. _'That feeling again.'_ It was stronger than it was before. Naruto actually felt a small invisible tug pull him towards the mountain.

 _ **Ba-Bump.**_ _'…el…'_

"Hello? Who's there?" Naruto's sudden call made the others turn to him in confusion.

"Naruto?" Gray asked hesitantly. "Who are you talking to?" He was promptly ignored by the crimson blond, who was staring solely towards the mountain peak. "Hey, Naru-" Gray took a step towards him, but he was cut off by an arm clothed in black shooting in front of him. "Why are you stop-"

"Shh." Kirito raised a finger to his lips and shushed the ice mage, all the while never looking away from Naruto. Gray scowled, but relented.

Naruto scanned the mountain for something out of the ordinary, but didn't spot anything.

 _ **Ba-Bump.**_ _'Pl…ti…ou…'_

"I can't hear you." Naruto said out loud. "What are you saying?"

 _ **Ba-Bump.**_ _'…ger…urry…'_ The voice sounded as if it was coming through a heavy filter.

"'…urry'?" Naruto muttered, realization dawning a moment later. " _Hurry._ " He whispered. Naruto had been able to feel the emotions of whatever it was that time as well, but the worry and fear had skyrocketed compared to what it was before.

"Did you feel it again?" Kirito's sudden question made Naruto jolt a little. Turning, he blinked in confusion. "That feeling you mentioned…Did you feel it again?" Kirito clarified.

Shakily, nodding his head, Naruto's eyes moved back to the mountain. "Yeah…I did. It was stronger this time, and I even heard a faint voice…"

"It was telling you to hurry?"

Naruto slowly nodded. "Yeah…It was. I think that whatever is calling out to me is in trouble, so it won't last much longer…It's scared."

"What else did it say?" The others were silent as they listened to Kirito's questions.

"It was all broken up and distant. I was only really able to make out 'hurry'." Naruto answered.

Kirito cupped his chin in thought. "'Hurry'?" He mused. "I'm guessing that it probably was referring to the heartless and how they are approaching the meteorite; So it wanted you to hurry." He sighed. "No matter how pressing it is, it would be suicidal for us to try scaling the mountain at night. We will have to wait for daybreak."

Natsu scowled. "How come? I'm sure we'll be fine."

"Because the monsters increase in numbers at night." Asuna told him. "Not only that, but we will also be facing heartless on that mountain. It would be foolish of us to get overconfident and walk to our deaths."

Naruto frowned, but agreed. "I hate to admit it, but that is probably for the best. They know this place the best, and if they say that it is too dangerous, then we should take their word for it." It took a surprising amount of effort for Naruto to tear his eyes away from the mountain to face the others. "So where are we setting up camp?"

Taking a moment to think, Kirito pointed to the side. "According to what I've heard, there is a «Safe Area» about half a mile to the east of here. Because no monsters can get in there, we can camp there." The others nodded. With a plan in mind, the group began walking.

Before he got too far, Naruto took one last glance at the mountain.

' _Just a little bit longer…I'll be there soon.'_ He tried to convey his thoughts to whatever it was that was reaching out to him.

 _ **Ba-Bump**_

A small smile formed on Naruto's face when he felt the newest emotion.

* * *

 **Safe Zone (Later)**

Naruto sat by the campfire while the others slept. The campsite they had set up was in the middle of a clearing in the forest, so it had been easy to find wood. It was a nice, cloudless night, so they were able to see the mountain from there. Not feeling tired, Naruto sat with his back against a tree and gazed at the mountain.

"Can't sleep?" Naruto glanced to the side as Kirito took a seat next to him. The black haired teen had taken off his combat gear and was now wearing a simple pair of black pants and a long-sleeve shirt. It had been interesting to see the way that he and Asuna took things out and put them away.

With a shrug, Naruto returned his eyes to the mountain. "Not really. I just don't feel tired."

Kirito nodded. "I see…" He followed Naruto's gaze to the mountain. "…Can I ask you something?"

"…Go ahead."

Black eyes looked back to Naruto. "…Why do you feel such an extreme need to help whatever is calling out to you?" Naruto's eyes widened and met the black pair. "You don't know what it is, why it is calling you, or what it will do once you get there. So…why?"

"I…" Naruto sighed and shook his head. "I'm still not too sure…But I just know I need to get there." He said confidently. "When it first reached out to me, I was…overwhelmed by the emotions it held. It was just full of loneliness, worry, anxiousness…fear. I just had to do something." A small smile formed on his lips. "But when my…heart resonated with it, all those emotions were just washed away. They were replaced with relief, joy, and trust." He closed his eyes. "Whatever is calling out to me, it trusts me enough to save it."

"But what about just before? You said it was scared?"

Naruto hummed in agreement. "I did, yeah. But just before we left the trail leading up the mountain, I tried starting a connection myself…It worked. Just like last time, the fear was washed away and replaced with a sense of comfort and trust."

"I see…" Kirito took a moment to observe Naruto. "Why don't you get some rest, Naruto? If you're going to help whatever is calling out to you, then it would be best to be rested." Did NPCs even need sleep?

"…Yeah, sure." Standing up, Naruto stretched his arms. "I'll do that. Goodnight." Maybe he could talk to Hikari and Yami about it?"

"Night."

* * *

 **Mountain Trail (The Next Morning)**

Naruto had an irritated frown on his face as he stared up the trail. Despite his intentions, he had been unable to enter the Station of Awakening in his sleep, which is something that has never happened before.

Next to him, Natsu bounced up and down with a grin. "So now we can finally get to the top of the mountain?"

Kirito smiled in amusement. "Yes, we can. Getting to the top should take us most of the day, so the sooner we get moving, the better."

"What kind of trouble can we expect?" Gray asked curiously.

"The monsters we have been facing used to spawn near the lower parts of the mountain, but the heartless overtook them." Asuna answered. "Now, there are these heartless versions of the monsters that were already there along with what I can only guess are the heartless themselves…"

"Sounds about right." Naruto agreed. "You said the lower half of the mountain? Why not the upper?"

"We…We don't know what spawns near the top. Not anymore." Kirito admitted. "No one has been able to make it near the peak of the mountain since the heartless started showing up. It _used_ to be that only bigger versions of the monsters around here spawned, but we can't say for sure now."

"So you're saying that you're as clueless as we are?" Happy asked innocently. "Why don't you just say that, idiot?"

Kirito twitched. "I didn't say that because it's not what I meant." He said with a glare at the cat, but it turned to Asuna upon hearing her stifled giggles. "Anyways, let's get moving." He began walking towards the trail.

* * *

 **Later**

"N-Natsu. It's c-cold!" Happy shivered against the cold wind as he sat on Natsu's head. The rocky terrain of the mountain had been replaced a few hours back for the new, colder surroundings. The five humans were trekking through snow and ice as they climbed the mountain.

Naruto nodded in agreement while rubbing his exposed arms. "I've never hated the fact that this jacket is short-sleeved until now…" After spending the majority of the day hiking and fighting off heartless, the peak was finally close by. "How much further did you say?"

Kirito shrugged. "Not too long. The summit will probably come into sight within a few minutes." Naruto shot him a dirty look.

"Why is it that you don't look cold? You look like you're somehow as warm as always." The bastard was acting like they were in pleasant weather! Asuna had also put on an extra layer of clothing!

"You're just not trying hard enough."

"The hell does that mean-ttebayo?! How will trying stop me from being cold?!"

"It just will. Look, it works for me."

Natsu nodded. "Yeah, Naruto. I mean, look at me. You don't see me being cold, do you?"

"I don't want to hear anything from the walking fireplace!"

"I don't know what your problem is, Nar-"

"The same goes for the human ice cube! And put a damn shirt on! Do you want Asuna-san to slap you again?!" Kami, what was with these people? It seemed as if he and Asuna were the only normal ones!

Deciding to take pity on him, Asuna swiped two fingers through the air in front of her. Responding to the command, a blue menu popped up with a soft chime. After scrolling through some things, she found whatever it was that she was looking for. "Here we are…" With the press of a button, a white jacket with red lining appeared in her arms. "Here, Naruto-kun. Use this."

Nodding gratefully, Naruto put on the jacket. "Thanks, Asuna-san." He sighed in relief when the cold was immediately subdued. "That's much better."

"…Completely overreacting." Kirito quickly averted his eyes to avoid Naruto's glare, but the smirk gave Kirito's thoughts away.

"Hmph, jerk." Kirito grinned wryly at Naruto's muttering.

"Hey, is that the summit?!" All eyes turned towards the front at Happy's excited exclamation. The trail they were walking on was starting to level out. As they got closer and closer to the summit, the greater the sense of déjà vu got within Kirito.

' _Mountain…Snow…Summit…There are even some crystals. Where have I seen this?'_ But no matter how much he tried, he couldn't remember.

When the path reached the summit, they took a look around. Because of the altitude, the bottom of the next floor was extremely close. The ground of the summit was covered in an enormous amount of huge crystal pillars that stood out of a thick layer of snow. The crystals created a boundary for the path, which went over a small hill.

"Yes, this is it." Asuna said. "Right now, we're as high as we can be on this floor. The bottom of the next floor is practically within touching distance…"

 _ **Ba-Bump.**_

Naruto's eyes widened. _'Again.'_ Not wasting another moment, he broke out into a run towards the hill.

"Naruto!"

"Where are you going?!"

Kirito watched him silently before speaking up. "Let's follow him." Without bothering to hear the replies, Kirito ran after Naruto.

 _ **Ba-Bump.**_

' _It's close!'_ Naruto was sure of it. Whatever was resonating him was right over this hill. Wham! "The hell?!" Naruto came to a complete and abrupt halt when he suddenly ran into something that felt like an invisible wall. Raising a hand up to rub his nose, Naruto glared. "There isn't anything here…"

"There is, but we just can't see it." Kirito had caught up to Naruto and heard his words. Raising a hand, Kirito moved it forward, but wasn't able to get by a certain point. Instead, his hand laid flat against a surface they couldn't see. "There's an invisible wall here."

"That explains why the heartless haven't been able to reach the summit." Gray said. "But it is also stopping us from reaching it, so how do we get in?"

"I'm…not sure." Kirito said quietly. "There should be an entrance nearby…Or maybe a way to take down the wall? Some kind of key?" Naruto's eyes widened.

"A key…" Acting on that thought, Naruto jumped back a few feet and summoned his keyblade. Seeing this, the others soon caught onto his plan.

"Of course." Kirito whispered. "That will probably do it." He stepped to the side, prompting everyone else to follow his lead. "Give it a shot."

Nodding, Naruto raised his keyblade and pointed it towards the invisible wall.

 _ **Ba-Bump.**_

A moment later, a glowing keyhole appeared in the air above them. Pointing his keyblade at it, Naruto imagined a lock getting unlocked by a key. Just as the last time he did this, a bright beam of light shot out of the keyblade and into the lock. The keyhole flashed, but it wasn't alone. When the keyhole flashed, a golden dome of light momentarily became visible to them, but it and the keyhole soon faded away.

 _ **Ba-Bump.**_

Now with nothing stopping him, Naruto dismissed his keyblade and sprinted the rest of the way up the hill. Unsurprised this time, the rest of the group silently followed. Finally reaching the top of the hill, Naruto looked down the other side of it.

Naruto's breath hitched.

"That's…" Kirito's eyes were wide as he gazed at the object in front of them, but a blurred figure speeding ahead made him curse. "Naruto, wait!"

Ignoring the shout, Naruto sprinted into the clearing, only to skid to a stop in front of the object. "This is…" Naruto didn't even glance at the others as they cautiously walked up to him, each looking at the object as well.

"This is it?" Gray asked. "Why would the heartless be after something like this?"

 _ **Ba-Bump.**_

Slowly, Naruto raised a hand and placed it on the surface of the object. Absently, he was noted that it was surprisingly warm.

In the clearing was a large floating sphere made of light. The light had condensed until it formed a solid, silvery-blue substance that almost looked like a crystal. But while that was surprising, it was what was on the inside that everyone was looking at.

Suspended in the center of the sphere was a girl who looked to be a little older than Naruto. She had dark red hair that only went about to her chin and a pale complexion. The girl had on a white, sleeveless top with a black one underneath which slightly exposed her navel. In addition to this, she also had on purple bike shorts underneath a purple skirt with a blue belt, and shoes that were a mixture of white, blue, and purple. Completing her outfit was a silver bead necklace.

"A girl?" Natsu said in a disappointed tone. "We came here for a girl?" He was hoping for something exciting!

Naruto didn't even bother to respond to Natsu's newest bout of idiocy. "We need to get her out." He said quietly. "Now." Naruto wasn't sure why, but he knew he needed to help this girl.

Kirito looked between Naruto and the girl with a heavy frown. After thinking about it for a moment, he nodded. "She is probably what has been calling out to you, so I agree." After trading glances, the others soon voiced similar thoughts, although Natsu sounded as if he wasn't interested.

Nodding, Naruto closed his eyes. "I'm here…How can I help you?"

 _ **Ba-Bump.**_ An image of Naruto and his keyblade flashed through his mind.

"My keyblade?" Doing as instructed, Naruto called his keyblade back out. "I think I need to use my keyblade to unlock it. Stand back." Hearing this, they gave him some room. Once they were out of the way, Naruto took a deep breath. "Here we go…" A determined look appeared on his face.

Jumping back and twirling his keyblade for a moment, Naruto pointed it at the sphere. Unnoticed to Naruto, his eyes glowed with a silvery-blue light as he did this. At the same time, the glow of the sphere intensified, matching his eyes. The front of the sphere started to glow brighter, soon giving way to the shape of heart that clearly stood out on the sphere. Pointing the keyblade directly at the heart, Naruto watched as a beam of light shot out of his keyblade.

Click.

At once, the glow of the sphere got even brighter, forcing everyone to shield their eyes. When the light finally died down, the sphere was gone, leaving the girl floating a few feet above the ground.

Dismissing his keyblade, Naruto ran forward as the girl slowly started to descend. Seeing that the sphere was gone, the rest of the group started walking back over to Naruto.

"So it worked?" Happy asked curiously.

"Looks like it…" Gray said. "But why was she in there?" All eyes were still tracking the girl as her body got closer and closer to the ground. "Any idea, Naruto?"

Coming up to next to the girl, Naruto reached out to catch her body before it reached the ground. "…I don't know…" But now that he was this close, he was _sure_ that he knew this girl from somewhere. The girl's body finally came to a rest in Naruto's arms.

 _ **Ba- Bump**_

His entire world was overtaken by _pain_.

"AAHHH!"

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 39!**

 **So? How far into the chapter did you get before you realized what world they went to?**

 **Writing this chapter made me want to strangle Yen Press all over again. Who else was ticked off that they licensed pretty much every light novel so that translations can't be posted online?**

 **Damn it, I need something to refer to Naruto, Gray, Natsu, and Happy as. Maybe a team name or something. It is sometimes kind of inconvenient to indicate them all as a group. Ideas?**

 **What's more important? The action/battles or the story/plot? Because I can tell you right now that one of them can be elongated and/or improved, but it would cost the other. For example, this chapter has around 10k-11k words of story content, and yet I didn't really put in any fights. In my opinion, story/plot is more important.**

 **Care to take a guess as to who the girl is?**

 **Yes, I am (fairly) sure that I know what I'm doing…**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**

* * *

" _Did you know? Every Legend was inspired by something."_

" _And while not all legends may be true…"_

" _There are those legends that are based on the achievements Of real people."_

" _Real men and women."_

" _People who have transcended all others, becoming something…more."_

" _They become a legend."_

" _But what qualifies one to legendary status?"_

" _Is it their heroics? Their strength of heart?"_

" _Or is it the amount of time The person is remembered?"_

" _Would it be the diamond jubilee? Perhaps golden? Or even Silver?"_

" _There exist countless legends of all ages."_

" _Legends of wizards. Legends of mages. Legends of gladiators. Legends of Shinobi. Legends of warriors."_

" _To gain the status of 'legend' and have your story told through the generations is simply amazing."_

" _Most legends are forgotten in time, becoming nothing more than lore and stories told to children."_

"… _The scary part?"_

" _Some legends never die."_


	41. Intertwining Destinies

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 40!**

 **I figured out a team name! It will be applied later.**

 **Blah blah blah, slightly late chapter, blah blah blah. I know! Finals are coming up and I'm panicking (My college operates on the quarter system). And it's not even an entire day late.**

 **I** _ **really**_ **hate it when this site goes down. And this time, it was even down for hours…**

 **Warning: Only the first 4k words or so of this chapter have been proofread.**

* * *

 **The Eternal FrostbiteLeo: Thanks for pointing that out! I went back and fixed it.**

 **Blackwing- Balmung the** **Eclipse: Kairi learning to use her keyblade early? Perhaps...**

 **Kairitrion Cerulean: I'm glad you realized it was her after a second read. :P**

 **redlox2: I'm planning on him using a corridor like that at some point, yeah…I think. And the only reason he seems to prefer fire magic is because it is what I prefer in the games. That transfers over to my writing.**

 **ImagineBreaker7: Just wait and see. It will make sense.**

 **prototype gear: I _wish_ I could just call it something like Naruto 'n Crew.**

 **HeartlessNobody13: I intend to make it an occasional gag, yeah. And that was absolutely intentional with the timing in the SAO world! I want to leave it open as an option for a return visit.**

 **unknown: Well…Why would I spoil that? :P**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else. I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Deity Talking: " **Insert witty remark here**."

Biju/Deity Thinking: _'_ _ **Insert witty remark here**_ _.'_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

"AAHHH!"

The moment the girl touched Naruto, an agonizing burning sensation erupted in his chest, soon making him white out.

* * *

Sora came to an abrupt halt when a hot feeling exploded in his chest, successfully distracting him from his search for Alice. "Gah!" Clutching at his chest, he fell to his knees. The grunt of pain and the sudden stop gained the attention of his companions.

"Sora!"

"Are you alright?!"

Due to the pain, Sora was unable to verbally answer in any way. _'This…This feeling! What is it?!'_ A light slowly formed over his heart.

* * *

 **?**

When he returned to awareness, Naruto was startled to see that he was standing somewhere else. _'The hell?'_ Quickly assessing the situation, he saw that he didn't have any idea where he was. No longer was he on the summit of a snowy mountain with the others, instead Naruto was standing in some kind of expansive library.

' _Where am I?'_ Naruto's eyes soon landed on an elderly lady seated in a chair under a long staircase. "Excuse me?" No response. "Ma'am?" The woman still didn't react, causing Naruto's eyebrow to twitch. He was about to try again, only this time louder, but he was cut off.

"Grandma!" A young girl with a large smile ran up to the elderly woman. Taking in the girl's appearance, Naruto was surprised at what he saw.

' _Isn't that…the girl we just found?'_ She was younger, but he was sure it was her. Now that she was awake, Naruto saw that she had blue eyes. The girl was wearing a white apron-like shirt with blue flowers and a blue line across the chest. In addition to this, she also had on a pink skirt with a white line on it, along with white shoes that had pink and purple lines on them. _'But…Why is she younger?'_

The girl's grandmother looked up from the book she was reading and smiled. "Yes, my dear? What is it?"

Reaching her grandmother, the girl came to a stop. "Can you tell me a story? Pretty please?"

' _Can neither of them see or hear me?'_ That was both slightly disturbing and annoying.

The grandmother's smile grew at the request. Closing the book that she had in her lap, she placed it on the table next to her. "Of course I can, but it will need to be a short one." The girl cheered at these words. "Do you have something specific you would like to hear?"

Not even needing to think about it, the girl nodded. "Yeah! Please tell me the one about the true light!" Naruto's interest was piqued at this.

Laughing softly, the girl's grandmother responded. "Again?" She asked. "Aren't you tired of hearing that one?"

"No way! It's my favorite one!"

"Hmm, very well…" The grandmother leaned back in her seat. "Long ago, people lived in peace, bathed in the warmth of light." She began. "Everyone loved the light…But people began fighting over it. They wanted to keep it for themselves."

Naruto's eyes widened. _'This is…'_ Was she telling the story about how the worlds were first separated? _'But…They're talking as if Kingdom Hearts is just light…'_

"And so darkness was born in their hearts. That darkness spread, swallowing the light and many people's hearts…" The grandmother said. "It covered everything, and the world disappeared."

' _I was right…It really is that story…'_

"But small fragments of light survived in the hearts of small children. With these fragments of light, children rebuilt the lost world…The world we live in now."

The girl was enraptured by the tale. "And the light? The one that people were fighting over?"

A small smile formed on Naruto's lips at the girl's mesmerization at the story. _'Didn't they say that she has heard this before?'_

It seemed that the woman had similar thoughts because she gave a small laugh. "The true light sleeps, deep within the darkness. That's why the worlds are still scattered, divided from each other. But someday, a door to the innermost darkness will open."

' _The Door to Darkness…'_

"When that happens, the true light will return." The grandmother said. "So, listen, child. Even in the deepest darkness, there will always be a light to guide you. Believe in the light, and the darkness will never defeat you." Naruto frowned a bit. "Your heart will shine with its power and push the darkness away."

' _She makes it out like the darkness is something evil that must be feared.'_ Naruto thought to himself. _'That isn't true though…The darkness can be harmful, yes, but it shouldn't be rejected.'_

Unaware of Naruto's thoughts of her words, the woman continued. "Do you understand, Kairi?"

Naruto's eyebrows shot up at the name and his focus snapped to the girl. "Kairi?!" Wasn't that one of the friends that Sora was looking for?

Absently, he noticed that a strange warm feeling appeared in his chest at the name.

Suddenly, the world was bathed in light.

* * *

 **?**

When his vision returned, Naruto was confused to see he was no longer standing in a library. This time, he found himself in the courtyard of some castle. "Now where am I?" He muttered.

"Kyah!" The terrified scream prompted Naruto to whirl around. He became alarmed when the same girl from a moment ago, Kairi, clutching flowers as she ran away from a group of creatures. At first, Naruto thought that they were heartless, but he soon realized he was looking at some unversed, although this was the first time in years that he has seen any.

Shoving his thoughts away for later Naruto acted. Moving quickly, he summoned his keyblade and jumped in between Kairi and the unversed. "Oh no you don't!" He slashed at the first unversed, but his eyes widened when it phased through it. "What?!" As if he wasn't even there, the unversed passed through Naruto and continued to chase Kairi. "This is…" He was still unable to interact with anything! Slightly panicked, Naruto spun around and tried to think of a way to help, but was unsure of anything he could do.

"No! Run!" Surprised by the new voice, Naruto glanced to the side, only to have his jaw drop slightly in shock.

"Th…That's…" Naruto's confusion at the situation skyrocketed at the sight of who was standing there. "…Aqua?" He whispered.

Aqua stood at the top of a nearby staircase with a keyblade in her hand. Seeing that someone who could help had arrive, Kairi changed her direction to Aqua, coming to a stop beside her and cowering from the unversed. Whimpering in fear, Kairi reaches out and places a hand on Aqua's keyblade. Aqua glanced down at Kairi for a moment, seemingly noticing something about the young girl, but focus shortly returns to the unversed.

Naruto grit his teeth at his own helplessness in the situation. _'She can't defeat them and defend Kairi at the same time.'_ He could do nothing but watch as one of the unversed crouched low before leaping high into the air to attack.

"Hya!" All those present were caught off guard by the sudden appearance of someone who killed the attacking unversed in the air. The newcomer landed in a battle stance in front of Aqua.

' _A giant mouse?!'_ Standing there was a large mouse wearing a short sleeve jacket, pants, and shoes. The mouse's entire outfit was made up of various shades of black, white, and grey. The truly shocking thing though was the fact that the mouse was _wielding a keyblade_. _'Another keyblade wielder?!'_ A moment later, Naruto recognized the keyblade as the same one that Nox wielded.

The mouse took a glance back towards Aqua and Kairi. "Hurry! Ya gotta get that girl to someplace that's safe."

Still catching up to the fact that some unknown person with a keyblade showed up, Aqua responded. "Who are you? Why do you have a keyblade?"

"I'll tell you later! Right now, we gotta stop these things!"

Nodding, Aqua stooped low for a moment and picked up Kairi, carrying the young girl with one arm.

Unexpectedly, Naruto was blinded by another flash of light.

* * *

 **?**

Naruto's mind was assaulted by multiple flashes of different scenes. But before he could get more than a quick glance at each one, it would change to the next. All he could really make out was that Kairi was in each one of them, and she spent most of them with these two boys, although he didn't get a good look at the boys.

Eventually, Naruto came to a stop in someplace completely different. Unlike the times when he found himself in a library or a courtyard, Naruto was now standing on the shore of a beach on some island. Naruto's confusion towards the situation was growing by the minute.

' _What the hell is happening?!'_ How was he transferring from one unfamiliar place to the next? Why was he unable to interact with anyone? And the biggest question… _'How did I just see Aqua? She is supposed to be trapped in the realm of darkness…'_ It didn't make any sense!

"Ugh, there he is!" Turning towards the voice, Naruto's eyes widened when he saw Kairi standing there with an expression that was a mixture of exasperation and amusement. Only this time, she was much older to the point that she looked the same as she did back on the summit of the mountain. "I swear, he is so lazy…" Her blue eyes were facing towards Naruto, but it was as if she was looking _through_ him.

"Hello?" Naruto tried halfheartedly. Huffing, Kairi strode forward, successfully unsettling Naruto when she walked right through him. Sighing, Naruto turned to see where she was going. It appeared that Kairi was walking towards someone who was lying on the beach, fast asleep. _'Is that…Sora?'_ Taking a closer look, Naruto confirmed that it was indeed Sora sleeping there. _'But…How is he here? Didn't he say that he was separated from Kairi and that Riku person?'_ Naruto trailed after Kairi as she walked up to Sora.

As they got close, Sora woke up and got into a sitting position, only to yawn widely and lay back down. Naruto watched as Kairi grinned mischievously and quickened her pace so that she could lean over and be in front of Sora's face the moment he laid down fully.

And just like she had planned, Sora was startled to find someone else so close. "Whoa!" Kairi moved out of the way as Sora jumped back up, giggling as she did. "Gimme a break, Kairi."

Kairi took a moment to playfully stick her tongue out at him. "Sora, you lazy bum. I knew that I'd find you snoozing down here."

Sora quickly shook his head in denial. "No! This huge black thing swallowed me up! I couldn't breathe! I couldn't-Ow!" He was cut off when Kairi hit him on the head.

"Are you still dreaming?" Naruto's eyes lit up in realization at this.

"Dreaming…" He whispered. "I'm dreaming again…" That must be it. How else could he be in places that he has never seen before, with people who shouldn't be able to be there, and be unable to even touch anything? "So this is…the past?" His other dreams that had been similar were all visions of the past…

His eyes wandered back to Kairi. "Or maybe…Are these her memories?" He tuned back into the conversation.

"…I want to see it too." Sora declared. "Along with any other worlds out there. I wanna see 'em all!"

Kairi smiled at him. "So what are we waiting for?"

"Hey!" All eyes moved to the owner of the voice. "Aren't you guys forgetting about me?"

Standing there was a teenage boy with silver hair, pale skin, bright blue-green eyes, and a slightly muscular build. His outfit was made up of a yellow and black tank top with white trimmed, black straps crisscrossing his chest, a pair of dark blue pants with brighter blue baggy pant legs, and a pair of white and blue shoes. Completing the look were black gloves, black wristbands, and a black belt. Under his arm was a log.

"So, I guess I'm the only one working on the raft." Walking over to Kairi, the boy tossed the log to Sora, who fell over with a yelp. "And you're just as lazy as he is!"

Instead of getting mad at the accusation, Kairi giggled again. "So you noticed. Okay, we'll finish it together." She jumped in place excitedly as the new boy sat down next to Sora. "I'll race you!" Sora tilted his head while the other boy only quirked an eyebrow.

"Huh?"

"Are you kidding?"

Kairi grinned widely. "Ready? Go!"

At first, no one did anything as Sora and the boy traded a glance, but as if they were given a delayed signal at the same time, both boys shot to their feet and sprinted across the beach. Kairi broke out into a fit of laughter as she moved to follow them.

Light blinded Naruto again.

* * *

 **?**

The scene changed again, but this time, Naruto was fairly sure that he didn't move far. It only took a moment to see that it was later in the day from the previous memory, as the sun was setting. Kairi, Sora, and the other boy were all relaxing on a small island connected to the bigger one. Kairi and Sora were seated on the low branch of a large tree on the island, while the silver haired boy leaned against it with his arms folded.

"It's just…" The boy began. "I've always wondered why we're here on this island. If there are any other worlds out there, why did we end up on this one? And suppose there are other worlds... Then ours is just a little piece of something much greater. So we could've just as easily ended up somewhere else, right?"

Shrugging, Sora turned his body and laid down on the branch. "I don't know."

The silver haired boy rolled his eyes. "Exactly. That's why we need to go there and find out. Just sitting here won't change a thing. It's the same old stuff." Pushing himself off the branch, the boy took a couple of steps towards the ocean. "So let's go." He said quietly.

Kairi glanced over to him. "You've been thinking a lot lately, haven't you?" Naruto's mind momentarily went back to an extremely similar conversation he had on top of the Hokage monument…With someone he had thought to be his friend.

Naruto's eyes fixed on the silver haired boy. _'I wonder if this is Riku…'_

The world disappeared again.

* * *

 **?**

' _Now where am I?'_ Looking around, Naruto saw that he was still on the same island. He was standing near the edge of a dock overlooking another sunset. Sitting on the edge of the dock were Sora and Kairi. "…You know…" Kairi began. "I was a little afraid at first, but now I'm ready. No matter where I go or what I see, I know I can always come back here." She turned to face Sora. "Right?"

Another flash of light.

* * *

 **?**

"Already?" That memory was over much sooner than the others, save for the snippets he saw. It was at that point that Naruto saw that something was different about this memory…Something wrong.

Taking an uneasy glance around, Naruto saw he was standing on the same dock, except it was now the middle of the night. Kairi was hastily tightening the knot on a rope anchoring boat to the dock. "Gotta hurry." Kairi muttered in a worried tone.

' _What is she doing here on her own?'_ He wasn't sure what it was, but something about the surroundings made Naruto uneasy. Finally finished with securing her boat, Kairi turned and ran off.

The world disappeared once more.

* * *

 **?**

When his vision came back to him, Naruto saw that he was standing in some sort of dark cave. On the walls of the cave are various drawings that looked to be made by children. While he normally may have taken more interest in this, Naruto's attention was focused on Kairi, who was standing in front of a strange wooden door embedded in the wall of the cave.

"Kairi!" Glancing back, Naruto watched as Sora ran into the cave.

Hearing her name being called, Kairi slowly turned around to face Sora. "Sora…" Both Naruto and Sora were alarmed to see that her eyes look distant and she appears to be exhausted. Sluggishly, Kairi raises a hand to reach out to Sora.

But she never got the chance to when the door behind her exploded out, darkness rushing out of it.

It was then that the ground fell out from underneath Naruto, causing him to fall.

* * *

 **Mountain Summit**

"AAHHH!"

"Naruto!" Everyone was shocked when Naruto suddenly fell to his knees with a scream of pain, still holding the girl in his arms.

Acting quickly, the others rushed towards him, unsure what the problem was. "Naruto! Can you hear me?!" Gray shouted. "Naruto!" He cursed under his breath when he didn't get a response.

"What's happening to him?!" Happy asked frantically.

Kirito grit his teeth and looked over Naruto and the girl, trying to spot something out of the ordinary. Soon, his attention was attracted by lights coming from Naruto and the girl's chests, positioned directly over their hearts. At first they were weak, but they grew stronger by the second. "What's that light?" He asked sharply.

Spotting what he was talking about, the off-worlders shook their heads. "No clue! Never seen it before!" They all watched as the lights grew brighter and brighter with no sign of stopping.

Coming to a decision, Kirito spoke up. "We need to get her away from him! Help me move her!" Nodding in agreement, Natsu and Gray reached towards the girl, only to come in contact with some sort of barrier.

"What?!" Trying again, they saw that they were unable to touch her. "What is this?!"

"It's stopping us from touching Naruto too!"

"What…?" Kirito frantically tried to think of a way around the barrier as he attempted to filter out Naruto's screaming.

Eventually, the lights became so bright that all those present were having difficulty looking towards Naruto and the girl. Just when they thought they would need to look away, Naruto's screaming and the light cut out, leaving a panting Naruto kneeling there with the girl still asleep in his arms.

* * *

The pain in Sora's chest died down as the light faded away, leaving a winded teenager kneeling on the ground.

"Sora!" Slowly, Sora turned his head to look towards the speaker and was greeted with the sight of an extremely worried Goofy right in front of him. "Are you okay?"

Looking down at his chest, Sora hesitantly nodded. "Yeah…Yeah, I'm fine."

Donald cast a worried glance at him. "Really?"

"…Really." Sora pushed himself to his feet and attempted to smile. "I don't know what that was, but it's over now. Let's just focus on finding Alice."

* * *

Seeing the light go away, Gray, Happy, and Natsu all surged forward. "Naruto! You alright?!" Natsu asked worriedly.

Gasping for breath, Naruto shakily nodded while looking down at the girl. "I…I think so." He said quietly.

Kirito crouched next to him. "What happened?"

"I…" Naruto hesitated before shaking his head. "I'm not really sure."

Gray frowned. "You think you're going to be alright?" He asked. "Will that happen again?"

Naruto nodded. "I'll be fine." Ignoring the looks of the others, he moved his gaze down. "But I'm more worried about Kairi." Gray, Natsu, and Happy's eyes widened at that while Kirito frowned and traded a look with Asuna.

"Kairi?" Asuna asked. "Is that her name?"

"Yeah, it is." Naruto confirmed. "I'll explain how I know later." Although still interested in knowing what was going on, Kirito nodded.

"Alright, then we should-"

"Ugh…" They all froze at the quiet groan. All eyes turned to the owner of the voice…

The girl in Naruto's arms who was starting to wake up.

Blearily, blue eyes cracked open. "What…What happened…?" The last thing she remembered was…Sora?

Slowly, her vision began to focus on a face…A boy with blond and red hair? Blinking repeatedly, her perspective of the world came into focus, showing that it was indeed a boy with blond and red hair looking down at her. Seeing that she was awake, he smiled.

"Hey there. Glad to see you're okay."

"Wha-!" Kairi let out a startled gasp and jolted out of his arms. "Oof!" Only to land in a heap on the cold, snowy ground. Rapidly looking around, Kairi saw that she was somewhere she didn't recognize, surrounded by people she didn't know. "W-What?"

Understanding what was happening, Naruto raised his hands in a calming gesture. "Hey, hey…It's alright. Just calm down a bit." Kairi's eyes snapped back to him. Getting a good look at the boy, her eyes widened. Seeing that she was focusing on him, Naruto smiled. "Like I said, we're glad to see you're okay."

Kairi hesitantly nodded. "Where…Where am I?" She asked, gaining conflicted and concerned looks from everyone, but only Naruto seemed to understand what was going on. Even as she asked this, her eyes never left Naruto.

"We can explain that to you in a bit." Naruto said. "First we should ge-"

"Gwooo!"

 **Play Kingdom Hearts 1.5 ReMIX OST: Destiny's Force - Extended**

Naruto was cut off when a piercing roar sounded out from somewhere out of sight. Instantly on guard, Naruto warily looked around while preparing himself for a fight. "What was that?"

A broad and excited grin broke out across Natsu's face, even as Gray paled dramatically. "That was…" The ice mage whispered. The last time he heard something like that was back on Tenrou Island.

"A dragon!" Natsu shouted in glee. "And not just some fake one that Naruto made! That was a real dragon! I'm sure of it!"

"A dragon…?" Kirito said quietly, only to curse a moment later. " _That's_ why this place looked so familiar!" How could he be so stupid?! This mountain was exactly like the one he and Liz went to! "We need to leave!" He said. Beside him, Asuna was scanning their surroundings while gripping her rapier.

Not knowing the reason but hearing the urgency in his tone, Naruto nodded. Unfortunately, Natsu had other ideas.

"What?! No way!" He rounded on the black swordsman. "I wanna talk to that dragon and see if it knows where Igneel is!"

"Talk?! Why would you want to-" Kirito cut himself off while shaking his head. "Listen, I don't know what dragons you've seen before, but this one isn't friendly!" He said. "So the best thing for us to do is to use a crystal to get out of-"

"Gwooo!" It was at that point that something massive flew into view from over the edge of the summit. All the fighters got into battle stances as a large dragon soared above them. Reaching its destination, the dragon spread its wings and began to periodically flap them in order to hover there while looking down at them menacingly.

Swallowing nervously, Happy cowered behind Natsu while peaking at the dragon. "It…It looks so much like Acnologia!"

Kirito frowned at the dragon. "I don't understand…It shouldn't look like that." The entire body of the dragon was colored purplish-black, and its normally red eyes were now yellow. In the center of its forehead was a heartless emblem. "Of course…It merged with the heartless too…" The dragon roared at them again.

Pulling himself from his thoughts, Naruto looked over to Kairi, who was still on the ground and staring at the dragon with wide eyes. "Kairi!" Her head snapped back over to him in surprise. "Hide someplace safe!" Naruto's eyes moved back to the dragon as he summoned his keyblade. "Leave this to us!"

Still somewhat confused and shocked, Kairi shakily nodded before hurrying to her feet and running over to a large crystal, soon hiding behind it.

Not scared in the least, Natsu took a step forward. "Hey, you! Tell me where Igneel is! Grandeeny too! And Metalicana!"

Gray glared at him. "Idiot! This isn't a dragon from our world! It wouldn't know them!" Natsu blinked as the realization hit him before a scowl formed on his face.

"So there's no point to asking?!"

"No!"

"Gwooo!" Suddenly, the dragon's maw parted and darkness began to gather there.

Understanding what it was doing, Naruto spoke to the others. "It's charging a darkness blast! Scatter!" No sooner had they done so than a large torrent of darkness was expelled from the dragon. Carefully keeping his balance even as the ground shook from the impact, Naruto pointed his keyblade at the dragon. " **Thundara**!" A bolt of lightning struck the dragon, but it didn't seem to do any damage.

Scowling, Gray ran forward and placed a fist in his palm. " **Ice Make: Lance!** " Multiple lances made of ice shot from his hands and streaked towards the dragon. Seeing this, the dragon maneuvered its body out of the way, but Gray gained a smirk. "Sorry, but you can't evade that easily!" He slashed his hands down, causing the lances to change their trajectories and hit the dragon. "Alright!" He grinned in victory at the successful attack, but it slipped off his face when, while looking slightly damaged, the dragon still did not look that hurt. "What?!"

Forming a theory, Naruto narrowed his eyes and scanned the summit. Spotting what he was searching for, he ran towards a large crystal and, after gathering the needed chakra, sprinted up the side of the crystal. Once he was near the top of the crystal, Naruto took a moment to crouch before launching himself at the flying dragon.

"Hey!"

"What's he doing?!"

Ignoring the shocked shouts of the others, Naruto began to summon darkness. " **Dark Haze**!" Naruto cloaked himself in darkness and lashed at the dragon's neck.

"Gwooo!" The dragon released a pained roar at the attack and quickly flapped its wings to gain some distance from Naruto.

Smirking triumphantly, Naruto landed back on the ground in a crouch. "Natsu! Gray! It has high resistance to non-physical attacks! Hit it hard with solid ones when you can!"

"Got it! Happy!" Natsu called out.

"Aye!" Happy flew over to Natsu and latched onto his back, picking the fire dragon slayer off of the ground and into the air. Once above the dragon, the flying duo put on a burst of speed and rocketed back down.

Natsu grinned and ignited a fist. "Take this! **Fire Dragon's Secret Technique: Cat Meteor**!"

' _He just made that up!'_ A Happy-propelled Natsu's fist smashed into the back of the dragon. A small explosion was created from the force of the impact and the amount of flames Natsu pumped into it, pushing the dragon down to the ground.

Realizing the chance, Kirito put on spurt of speed. "Asuna!"

"Right behind you!" Together, the two of them rushed at the dragon with Kirito. Noticing their approach, the dragon slashed at the pair.

"I got it!" Kirito raised his black blade and used it to intercept the giant claw. Impossibly, this was enough to stop the dragon's attack cold.

' _How the hell is that possible?!'_ Naruto wondered in disbelief.

Not skipping a beat, Asuna dashed by Kirito. "Switch!" The black swordsman jumped back at the command as Asuna's rapier began to glow. "Hyah!" Numerous slashes, stabs, and jabs were thrown at the dragon's head, eliciting a roar of fury from the beast.

Soon, Naruto noticed that its eyes began to light up. "Fall back!" Heeding the warning, Asuna disengaged and tried to gain some distance, but it was too late as darkness shot out of its eyes. Asuna was still in the direct line of fire. "Asuna!" Not even thinking about it, Naruto leapt in front of her. " **Reflera**!" Naruto grit his teeth under the pressure of the attack, but didn't release the barrier that was shielding him and Asuna.

"Hey! Cut that out!" The dragon's attack was cut off by the abrupt giant hammer made of ice crashing into the side of its head. Following up on Gray's attack, Natsu conjured flames on his legs and leapt at the dragon.

" **Fire Dragon's Claw**!" The flaming kicks landed repeated hits on the dragon, further enraging it. The dragon's anger only worsened when Kirito joined back in with several fast strikes.

"Gwooo!" Having enough of being attacked from multiple sides, the dragon swiped a claw at Natsu, successfully hurling the pink haired mage away. Now that it had room, the dragon took to the air again.

"You're not getting away!" Natsu declared before taking a deep breath and raising his hands to his mouth. " **Fire Dragon's Roar**!" A massive torrent of flames blasted towards the dragon, but missed entirely when it moved to the side. A complimentary attack by Gray earned the same result. Once the frozen assault was over, the dragon dove down towards the group.

Jumping to the side to dodge a swooping claw, Naruto momentarily brought his keyblade back, creating fire along the length of it as he did, and throwing it at the dragon's body. " **Fire Raid**!" The initial strike impacted the side of the dragon's body, but as the keyblade came back for the return hit, the dragon flapped its wings and rose high into the air. This time, instead of coming back for another attack, it stayed there to watch them.

Using the chance, the humans regrouped. "We just need to keep it up a little longer." Kirito told them. "If this thing is anything like the original dragon, then it doesn't have much health. Five people attacking together like this should mean that it is already on its last legs." And just as he said, several cracks were present on the dragon's body. "We should attack together to finish it off."

Natsu smirked and punched his fists together. "Sounds good! Just give me an opening and I'll take care of it."

Asuna shook her head, but didn't take her eyes off of the dragon. "It isn't as easy as you make it sound. This thing is a Field Boss, so it will be a lot harder to take down now that it's so close to death. It will probably also be a lot smarter now…"

Gray glanced back at her before looking back to the dragon. "Smarter in what way?"

The grip on Kirito's blade tightened. "Smarter in the way that it will actually come up with a strategy to beat us…Maybe even attack one of us when we are vulnerable…"

It was at that moment that it happened.

"Oh no!" An unexpected crash of something hitting the ground attracted the attention of everyone on the summit. With a sense of horror crawling up his spine, Naruto looked behind the dragon, to the crystals off to the side of the clearing. Standing there with wide eyes was Kairi, who was slightly behind a large crystal with a giant chunk missing from it. It didn't take a genius to realize that the crystal pieces on the ground at her feet had just broke off from the thing she was hiding behind.

They all saw the dragon's eyes flash as it registered the presence of another person on the summit.

"NO!"

* * *

"Whoa…" Kairi whispered in awe while she watched the five people and a cat fight against a large dragon. She was still extremely confused about what was going on, but she couldn't help but be amazed at the feats that they were doing. And one of them even looked like he was a little younger than her!

Kairi watched as Naruto jumped out of the way of the dragon's attack while sending out his own, ending up in a position that made it so the dragon was in between her and the others. Out of nowhere, a sense of extreme vertigo hit her. "Wha…" Kairi's vision blurred together and she distantly felt her legs begin to give out. _'What's…What's happening…?'_ Kairi reached a hand out and placed it on the crystal she was hiding behind for support. Soon, her vision and strength sluggishly began to return. "…What was that…?" She wondered.

However, the worry she was feeling was swiftly replaced by fear when the sound of something starting to break reached her ears. Quickly finding the source, Kairi's fear grew when she saw that the sound was coming from the crystal she was hiding behind as it cracked. Before she could move her hand away to prevent further damage, a large portion of it broke off and fell towards the ground. "Oh no!"

Time seemed to stop as everyone appeared to only just remember that she was there. Slowly, Kairi's wide eyes locked with each of the eyes of the humans, eventually landing on Naruto's and staying there for a moment longer.

It was easy for Kairi to spot the fear and worry in his eyes, and in the back of her mind, she realized that those emotions were _for her_. Breaking off from Naruto's eyes, Kairi turned her head towards the dragon.

Just in time to hear its mighty roar and see it spin around in the air, coming to a stop while it was facing _her_.

"GWOOOO!" A massive amount of darkness began to rapidly gather and condense in the dragon's mouth. Paralyzed by fear, Kairi didn't think to do anything but watch.

"NO! Kairi, move!" She wasn't sure who said that, but the shout proved to be enough incentive for her legs to move. Unfortunately, Kairi only succeeded in stumbling back and onto the ground. "Kairi!"

All of the fighters moved at the same time to get to Kairi, but the dragon was done charging this attack much faster than the ones that came before it. With a roar, a colossal blast of darkness was shot at the defenseless girl.

Kairi's perspective of the world turned into a slow crawl as the darkness came closer and closer to her. _'I…I'm not going to make it…'_

They say that when a person is put into a situation where they believe they are about to die, that person watches their entire life in the span of a second. Kairi can safely attest to this as the truth.

In that single second mentioned, Kairi saw flashes of her life. Because she didn't remember a large portion of it, she only had hazy flashes of her time prior to arriving on that island, and then most of the flashes were made up of herself and the same two boys. From the time that they were little to the young teenagers that they were today, Kairi watched herself interact with the two boys.

She watched the silver haired one tease the dark haired boy. She watched the brown haired boy glare at the silver haired boy until he lost his temper and leapt at him, causing them both to fall down in a childish brawl on the beach. She watched a young girl break out into peals of laughter at the two boys. She watched the boys compete in silly challenges over and over again, often ending in the silver haired boy winning. She watched the three friends grow older together and dream about exploring the different worlds out there. She watched them promise each other that they would be with each other no matter where they went. At the end of the stream of memories, the smiling faces of the two boys formed in her mind.

But those faces soon faded away, leaving the face of a smiling boy with cerulean and violet eyes in their place.

' _What…Why am I thinking of…him…?'_ Before she could think about it any further, Kairi's awareness of the world returned, allowing her to once again see the darkness streaking towards her.

Suddenly, a construct made of darkness sprouted out from the ground in front of her, and out of it, the same boy that Kairi was just thinking of emerged. The boy had a scowl on his face as he gripped his keyblade in a defensive manner in front of Kairi. Unbidden, a name came to Kairi's lips in the form of a gasp.

"Naruto…!"

Surprised to hear Kairi say -or even _know_ \- his name, Naruto glanced back to her for a second. Mentally shaking himself to bring himself back to the present situation, Naruto turned back to the oncoming attack.

Acting as quickly as he could, Naruto began to gather light, causing his body to be cloaked in a bright aura. " **Dark Link**!" A powerful beam of light shot out of his keyblade and collided with the dragon's attack. The moment that the two blasts connected, a violent shockwave erupted from the point that light met darkness. Due to the fluctuating energy, no one else was able to get close.

Naruto felt the strain of the dragon's attack press down on him, forcing him to push back with more light. Unfortunately, Naruto knew that he was losing the battle. _'Damn it! I didn't put enough light in it!'_ The dragon's attack was as too fast…Naruto didn't have much time to charge his attack, so he shot an unfinished product at the dragon.

Despite his best efforts to close the gap, Naruto felt himself begin to gradually get pushed back. Growling, Naruto redoubled his efforts, but he knew it wasn't enough. Eventually, Naruto's knees began to buckle. _'No…NO!'_ He wasn't going to win! _'It's no good! I can't last any longe-'_

A soft hand was placed on his shoulder, pulling him from his thoughts. With wide eyes, Naruto looked back and was met with the determined face of Kairi, although it was possible to see some hesitation there.

"Don't give up." She told him with a voice that was filled with a confidence that Naruto wasn't sure he still had in him. "You're almost there! C'mon!" Slowly, a light formed at the point that their bodies touched. And as that light shone brighter, Naruto felt an increasing amount of light get pumped into him, and therefore his attack. "I know you can do this!"

Nodding, Naruto turned his attention to the situation at hand. He wasn't sure what it was, but something about having Kairi there cheering him on and standing by him filled him with strength beyond the light she was somehow giving him. Tightening the grip on his keyblade, Naruto started to channel an even greater amount of light into his attack.

This time, instead of Naruto's attack getting pushed back, the dragon was forced back as it was overpowered. Inch by inch, the point at which the light and darkness met was forced back towards the dragon. Soon, it reached the spot directly in front of the dragon's maw.

"One last push! Together!" Naruto's eyes began to glow with an aura of light, Kairi's soon doing the same. "Now!" Acting on Kairi's words, Naruto put the last of his strength into the attack.

And in doing so, successfully overpowered the dragon completely. "Gwooo!" The beam of light connected with the dragon's head. And while its body had higher resistance to non-physical attacks, it was doubtful that the inside of its mouth did. This was proven when the dragon's body was overtaken by an explosion of light.

Acting on instinct, Naruto whirled around and threw himself on top of Kairi, just in time to shield her from the blast. The two of them stayed like that with their eyes close, waiting for the wind and shaking to stop.

 **End Music**

After a minute, they did die down, telling them that it was safe. Tentatively, Kairi cracked open an eye, only to have it and the other spring open in shock when she saw a pair of cerulean and violet eyes only a few inches in front of her. Unsure what to do, Naruto and Kairi stayed like that for a minute.

"Ahem." Pulled out of their frozen state by sound of someone clearing their throat. Mechanically, Naruto and Kairi looked to the side and saw a smirking Kirito standing there. A few feet behind him were the others. If her the giggles she was failing to stifle were any indication, Asuna especially seemed to enjoy the newest situation. "I'm glad you two are alright…But should you really be doing that there?"

Both Naruto and Kairi's faces turned bright red at his words. Immediately, Naruto jumped up as if he was burned and he reached a hand out to help Kairi. "Shut it, Kirito!" After glaring at the smirking swordsman, Naruto focused on Kairi. "Sorry about that. Are you okay?"

Still blushing, Kairi accepted the hand and got to her feet. "I'm fine." She shook her head to clear it of the blush and smiled tentatively at him. "Thanks for protecting me, Naruto." Said crimson blond blinked at this.

"So I didn't imagine it…" He said slowly, gaining the attention of the others.

Kairi tilted her head slightly in curiosity. "Didn't imagine what?" She asked.

"You said my name." It was then that the others caught up to that fact. As if realizing this for the first time herself, Kairi's mouth formed a small 'o' in realization. "I don't think that anyone here has said it since you woke up…So how do you know it?"

She frowned slightly in thought. "That's…" It was then that she remembered something. "Hey, wait…You said my name too! How did you know it?"

Kirito crossed his arms and nodded. "I would like to know how as well, to be honest. I was under the impression that you didn't know her, Naruto?"

"I…" Naruto rubbed the back of his head. How was he supposed to explain something like this?

"Achoo!" All eyes turned to the source of the sneeze. Standing there was Kairi…who was still dressed in a top without sleeves and a skirt.

"Oh, right…" Kirito muttered and took one last glance around the summit. "We've got what we came here for, so let's go…I'm sure Kairi is pretty cold here." Kairi nodded at his words. Briefly rummaging through his pocket, Kirito pulled out some sort of blue crystal. "We can talk more at our place." Raising the crystal, he spoke up. " **Teleport: Coral**!" The sound of many bells ringing was heard while the crystal in his hand shattered. A moment later, they were all engulfed in blue lights.

* * *

 **Aincrad 22** **nd** **Floor: Kirito and Asuna's Log House (Later)**

Six humans and a cat were seated in the living room of a cabin located in a grassy field on the twenty-second floor. Sitting down comfortably with a sigh after taking off his equipment, Kirito smiled. "This is much better…"

Asuna nodded cheerfully. "There really is no place like home." She said with a happy sigh.

Seated in her spot on the couch, Kairi still had wide eyes as she took everything in. "So we really teleported?" She asked in awe. "Just like that?" Asuna smiled at her.

"Just like that. You were there too, you know."

Blushing slightly, Kairi nodded. "Well, yeah, but…It's just so hard to imagine! Teleportation? Dragons? Special attacks? How is any of this possible?"

It was Naruto's turn to smile at her this time. "Well, I'd imagine that you didn't see things like this back on Destiny Islands, right?"

"Of course not! The weirdest thing that ever happened there was when Sora…" Kairi trailed off when the realization of what Naruto just said hit her. "Wait, how did you know I'm from there?" The smile on Naruto's face slowly slid off while everyone turned to look at him.

"The same way I learned your name…" Naruto admitted. "Kairi…What is the last thing you remember before waking up on that mountain?" He asked her.

Kairi's face scrunched up in thought. "Um…I remember…Saying goodbye to Sora and Riku for the day, like usual…We had just spent another entire day devoted to making the raft and it was getting dark out, so we agreed to meet back on the island the next day…But, it never happened…?" She asked, more to herself than to the others.

"And do you remember what happened that night?" At first, Kairi only gave Naruto a confused look, but a gasp soon escaped her lips as the memory came back to her.

"There was a storm!" She declared. "I was worried about the raft, so I went back to the island to make sure it was safe. But…I never got to it. I was attacked by these weird monsters. They were all black and had yellow eyes, and they all seemed to come out of the ground!" Various glances were traded throughout the room. "I ran away, but they kept on coming, so I ran into the cave on the island." Naruto recalled the memory of the cave he saw. "I…I can't remember what happened after that though…" Hearing the distress in her voice, Naruto walked over to Kairi and set down next to her. Placing a hand on her shoulder, he spoke softly.

"That's fine…I think I know what happened next." She looked at him in surprise.

"You do?"

"Yep." His smile turned slightly sad. "I can say that you have done what you set out to do. You managed to get to another world." Kairi's eyes widened. "But while that could mean that you have accomplished your goal…It happened in the worst possible way."

A tendril of fear grasped Kairi. "What do you mean?"

Sighing, Naruto retracted his hand and crossed his arms. "Kairi…Do you remember the story about the 'true light'?"

"The 'true light'…?" Kairi whispered. _'Where have I heard that before…?'_ It was like a…scattered dream? No…It was more like a far-off memory. The image of a smiling elderly woman floated into her mind. "I…I remember." She said quietly. "I think I heard it…when I was younger." But where? Where did she hear it? And why couldn't she remember?

Seeing her begin to panic, Naruto interjected. "Just focus on the story for now, alright?" He requested gently. "Do you remember what the story said about the worlds? About darkness?" Kirito was listening closely to what Naruto was saying, trying to memorize every detail.

"Y…Yeah?" Kairi said uncertainly. "I remember…The darkness continued to spread, eventually swallowing the wo-" She cut herself with an intake of breath. "You mean…?" Naruto nodded silently. "But…But what about the people there?! Riku?! Sora?!"

Naruto took her hand into his own. "Kairi, relax. I can safely tell you that Sora is safe." He gestured to the other off-worlders. "We met him recently. He is actually looking for you and Riku." Kairi nodded weakly and allowed herself to relax at this.

"Thank god…" She muttered.

Grinning, Natsu spoke up. "We didn't get the chance to talk with him much, but he seemed to be really worried about you and that Riku person. He even made a deal with us where he would keep an eye out for some people we were looking for and we would help find you and Riku."

"Sora has always been a worrywart." She said fondly, but paused a moment later. "Wait…You said you met Sora…But what about Riku?" She looked back to Naruto, but wasn't given the answer she wanted.

"We…We don't know." Naruto admitted quietly. "We only met Sora." Knowing how she would take this, he continued. "But hey, that doesn't mean he was swallowed by the darkness. There's still the chance that he is out there. It is possible for him to wind up on some other world." Swallowing, Kairi nodded.

"Yeah…Like how that Urahara guy wound up on your world…" Naruto smiled at Kairi's assessment.

"Exactly, that bastard wound up on a world he never knew existed, so it could have happened."

Dead silence.

Slowly, Naruto gained an expression of shock. As if just realizing what she said, Kairi hesitantly raised a hand to her mouth. "Wait…How did you know that?"

"I…I don't know…?" Kairi said quietly. "I think I remember it? It's kind of like a…dream I once had? But that doesn't make sense…" Realization soon came to Naruto.

"You saw my memories too…" He whispered. Although it was soft, his voice carried to everyone in the room. Noticing the looks that he was getting, Naruto frowned. "Kairi, back when we found you…Something happened when your body came into contact with mine…In reality, it all happened in the span of a second, but it felt much longer to me. I saw…visions of things that I couldn't possibly have known about. Some of them happened in a library or a courtyard, but most of them happened on Destiny Islands…And in each and every one of them, you were there…" Kairi's eyes widened. "I think…that I saw your memories. That's how I knew about Destiny Islands and that your name was Kairi…" Naruto's mind went to something that happened during the battle with the dragon. "And you knew my name was Naruto without ever hearing it…So I think that you saw some of my memories too…"

"That's…" Was something like that even possible? Closing her eyes, Kairi thought back to the moment when she first saw Naruto. _'Come to think of it, I did feel like I knew him when I saw him…'_ A scene flashed in her mind; one of a young boy with blond and crimson hair shouting at a man wearing a bucket hat. A second flash showed the same boy, but he was older. This time, he was bickering with a girl that looked slightly older than him who had chestnut hair as a black haired boy styled to look like a pineapple sighed.

Opening her eyes back up, Kairi looked to Naruto. "I…I did…I remember some things that I shouldn't…And you're in all of them…"

"Thought so…" Naruto's mind was racing as he took in the new information. _'How did that happen? Why did that happen? And why did my heart react like that when I touched her for the first time?'_ Even now, he sensed…light? There was a lot of light fluctuating in his heart because of this girl's mere presence.

"Okay, but what does it mean?" Naruto was snapped out of his thoughts at Kirito's question. "Why did that happen?" The longer this quest went on, the more Kirito felt as if something wasn't right. How could a quest have so much backstory? And why were these NPCs so realistic? There were several times that Kirito himself forgot that they weren't players.

Naruto frowned. "I'm…actually not sure." He said honestly. _'I really wish I had a chance to talk to Hikari and Yami last night…'_ He would just need to try again the next time he got a chance.

Some of the previous determination that Kairi had returned to her. "It doesn't matter what it means." Not a single person in the room was expecting her to say such a thing.

"It doesn't?" Naruto asked. "I would think that you would want to know what it means." He knew that he definitely did.

Kairi shrugged. "Well, it _does_ matter, but it isn't important right now. You said that Sora was looking for me and Riku. I should be doing the same!" Kairi declared before quickly turning to face Naruto. "You said that you and Sora would be keeping an eye out for each other's friends, right?" Surprised at the abrupt question, Naruto nodded. "Then let me go with you!"

"W-What?"

"They aren't in this world, and you guys are the only ones here that can help me find them!" Kairi leaned closer to Naruto, making him try to lean back. "So please, can I come?"

"Um…" Quickly thinking over the situation, Naruto thought it over. While he would have normally said no, Kairi was not someone from this world, so there wasn't a reason that she _had_ to stay here. In addition to this, it was obvious that the heartless were after her for some reason. "Sure…? You can come."

A small smile appeared on Kairi's lips at his answer. "Thank you…I can't just sit here and do nothing when my friends can be in trouble."

Understanding what she was getting at, Asuna smiled. "That's good. I know that if I ever got separated from the people I care about, my priority would be finding them." She took Kirito's hand as she said this, and the two of them shared a soft smile.

"They liiiiiike each other~" Happy said with a singsong tone, eliciting a blush from Kirito and Asuna, although neither of them denied it or retracted their hands.

Sighing, Gray reached out a hand slapped the blue cat upside the head. Once that was done, he bowed his head to the two. "I'm sorry about him. Getting raised by the flaming moron mentally damaged him beyond anything rehab can fix."

Naruto groaned mentally -and verbally- when Natsu immediately surged to his feet. "Hey! Don't hit Happy, bastard! And what do you mean by that?!"

"Nothing much. Just that having you as the only major influence in a life can really mess a person up."

"What was that?! Like having your naked ass around all the time will do anyone any good!"

"I'm sorry, what?! At least I never bribed a child into calling people names just because I was too scared to do it myself!"

"It was one time! Erza would never hit Asuka, so it worked out fine! Plus, what about the time that you told her that it was okay to steal other people's underwear if you lost the ones you were wearing?!"

"How is that fine?! And that is a legitimate reason!" The two began butting heads again in the middle of the living room as the others watched.

Embarrassed at the stupidity of his companions, Naruto placed his face into his hands. "I'm so sorry about them…" Came his muffled voice. Were they seriously arguing about this? And by the sound of it, Naruto should keep them _both_ away from children!

Suddenly, a soft giggle reached his ears, making him look up. Kairi was standing there with her hands covering her mouth in a failing attempt at hiding her laughter at the scene. Naruto glanced between the two arguing mages, who now had Kirito trying to break them up, and the giggling girl. Slowly, a smile stretched across his lips.

' _Well, I guess I can put up with it if she starts smiling and laughing again…'_

"You liiiiiike her~" When asked later, Happy would say that he didn't know how he wound up knocked out on the floor.

* * *

 **Aincrad 22** **nd** **Floor: Coral (The Next Day)**

"So you guys are leaving?" Asuna asked with a slightly sad tone. Although she hasn't known them that long, she really liked them. The group was standing near the «Teleport Gate» stationed in «Coral», a small rural village. Only a dozen feet away from them was a large lake that took up a large portion of the twenty-second floor. The off-worlders were going to use the gate to get back to the seventy-fifth floor before making their way back to their ship.

Naruto nodded with a small smile on his face. "Yeah, we are. It's about time for us to get going at this point." He felt like he was forgetting something, but most of his mind was fixed on the fact that he _still_ couldn't reach Hikari and Yami. It was honestly starting to worry him.

Kirito frowned minutely from his place next to Asuna. "Really? There's nothing else for you to do here?"

This question got a shrug out of Natsu. "Nah. What would we stick around for?"

' _That_ can't _be right.'_ Kirito thought to himself. _'There is still so much left that is unanswered and we never got a…quest completed…notification…'_ Kirito's eyes widened as his jaw dropped slightly. _'Quest completed?'_ Come to think of it… _'Did we ever even get a quest initiated notification?!'_ Kirito hastily swiped two fingers down in the air in front of him, attracting the attention of the others.

"Kirito-kun?" Asuna asked curiously, but she didn't get a response. Instead, Kirito rushed through the menus, trying to find something specific. "Kirito-kun, what's wrong?"

"The initiation notification." Asuna blinked at his seemingly out of place words. "Asuna, did we ever get a quest initiated notification?" Understanding coming to her, Asuna joined Kirito in looking through the menus.

"N…No. I don't think we did." The two of them stared at their menus for a moment before slowly looking back to the off-worlders. "So…What have we been doing?"

Kirito laughed weakly. "This entire time, we were never doing a quest…None of this was an event that popped up unexpectedly…" _'But…Then what the hell is all this?!'_ None of the off-worlders were able to understand what the problem was.

"Uh, are you okay?" Kirito's eyes moved over to Gray, staring at him in incomprehension. "Hello?"

"I think they broke!" Happy said cheerfully. "Everything about this world is broken!"

Natsu tilted his head. "What do you mean, buddy?"

"I mean that in this world is broken." The cat said simply. "It's pretty obvious."

Against his better judgement, Naruto decided to humor Happy. "How is the world broken?" Happy stared at him. "…What?"

"Are you stupid? There are moments that I think you are at least smarter than Natsu…But most of the time I think you really are dumb." Naruto grit his teeth. "This world is broken because we it doesn't have a heart!"

Naruto rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Happy…Of _course_ this world has a heart. _Every_ world has a hea-" He froze. "…Crap…" _That's_ what he forgot! "We never found this world's keyhole!" Gray gaped at his words.

"How did we forget that?!"

"We were so focused on the Kairi thing that we didn't think about it!" Kairi looked back and forth between the two of them in confusion.

"Uh, what are you talking about?" She asked in confusion. "A keyhole?" Already confused by the realization that this wasn't a quest, Kirito and Asuna were having even more trouble catching up to the situation.

Happy shrugged carelessly from his spot in the air. "Each world has a keyhole that the heartless want to eat or something. If you lock the keyhole with Naruto's super key, then the world can't be swallowed by darkness." Kairi's eyes widened. "It's the job of the people with the super keys to protect the worlds, so Naruto _should_ have been looking for the keyhole." His cheeks puffed up in laughter. "But he forgot! He really sucks at this!" Off to the side, Natsu snickered at his partner's claims.

"Shut up! We were doing something else that was important-ttebayo!"

"That doesn't change the fact that you forgot something like the keyhole of the world~" Happy said cheerfully. "I don't know how you are going to impress Kai-Hey!" He was interrupted by Naruto swiping a hand at him. "What's your problem?!"

"My problem is that you don't shut up!"

"Why should I? I didn't say anything but the truth. You really do suck at your job!" Happy's words earned a growl from Naruto, who was getting fed up with the feline's words. Natsu laughing at him didn't help any. "Maybe you should have tried harder to get Urahara to join us. At least _he_ would have been smart about it! You're a total idiot! Heck, I'm sure that even _I_ would have done better!"

"Oh yeah?! Then why don't _you_ find the keyhole?!"

Happy's grin grew. "Okay, I'll do it! I'm sure I can figure out where the keyhole is!"

Natsu gawked at Happy in awe. "Really, buddy? How're you going to do that?"

"By using my superior knowledge." Happy declared. Still floating in the air, he cupped his chin in thought. "Hmm…Just give me a moment…This world has one-hundred floors, so it must be on one of them…" Naruto snorted. Happy glanced around, as if expecting the keyhole to appear. "Using that logic, I will find it…" His eyes landed on the large lake. Staring at the lake, stars appeared in Happy's eyes. "I found it!" Naruto's eyebrows shot up.

"…What…?" The crimson blond asked in disbelief. "What do you mean you found it?" Happy pointed dramatically at the lake.

"The heart of the world is something sacred! Something holy! Something like that can only be surrounded by something equally as sacred and holy! And only one thing fits that description…" Drool escaped his mouth. "Fish!" He darted off towards the lake, Natsu immediately following.

Naruto and Gray sighed together while Kairi looked both amused and confused. "The keyhole is in the lake because there are fish there?" Gray muttered. " _That's_ what he came up with?"

"I can't believe I actually got riled up over that stupid cat's words…" Naruto was honestly embarrassed for his actions. They all watched as Happy flew out onto the pier. "He can't actually think that the keyhole will be that easy to find, right? It could be anywhere in this world."

Suddenly, a bright light lit up in the air above the edge of the pier, making Naruto and Gray's jaws drop.

"Oh, you have _got_ to be kidding me."

Happy and Natsu came to an abrupt halt as the keyhole formed. "Holy crap, I was right?!" Happy yelled before quickly clearing his throat. "I mean, of course I was right!" He whirled around and pointed at Naruto. "You see that, Naruto? I _am_ way smarter than you!"

Scowling, Naruto stomped over to the pier and summoned his keyblade. Doing his best to block out the sound of Happy's gloating, he pointed his keyblade at the keyhole. Like the previous time, a bright light shot out of the keyblade and into the keyhole.

Click.

The keyhole flashed and began to fade away. Spinning around, Naruto glared at Happy. "That was a lucky coincidence, nothing more."

"Sure it was~"

"It's fine isn't it?" Naruto looked over to the side as Kairi walked up to them. "Who cares how the keyhole was found as long as it was?" She grinned at him. "The important thing is that it is locked now, so this world is safe." Reluctantly, Naruto felt a small smile pull at his lips.

Sighing, he shook his head. "Yeah, I guess so…" His eyes moved over to Kirito and Asuna, who silently walked over to the group with Gray. "Now there really isn't anything else for us to do here, so we should get going. Thanks again for all the help."

Kirito stared at Naruto in silence. After a moment, a small laugh escaped him, surprising the others. This laugh was joined by a second one, which was then added upon with a full chuckle.

"K-Kirito-kun?" Asuna asked uncertainly.

"I got it." Kirito said quietly. "I think I understand what's going on now…You're an unfinished quest." Asuna's eyes widened. "That's the only explanation. I'm willing to bet that this entire thing has been a quest designed by the creators that was never finished. I don't know how it got activated, but that would explain why there is so much left unexplained and how there was never a quest initiated notification." He sighed and slumped his body. "That sucks…I really wanted my rare items."

Although unsure of what he meant, Naruto shrugged and decided to use this as a chance to get out of letting him realize that other worlds really existed. "Sorry if there was something we couldn't do for you."

"No…It's fine." Kirito smiled sheepishly. _'I should have realized right away something was wrong here…But it makes sense that they didn't have time to finish this one if they put this much detail into its history and characters…'_ Extending a hand, Kirito continued. "Regardless if we got anything out of it or not, I was happy to help."

"We both were." Asuna said with a smile.

Naruto grinned and accepted the hand. "And we were happy for the help."

"Yeah! If we didn't get there when we did, then we might not have reached Kairi in time! And that means that Naruto would have never got the chance to meet the girl he liiii-" He was cut off when Gray sighed and covered his mouth with a hand.

"Once again…Please ignore him."

* * *

 **Gummi Ship**

"It's not fair!"

"Yes, it is! Why do you even need your own chair?!"

"Because the rest of you do!"

"You can fit in Natsu's lap!"

"But it's _my_ chair!"

Kairi smiled at Happy apologetically. "I'm sorry, Happy. I really appreciate you giving up your chair though." The redhead was currently seated in what used to be Happy's chair. Now that she was in it, Happy had been forcefully evicted over to Natsu's lap, where the cat was curled up.

"Why can't you just sit on the floor?!"

Naruto, finally having enough with the complaining, spoke up. "Happy, you're not getting the chair back! Get over it-ttebayo!" Seeing that Happy was about to speak again, he cut the cat off. "Will you shut up if I let you choose the next world?" Happy paused and considered the option.

After a minute of thought, Happy nodded. "That would be acceptable."

Sighing in relief, Naruto pulled up the map. "Fine, where do you want to go?" He was already anticipating the answer of whichever world looked interesting.

"How should I know? I don't know anything about these worlds." Naruto closed his eyes at Happy's words, even as Gray smirked in amusement and Kairi giggled.

"…Can you just pick one randomly then…?"

"Hmm…" Happy stared at the worlds and evaluated each one. "…Natsu, which one is the best?"

"The one that looks like it has strong people in it!"

"I choose the one that looks like it has strong people!"

Naruto _really_ wished that he knew a spell that reduced headaches.

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 40!**

 **STOP! Just stop right there! Don't say a single! Fucking! Word! Shut the hell up. There is a** _ **reason**_ **I did this. One that makes** _ **sense!**_ **So shut up** **!**

" **But Kog, wasn't Kairi's heart in Sora?!"**

" **You can't do that! She shouldn't be able to wake up!"**

" **If she wakes up now, then how will Roxas get created?!"**

 **Shut up! I know! Just have a little faith. This has been the plan for a while now.** _ **So just shut up and wait for the story to get to the point where it is explained!**_

 **So…Want to take a guess at who my favorite pick for a pairing is? :P**

 **What I never understood was why Sora never seemed concerned for his parents or anyone else. The only people he was worried about in the first game were Riku and Kairi…But whatever, that way of thinking makes it easier for me.**

 **End was a bit rushed, but I need to get this out now and I have something else I have to do today.**

 **World that looks like it has strong people…?**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**

* * *

 **Shameless self-advertising!**

 _ **Did you know? Every legend was inspired by something. And while not all legends may be true…There are those legends that ARE based on the achievements of real people. Real men and women. People who have transcended all others, becoming something…more. They become a legend...The scary part? Some legends never die.**_

 **It's happening! Legend of the Silver Shinobi is here! Like Embers of a Shinobi, it's a crossover between Naruto and RWBY.**

 **Update schedule for my three stories is still a bit iffy…As it is right now, I'm going to try and keep Twilight Key updated every Thursday/Friday night, update Embers every Sunday, and then give Silver an update Tuesday/Wednesday. Worst comes to worst, then I rotate them out, meaning I release a new chapter for whichever is next every 3-5 days. So each one would then get updates every 9-15 days…Unappealing, I know, but that would make it easier for me…**


	42. I'll Fight

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 41!**

 **Finals are this week, so everything has been thrown off schedule…Sorry.**

 **It's awesome for me to see how all of you are cool with me bringing Kairi into things this way…Or at least, you're willing to trust me enough to explain before completely shitting on me. The worst of the reviews in the last two chapters were just some mild concerns over how this would throw off development in other characters.**

* * *

 **Kairitrion Cerulean: Thanks for listening to instructions! Whether or not my idea is a good one remains to be seen, but I think it works pretty well. As for the Pokémon thing… _If_ I do the Pokémon world, that would be a good idea.**

 **redlox2: Interesting theories…As for your question…No spoilers!**

 **Remzal Von Enili: I'm going to confess something to you…I've never seen Who Framed Roger Rabbit. I don't have a clue what happens in that movie whatsoever, so I can safely say that I won't be doing that world.**

 **Jebest4781: Nice theory…Is it the right one though?**

 **The Sith'ari: I'm not committing to anything, but she is my favorite pick.**

 **Guest: Oh god, no. I'm not even going to touch upon the idea of a lemon.**

 **Antex-The Legendary Zoroark: Hahaha, when you told me you were behind, I didn't think that meant you were still on Chapter 15.**

 **xYuukito: I could, but I suck at descriptions.**

 **guest-bat: Hmm…Could be, but is that what happened? :P**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else. I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Deity Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Biju/Deity Thinking: **_'_ _Insert witty remark here_ _.'_**

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **Gummi Ship**

"How many do you think there are?"

"A bunch!"

"Do you think they're strong?"

"They have to be! I mean, look at the place!"

"This is gonna be awesome! I'm all fired up!"

Gray scowled and turned around in his seat to glare at the dragon slayer and cat duo. "That's great, now would you _please_ stop talking about it?!" Natsu's grin immediately morphed into a scowl as he shifted his attention to the ice mage.

"Huh? Why the hell should I?"

"Because I'm sick and tired of hearing 'I'm gonna kick their asses' and 'Naruto, make the ship move faster' or something else equally as stupid!" Gray shouted. "We're almost there, so sit there and shut up!"

Natsu growled as Happy got out of his lap so the pink haired teen could get up. "And if I say no?" He asked challengingly.

Rising to the challenge, Gray also got out of his seat and took a couple of steps to meet Natsu. "Then I will _make_ you shut up." He threatened.

"I'd like to see you try, snow cone!"

"It would be my pleasure, hot head!"

Naruto groaned at the shouting. "Honestly, I'd prefer it if you would _both_ be quiet." He gestured to the world in front of them. "We're here, so just stow it." When he saw them look at him and open their mouths, he glared. "How about this? If you _don't_ be quiet, then I'm going to call Kaa-san and tell her about the time that you thought it would be funny to endanger all of us because you wanted to call some of the monsters names back in «Aincrad»." Natsu and Happy paled at his words.

In contrast to this, Gray smirked. "Ha! Serves you right, you flaming idi-"

"I'll _also_ tell her that a certain ice user has been stripping around teenage girls." Gray's mouth snapped shut. "So? What'll it be?" Gray and Natsu traded glances and slowly moved back to their seats.

"W-We'll be good…"

"Aye…"

Naruto smirked in triumph. "Good choice." Did he feel like it was a low blow to use their fear of his mother against them? Yes. Did he care enough to not do it?

Not a chance.

Kairi giggled from her seat. "Your mom sounds fun, Naruto. I'd like to meet her at some point." Naruto blinked at this and considered the option.

"Well, I don't know about face to face, but I can introduce you then next time we call my world." Naruto suggested. "It's already been a couple of days since we last did that, so we can do it once we are done with this world." Naruto grinned at her. "I'd bet she would like to meet you." This time, it was Kairi's turn so be slightly surprised.

"How come?"

"You're a redhead." Came the simple answer. "Kaa-san says that red hair is the best hair…Blond is apparently a close second though."

Happy chose that moment to fly over to Kairi and perch himself in her lap. "Aye! That, and she would like you because you make Naruto eat things other than ramen!" Naruto blushed lightly and averted his eyes. "We haven't been travelling between worlds that long and he has already eaten a bunch of the stuff."

"Shut up…" Kairi's giggling made his blush darken minutely. Clearing his throat, Naruto spoke up and attempted to change the subject. "Anyways, we're going to start entering the world now, so everyone strap in."

* * *

 **Later**

The group pushed aside the oversized gates just enough to slip through and enter the large courtyard.

Gray released a whistle as he took in their surroundings. "Wow. This place is pretty extravagant…"

They were standing at the entrance of a large courtyard outlined with golden torches and marble columns. Up ahead was a set of large doors, except these ones were at the top of a marble staircase, and they led into a building. On either side of the entrance was a huge statue of a gladiator with his sword drawn.

"I wonder where we are…" Kairi said curiously. "This entire place looks like something you'd see gladiators fighting in…"

"Hey guys! Check this out!" All eyes zeroed in on Natsu upon hearing his voice. When they weren't looking, the fire dragon slayer had taken the chance to walk off and explore. He was now standing in front of a large banner hung up on the wall, an excited grin on his face.

Letting his curiosity get the best of him, Naruto moved to join Natsu. "What'd you find?"

Natsu pointed at the banner. "This! It's a bracket for a tournament!" He spun around to face them as the other's walked up. "I was right! There _are_ strong people here, and they're having a tournament!" Fire erupted around his body. "I'm gonna win it!"

Deciding to check it out for himself, Gray stepped around the flaming teen and hummed in interest. "Natsu's right." He said. "It looks like this is a coliseum that frequently hosts tournaments." A grin broke out across his face. "And it looks like they have one scheduled to begin later today…I have to say, I wouldn't mind getting in on that."

Naruto's eye twitched. "We don't visit worlds so we can have fun." He muttered. "Especially not so we can have fun by fighting people." Just as Naruto expected him to, Natsu waved him off.

"Aw, relax a bit. Doesn't the idea of fighting strong people get you pumped?"

"…No?"

"Well, I'm pumped!" Natsu whirled around and ran towards the doors leading into the coliseum. "So let's go!" Happy flew off after Natsu.

Gray put his hands into his pockets and followed after Natsu at a more sedate pace. "Sorry, Naruto. You might as well go with it. You know how that idiot is when he gets his mind stuck on something."

"I don't see you against it that much…" Naruto said with a sigh.

Smiling slightly, Kairi spoke up. "It looks like both Natsu and Gray are looking forward to this. Would it really be that much trouble for them to fight in the tournament?"

Naruto shrugged weakly. "I guess not…I'm mostly worried about them going overboard at some point." Kairi's grin grew at his words. "Come on, I don't trust Natsu alone with Gray and Happy." The two of them walked towards the lobby.

"Look, I'm telling you it ain't happening!" As the two of them approached, they noticed what sounded like raised voices arguing in the lobby.

"Why not?! I want to fight!" While the first voice was unfamiliar, the second one definitely belonged to Natsu. Not wanting things to escalate too far, Naruto picked up the pace, prompting Kairi to do the same.

"I don't care what _you_ want." The unknown voice refuted. "The rules are like this: Heroes. Only! You lot ain't heroes, so you don't get to participate in the games!" It was then that Naruto and Kairi walked through the doors, getting a look at the room and its occupants.

Standing in the center of the lobby were Natsu, who had a scowl on his face, and Gray, who simply had a frown with his arms crossed. Happy was perched on Natsu's shoulder and looking between Natsu and the…goat(?) he was arguing with.

The goat(?) had the lower body of a normal goat with orange fur and the upper body of a short man. The goat(?) was bald on top of his head, except for a few strands of orange hair, while the back of his hair was about shoulder length. On his chin was a curly goatee and he looked slightly unshaven. Completing the look was a pair of goat horns on top of his head.

Natsu's scowl deepened. "We _are_ heroes! We've helped people!"

One side of the goat(?)'s unibrow raised in disbelief. "You? Heroes?" He scoffed. "Keep dreaming, runt." He turned around and waved over his shoulder. "Sorry, but you're not entering the games."

"What's going on?" Naruto asked as he walked up to them.

Gray glanced over to him. "This guy won't let us enter. Says that only heroes get to enter." Although he controlled himself better than Natsu, it was easy to see that he was also annoyed at not being allowed to enter the games.

Naruto blinked. "A hero?" He echoed, getting a nod. "What the heck does that mean?" Stiffening for a moment, the goat(?)'s head snapped back around to Naruto, surprising the crimson blond slightly.

"What does it mean?" He asked. "What does a _hero_ mean?" The goat(?) glared. "A hero is a hero! What's so hard to understand about that?"

Frowning, Naruto crossed his arms. "Well, it's hard to understand because what qualifies someone as a hero? Are you the judge of who is hero material?" The goat(?) blinked.

"No, I-"

"I would have called you an idiot if you had said yes." Naruto interrupted. "I don't think that anyone has the right to declare a person is a hero and expect it to stand universally. It's all a matter of opinion."

The goat(?) stared at Naruto. "…Huh…?"

Naruto gestured at him. "What's your definition of a hero?"

Not expecting the sudden question, the goat(?) took a moment to respond. "A hero is someone who risks their life to save others, not expecting anything in return. They're people who go into a fight to protect someone, knowing full well that they could die, and even if they do win, they might not get any thanks for what they do." The description of a hero got a nod out of Naruto.

"That's a pretty good definition, but I don't think it's completely accurate." The goat(?) appeared to actually be affronted by Naruto's words. "While I agree that a person like that can be called a hero, I don't think that's it…Do you think it's important for children to be happy?"

The goat(?) frowned in confusion. "Um, yes?"

"I'd hope so, yeah." Naruto agreed. "But what if a child wasn't happy? Not because of anything someone did, but maybe because something that happened that made them sad? It could have been anything, anything at all, but the end result is the same. You with me so far?" The goat(?) slowly nodded. "What if someone came by, and saw that the child was unhappy…This person, they could be anyone, whether it be a stranger, family member, or a friend. They don't have to be strong or fast…Heck, they don't even need to be smart, but what if they saw an unhappy child, and so they decided to act? This person approaches the child and then did everything he or she could to put a smile on that child's face." The goat(?)'s eyes widened.

"That's…"

"It's just my opinion, but you don't need to fight and put your life on the line to be considered a hero." Naruto said. "And I think it's really dumb to forget that there's more than one way to be a hero…" He paused. "…In fact, I would even say that real-life heroes are the people who you look up to, friends and family included…Anyone who helps others can be a personal hero to the person that is helped."

"I agree." All eyes turned to the entrance at the sudden voice. "It really isn't fair for any one person to declare whether or not someone is a hero, Phil…No matter who it is."

The goat(?), Phil, frowned in thought. "Herc…"

Standing there was a tall and muscular man with rust colored hair and blue eyes. He had on orange-brown armor, a brown belt with a golden emblem, and an orange-brown metal kilt. The man also wore knee-high sandals, two wristbands, and a reddish-brown headband. Attached to his shoulders was a blue cape.

The man, Herc, walked up to them. "He is absolutely right in saying that a person can be a hero in more than one way. It isn't for you to say whether or not a person is a hero."

Phil scowled slightly, but there wasn't any malice. "But I'm _not_ the only one choosing!" He pointed toward the ceiling. "You and I both know who _really_ gets to pick the people who are heroes."

Herc nodded. "Fair enough…" A small smile appeared on his face. "But still, _you_ are the one who decides who is allowed to participate in the games." Phil stilled. "What's the harm in letting them join? You already let the other group who came through here to join a few days ago. And look, they proved themselves capable. They beat the Cerberus!"

"Only because you tired it out first!" Phil yelled back, but sighed in resignation. "Fine, they can enter." Gray and Natsu grinned. " _But_ they have to prove themselves first!" The grins faded as Herc cast a suspicious look at the goat(?).

"Phil…" Phil waved him off.

"Don't you worry, I'll really let them in this time if they can pass the trial." Phil's words brought a smile to Herc.

"Good. It wasn't fair of you to break your word last time."

Muttering something under his breath, Phil started to walk towards the roped off entrance. "Whatever…Whenever you brats are ready to get tested, meet me out in the arena, capeesh?" And without waiting for an answer, he trotted out.

Herc sighed with a sheepish smile. "I'm sorry about him…He can be a little abrasive when you first meet him." Natsu grinned at the man.

"No problem! Thanks for getting him to let us fight!"

Gray rolled his eyes. "He still hasn't agreed to anything yet. We still need to be tested, apparently."

"There's no way we're gonna fail!"

Natsu's excitement made Herc's smile widen. "That's the spirit. If you give it your all, I'm sure you can pass."

Naruto ignored Natsu for the moment and focused his attention on the man. "Regardless of whether or not the test ends in failure, we appreciate the support." He said. "I'm Naruto. The others are Gray, Natsu, Kairi, and Happy…" They each waved or spoke upon their names. "Your name is…Herc?"

Herc nodded. "Herc is short for Hercules, but I don't mind being called that." He gestured towards the door that Phil left through. "The person you were speaking with is Philoctetes, but it is probably easier to say Phil." Natsu and Happy sighed in relief. "So? You came here to enter the games?"

"Not really, no." Naruto shrugged. "We're just sort of passing through when we found out about it." He pointed over to Natsu. "Natsu said he wanted to enter the moment he found out."

"I'm so going to win this!" Natsu declared and spun around to face the direction Phil left in. "Let's go finish this test so we can enter!" It was then that Herc saw the mark on his shoulder, causing his eyes to widen.

"That mark…" He began, gaining their attention. "Are you…members of Fairy Tail?" He asked. The moment he heard that question, Natsu abandoned his course of action and whirled around to face Herc, Happy and Gray doing the same.

"You know about Fairy Tail?!" Natsu shouted. "Then that means you've met one of our friends!" He ran up to the man. "Who?! Who was it?!"

Gray reached forward and grabbed Natsu to pull him back. "Give him a chance to answer!" He instructed before looking to Herc. "But he's right. The fact that you recognized the mark means that you know someone else with it."

Although slightly surprised by Natsu's outburst, Herc quickly recovered and smiled. "That's right. Someone else with the mark showed up near the entrance of the Underworld a couple of months ago. I was able to stop her before she wandered in, but…" He sweat dropped. "She probably would have been alright…" Herc cupped his chin in thought. "She is taking care of something in the Underworld for me, but she should be returning here any moment now."

"Who was it?!"

Herc tilted his head. "Oh, I still haven't told you? Her name is-"

"I'm back." All eyes turned to the main entrance, and all but Kairi and Herc's widened. "Hercules, I have spoken to…" The young woman stopped cold and blinked. "Natsu? Gray? Happy?" Realizing it really was them, she smiled. "It is you! It's wonderful to see you again!" Not giving them a chance to react, she strode forward and grabbed the paralyzed Natsu and Gray's heads. Naruto and Kairi's eyes widened in shock when the newcomer slammed their heads into her armor with a smile. "I am glad to see that you are alright."

"Is that a hug?" Kairi whispered.

"Erza!" Happy shouted, his voice a strange mixture of joy and fear. "You're here!"

The young woman had long, scarlet hair and brown eyes. For some reason, she wore armor over her top, complete with gauntlets. Contrasting this, she also had on a normal blue skirt and black boots.

Erza smiled at the flying cat. "Yes I am, Happy." She let go of Gray's head, allowing the unconscious ice mage to slump to the ground, and reached towards the cat. "Now come here, I have a hug for you as well."

"No thanks! I'm good!" Happy declined.

The moment she heard that, something about Erza shifted. A dark aura covered her body as her expression darkened, but it wasn't like the normal darkness. This darkness was…scarier. Naruto shuddered when the image of another terrifying redhead blended in with Erza's.

"What was that?"

Happy shook in place for a moment. "N-Nothing…I would l-love a hug…" Whimpering, Happy tentatively glided over to Erza, who instantly returned to normal.

"That's what I thought." If it wasn't for the fact that they were standing there, neither Naruto nor Kairi would have believed that she was so terrifying just a second ago. The two of them winced as Happy was grabbed out of the air and slammed into her armored chest. "I have missed the three of you." Erza said gently, getting three groans in return. "What are you doing here?"

Hesitantly, Herc cleared his throat. "Um…They are here to participate in the tournament, Erza…"

Erza's eyebrows rose in surprise, but a smile spread across her face. "I suppose that isn't a shock, given who we are talking about." It was then that she seemed to remember what she was saying a minute ago. "Oh, I almost forgot…" She released Natsu and Happy, and they both crumpled to the floor. Stepping over the bodies, Erza walked up to Herc and fished something out of her pocket. "I've done as you asked. Here's the stone." She took out a stone with a lightning bolt on it and handed it to him.

Herc smiled in thanks and accepted the stone. "Then he's learned his lesson?" A nod. "How did you do it? You can't hurt him while he's in the Underworld, and I doubt he would just listen…"

The question made Erza smirk. "I can be very…convincing when I need to be. No need to say more than that." Gray, Natsu, and Happy all shivered from their spots on the ground. Turning around, Erza blinked when she saw the three of them. Naruto, Herc, and Kairi all watched as a frown appeared on her face. "What do the three of you think you're doing lying around like that? That isn't the place for a nap."

"She's the one who did that!" Kairi whispered in shock.

When Erza got no response, the dark aura from before returned. "That means… _Get up!_ "

"Aye!" The three of them snapped to attention with salutes. Erza nodded in approval with a smile while the darkness disappeared.

"Good. I know we aren't exactly in Magnolia, but I still expect you to conduct yourselves as members of Fairy Tail should." She glared. "And that means no fighting." Natsu and Gray broke out into a cold sweat, still not relaxing from their salutes. " _Have_ you been fighting?"

"Ma'am, no ma'am!" They shouted in unison.

"Naruto has been good at keeping them in line, ma'am!" Happy added, prompting Erza to tilt her head in thought.

"Naruto?" She repeated. Looking around the lobby, her eyes landed on the frozen Naruto and Kairi, as if noticing them for the first time. "I assume you're Naruto?"

Naruto swallowed, not wanting to wind up on the ground. "Yes, I am…" He said shakily.

Smiling again, Erza walked up to Naruto and offered him a hand. "It's nice to meet you, Naruto. I'm Erza Scarlet." Nervously, Naruto accepted the hand, and he immediately wished he hadn't when her hand gripped his.

' _Kami, that freakin' hurts!'_ How strong was she?!

Letting go of his hand, much to the relief of Naruto, Erza spoke up. "So you have been keeping Natsu and Gray from fighting each other too much? You have my thanks for that." She eyed them. "I know they can be a handful…" The two mages shook in place under her gaze.

Seeing this, Naruto shook his head. "N-No, they're fine…They do bicker occasionally, but it isn't too bad…" He stood his ground when Erza's eyes moved back to him.

"You're not lying to me, are you?" Her lips formed a frown. "I don't like it when I'm lied to…" Naruto shivered again.

"O-Of course not! I would never lie to you, Kaa-san!" Naruto's hand shot up to cover his mouth as Erza's eyes widened in shock.

"K-Kaa-san…" She repeated.

Naruto shook his head. "Wait, sorry! That just slipped out-ttebayo!"

A blush formed in Erza's cheeks while armored hands came up to cup them. "W-We just met and we hardly know e-each other…" She muttered. "B-But I suppose…I don't really mind…" Her blush deepened. "I am alright with being your K-Kaa san…" Her hand lashed out and grabbed Naruto's head. Not giving him a chance to say anything, she slammed his head into her chest in the same manner that she did to Natsu, Gray, and Happy. "I swear to do my best as your mother!" Naruto groaned.

Witnessing this, Gray broke out of his salute and spoke up. "Wait, Erza!"

"Hm?"

Gulping, Gray nervously spoke up. "N-Naruto didn't mean to call you that…You really remind him of his mother, is all…" He told her. "It was an accident."

Erza stared at him with wide eyes. "It was an accident…?" Slowly, her eyes trailed back to Naruto. "Oh…" She released Naruto, allowing him to crumple to the floor. Coughing into her fist, Erza attempted to control her blush. "My apologies."

Naruto pushed himself back to his feet with a dazed expression. "I-It's fine…Let's just forget about it." Erza nodded in agreement.

"Very well."

Now that the commotion was over, Kairi stepped forward with a nervous smile. "You know all of them, but I'm Kairi. It's nice to meet you." Erza smiled back.

"It's nice to meet you as well, Kairi."

Finally returning to his usual self, Natsu interjected. "Erza, what are you doing here?!"

Erza glanced over to him. "I've been here since we all got separated a few months ago. I woke up near the entrance of what is apparently the Underworld, but Hercules here prevented me from actually entering it. Since then, I've simply been honing my skills in the games held in the coliseum and waiting for news of the others." Her smile widened. "I was starting to fear the worst when a boy claiming to know you came through here a few days ago. He said he was keeping an eye out for Fairy Tail members." Naruto's eyebrows shot up.

"A boy who came through here said that?" He grinned when he realized who she was talking about. "You mean Sora was here?" Kairi perked up at the name.

"He was?" She asked excitedly. "How was he? Do you know where he is now?"

Herc and Erza shared a look. "Sorry, we don't know where he is now." Herc said sadly. "He was only here for a little while and competed in the preliminaries for one of the games. However, there was an…interruption that caused us to call of the games for a bit." He smirked. "But we took care of it easily enough." Erza nodded in agreement.

"Unfortunately, the arena was destroyed. But we were able to fix it quickly over the last few days." She smirked. "Today is the first time the coliseum is opening back up."

Kairi sighed. "So you don't know where he is…" Erza gained an apologetic look.

"Sorry, we don't." Taking notice of Kairi's downtrodden expression, she continued. "But I'm sure that it's only a matter of time until you find him." She tried. "Don't lose heart just because you haven't done so yet."

Naruto followed up after her. "She's right. This is the first place we've come to, Kairi. It's actually amazing we were this close to meeting Sora so soon, so try to relax a bit." He suggested. Kairi smiled slightly.

"I guess you're right…"

"Hey! Are you coming or not?!" Phil's voice was heard from the direction of the arena.

"Was that Phil?" Erza asked.

"Yeah, it was." Herc told her while gesturing to the group. "As I said, they wanted to enter today's tournament, so Phil is going to test them to see if they are ready for it."

Erza smirked. "I'm not going to stop you guys from testing them, but I don't think that they will have any problems." Natsu puffed up his chest in pride while Gray smirked. "You guys should get going…Phil is not a patient person."

"Right!" Grinning widely, Natsu ran towards the door that led to the arena. "Let's go!"

Sighing, Gray followed after him. "Slow down a bit, moron…"

Naruto rolled his eyes at their behavior. "Good luck, you guys." Natsu and Gray stopped and turned around to stare at him.

"What?" Natsu asked in confusion. "What do you mean by that?" The others also appeared to not know what Naruto meant.

Seeing their looks, Naruto tilted his head. "What do _you_ mean?"

"You aren't coming with us?" Gray asked.

Comprehending what was going on, Naruto shook his head. "No, I'm not. I wasn't the one who wanted to enter, you two were." He shrugged. "I'll hang out in the stands with Kairi and Happy."

"But…But…" Natsu couldn't understand why Naruto didn't want to enter. "It'll be fun!"

"Meh. Maybe next time…"

Erza was quiet for a moment, but she soon spoke up. "If he does not wish to enter, then that is his decision." She declared. "You can't make him, Natsu." Frowning, Natsu nodded.

"Fine…" His grin returned. "I can do this on my own, anyways!" He sprinted out of the lobby.

Scowling, Gray exited as well. "You won't be doing anything if I beat you to it!"

Kairi giggled at them. "They're always eager, huh?" Naruto snorted.

"Yeah, I guess…" He motioned towards the exit. "Let's go find a spot in the stands."

* * *

 **Stands (A Little Later)**

Naruto, Kairi, Happy, and Erza sat in the stands and watched as Natsu and Gray ran around the arena, destroying barrels within the specified time.

"That's a test?" Happy asked skeptically. "What's the hard part?"

Erza shook her head. "It isn't our place to decide how people should be tested, Happy. Phil has been doing this for a long time, so I'm sure that he knows what to look for when testing people." The aforementioned goat(?) was standing next to the arena and watching the duo with a critical eye.

Kairi was looking down into the arena, but she wasn't really watching it because something else was plaguing her thoughts. Her eyes moved from the arena to the boy who was relaxing next to her with his eyes closed and his arms behind his head. "Hey, Naruto?"

Cracking an eye open, Naruto looked at her. "Yeah?"

"Why don't you want to participate?" She asked, gaining the attention of the others. "I mean, Natsu and Gray seemed to be really looking forward to it, but not you…" Kairi tilted her head. "I'm just wondering how come."

Naruto frowned slightly at the question. "Why I don't want to participate…" He mused. "I suppose…I don't want to participate because I don't see a reason to." He said simply.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Happy asked curiously.

"Natsu enjoys a challenge, which he gets in fights." Naruto replied. "Gray is the same way, but not to the same extent. Basically, the both of them love a good fight." He said, gaining a smile out of Erza.

"That's true." The older redhead confirmed. "For as long as I've known him, Natsu has never passed up the chance for a fight. And as you said, Gray is somewhat the same."

"Oh…" Kairi slowly nodded. "That makes sense…" She blinked when a thought came to her. "But wait, does that mean you don't like a fight? A challenge?" That was a weird concept to her. Sora and Riku have always jumped at the chance to challenge themselves and each other in some manner, so it was slightly unusual to find a boy that didn't like that.

Naruto grinned slightly. "I never said I don't like a challenge or a fight." He denied. "I just don't go out of my way to fight someone." Naruto closed his eyes again. "I've always enjoyed relaxing and taking naps, so I'd rather use this chance to do that…Instead of tiring myself out for some tournament." He waved towards the arena. "But hey, if they enjoy that kind of thing, then good for them."

Kairi giggled at his words. _'Well, I guess he_ is _a little like Sora, after all…They both like relaxing!'_

"Oh, I get it! You're lazy!" Naruto's eyes snapped back open so he could glare at the blue cat.

"No, I'm _not_ lazy." Naruto growled. "I know I don't need to join in on every fight, so I don't. That's all."

"Denial is such an ugly thing, Naruto…" The crimson blond grit his teeth at Happy's words while Kairi giggled.

"I'm _not_ in denia-" Naruto cut himself off and took a deep breath. "You know what? I'm not doing this." Quickly standing up, Naruto began to move in the direction of the lobby. "I'm going to the restroom."

"Even if you run, the truth won't change!" Happy shouted after him.

"Happy." The exceed froze and broke out into a nervous sweat at the soft voice. "I think you've teased him enough, don't you?"

Shakily, Happy saluted. "A-Aye! I'm sorry, Erza!"

Nodding in approval, Erza shifted her attention off of Happy and onto Kairi, allowing the feline to relax. "So, Kairi…How did you meet the others?" Although slightly caught off guard at the sudden question, Kairi answered after a moment.

"I met them a couple of days ago in the last w-" Kairi stopped talking abruptly, unsure of how much she can reveal. "Um, I mean…" She frowned minutely. "If you're from the same place Natsu, Happy, and Gray are from…then that means you're from another world, right?"

Understanding her hesitation, Erza smiled. "Yes, I am." Returning the smile, Kairi sighed in relief.

"Good…Then it's alright for me to tell you that I met them a couple of days ago in the last world that they went to." Her expression turned somewhat sheepish. "They actually rescued me after I wound up there when my own world was consumed by the darkness." She paused. "Do you know about light and darkness?"

Erza appeared surprised by this, but she quickly recovered. "Somewhat, yes. I've learned enough about it during my time here…They rescued you? How did that happen?"

Kairi was a little unsure of what to say. "Um…Something happened to me when my world was consumed, and I was protected from the darkness…None of us know what it was, but apparently I was shielded by the light. It formed some kind of barrier that protected me until the others were able to get to me."

Happy chose then to speak up. "Aye, it's true! We didn't even know Kairi was there, but Naruto told us we needed to go to where you were." Kairi and Erza turned to him in unison.

"Naruto said you needed to go to where I was?" She repeated. "How did he know?"

"No clue. Naruto doesn't know either." Happy said easily. "When we approached the world, he suddenly started to act even weirder than normal. He told us that he could faintly hear a voice calling out to him and that something was resonating with his heart. I wanted to call him out for being crazy, but I kept quiet. We followed his directions and eventually found you! At first, it looked like you were asleep, but there was this bright light when Naruto touched you and you woke up!"

Kairi had some trouble understanding that. "What do you mean by that?"

Happy frowned in thought. "Well, you were stuck inside this big sphere of light, but Naruto got you out of it pretty fast…After that, you started to float towards the ground. When Naruto caught you, he started screaming in pain out of nowhere and you both started to shine." Happy shivered at the memory and clutched at his head. "It was scary…"

Seeing his condition, Kairi reached over and plucked Happy off of the stands and placed him in her lap. "It's alright now, Happy…Everyone is fine…" She said gently while petting him.

Relaxing, Happy continued speaking. "We couldn't even touch you or Naruto…Some light wouldn't let us do it. Because of that, we had no choice but watch him scream…" He shook his head. "After a minute or two, the light eventually went away and the screaming stopped…Naruto was still awake and told us he was alright…" He looked up and met her eyes. "That's when you woke up."

Kairi bit her lip. "I…Is that really what happened?"

"Aye…"

Erza placed a hand on her shoulder, prompting Kairi to meet her gaze. "Whatever it was, it's over now. Naruto is perfectly fine." She consoled.

"R-Right…" Kairi agreed. "I'll just ask Naruto about it when…he gets…back…" Kairi trailed off as a sudden sense of dizziness hit her. "Wha…?" Kairi's vision blurred, and she distantly heard people calling her name. _'What's…happening?'_

Her world turned black.

* * *

 **With Naruto**

Naruto approached the lobby, gazing at the arena as he did, allowing him to see that Natsu and Gray were still running around to reach the barrels. After watching for a moment, he turned back in the direction of the lobby, but he stopped himself from moving when he saw that he was about to run into another person. "Ah, sorry…" Naruto said quietly and walked around the person.

" **Fire Dragon's Roar**!" Naruto's attention was pulled back to the arena at that shout, where Natsu had obliterated a stack of barrels with his attack.

"I can't believe he used that…" Naruto said quietly. "And what is Phil looking for here? Is that really a challenge?" He sighed. "It's not like destroying a bunch of barrels will tell me if I'm good enough to fight someone like Sephiroth…" He took a step, but a hand latching onto his shoulder stopped him. "Hmm…?" Glancing over his shoulder, Naruto was surprised to see the person he nearly bumped into a moment ago staring at him intently. "Can I help you?" Even as he asked this, Naruto was prepping himself for a fight.

The person stared at him in silence for a minute, but he eventually spoke. "That name…" He said quietly. "How do you know it?" The man asked.

Naruto frowned slightly and rotated his body to face the man fully. "…How do _you_ know Sephiroth?" Naruto asked back while crossing his arms. "In fact, who are you?"

"…Cloud."

The man, Cloud, was of average height with spiky blond hair, and blue eyes that actually seemed to glow. He wore indigo pants with a sleeveless shirt, brown boots, and a pauldron on his left shoulder. In addition to this, Cloud had on a metal claw on his left hand and a flowing red cape, which also acted like a scarf that concealed the lower half of his face. On his back was a large sword that was partially wrapped in bandages.

"Well, Cloud…I'm Naruto…" Naruto began. "Is there a reason that you want to know?"

Cloud seemed to frown under his scarf. "I have…been searching for Sephiroth for a long time."

" _I had…previously believed that there was only one person out there who was capable of eliminating me."_

" _You remind me a great deal of_ him _. You both prefer the light, but still have inescapable ties to the dark."_

Sephiroth's parting words returned to Naruto. "You're him…" Naruto said quietly. "You're the one Sephiroth told me about after we fought…"

Naruto's words made Cloud's eyes widen in shock. "You…You fought him?" He asked, disbelief seeping into his tone. "And you're still alive?" Naruto grimaced.

"It was close, but I survived, yeah…" Naruto sighed. "If Sephiroth was serious about it, then I wouldn't be alive."

Cloud slowly nodded. "I see…But why?" Naruto quirked an eyebrow.

"Why what?"

"Why did he let you go?" Cloud clarified. "In fact, why did he even bother fighting you in the first place? Sephiroth isn't the type to fight needless battles…"

When he heard the question, Naruto looked away. "I guess I caught his attention…And he only let me live because he is interested in seeing how I grow…" Cloud frowned again.

"He said that?" Naruto tilted his head at him. "Sephiroth said that he wanted to see how you grow?" A nod. "That's…" Cloud couldn't understand it. _'Sephiroth has never shown interest in someone else before…Why now?'_ Glowing blue eyes took in Naruto's appearance. _'Is he even a teenager yet?'_

Slightly unnerved by the gaze, Naruto cleared his throat. "If that's all, I'm going to head back now…"

"Are you going to fight in the tournament?" Cloud's abrupt question caught Naruto off guard.

"I'm sorry?"

"The tournament held later today." Cloud reiterated. "Are you participating?"

Naruto frowned. "I wasn't planning on it, no." Nodding, Cloud continued.

"Would you consider it?" Naruto blinked at the request.

"You want me to fight in the tournament?" Cloud remained silent. "How come?"

Cloud sighed. "…If Sephiroth has taken the time to fight you, and yet he let you live, I would like to see how strong you are. Especially if he actually told you that he looks forward to seeing how you improve." He tilted his head. "So? Will you do it?" Naruto grimaced slightly.

He wasn't against fighting in the tournament, but he didn't see a reason to. Naruto opened his mouth to shoot down the request, but he paused. _"Until the next time that our fates cross."_ A chill ran down Naruto's spine.

' _I will eventually run across Sephiroth again…But will I be ready?'_ Naruto asked himself. _'As I am now…I wouldn't stand a chance…'_ Cerulean and violet eyes met glowing blue. _'But him…This is someone else that Sephiroth believes can beat him…If there was ever a way to see my progress and test myself, this would be it.'_ Coming to a decision, Naruto nodded. "Fine. I'll fight in the tournament…I look forward to facing you." He smirked, and although he couldn't see it, Naruto felt as if Cloud was doing the same.

Nodding, Cloud spoke up. "I look forward to meeting you in the arena as well, Naruto."

"Kairi!" Both of their heads snapped around to face the direction of the startled shout.

"Kairi?" Dread pooling in his stomach, Naruto dashed off toward the stands.

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 41!**

 **Yes, I chose Olympus Coliseum. I put this in because I wanted Naruto to meet Cloud, and this is the world where he is. I'll let you know right now, there is a second world that I've chosen that Sora visits in the game.**

 **Following the trend of underestimating how long each chapter is, I realized that I shouldn't do Olympus in a single chapter.**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	43. What's The Opposite Of A Heartless?

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 42!**

 **Okay, here's what's happening…I'm going to release this unfinished thing now, and then release the second half soon. If not sometime today, then as soon as I can. Because I am super late and it was meant to be one chapter, I don't mind releasing another one before a week has gone by…The down side is that this world is now three chapters.**

 **I'm annoyed with myself on so many levels for being so late with this chapter…**

 **Progress came** _ **super**_ **slowly on this one. Besides being late, I couldn't get a good pace going.**

 **Just learned today that the Fairy Tail anime ended…WTF. Again with this crap?! I mean sure, the manga is still going strong, but I like to watch the anime once in a while!**

* * *

 **prototype gear: Thanks! I was pretty sure I did Erza right, but it's always good to get a second opinion.**

 **Remzal Von Enili: Read the chapter!**

 **redlox2: I don't mind saying that Hollow Bastion is a planned world, but it isn't the one I was talking about. I feel as if Hollow Bastion was a must from the start. And the magic recharges over time.**

 **rinsegaku: The navigation gummi thing…Nah, I won't have Cloud give them one.**

 **animecollecter: I have a self-policy of not releasing a chapter that is less than something around 3k-4k words. But frequently, I set a loose minimum of 7k words…if I can. When things aren't going to hell, I can maintain that easily enough.**

 **shadowmwape: I'm sorry to say I don't know what you mean.**

 **Kairitrion Cerulean: If you thought that** _ **last**_ **update took a while…**

 **guest-bat: The keyblades are a whole pain in the ass I don't like dealing with…I have no significant visual imagination whatsoever, so I can't design something myself. I'll mostly stick to what came from the games. And thanks for the ideas!**

 **Unknown: Read the chapter!**

 **IceHound:** _ **That**_ **is something I've put some thought into. I won't say anything to confirm and deny it though. And Aqua…I can see that playing out two ways, I either save her or I don't…Both have some benefits…**

 **ravengtr: Not a problem, I understand. I sometimes feel as if I have some trouble hitting that perfect mix of fighting to talking. I've both heard people tell me that I have too much talking (Like yourself) and heard people tell me I have too much fighting…There really is no winning, so I do what I feel is right.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else. I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Deity Talking: " **Insert witty remark here**."

Biju/Deity Thinking: _'_ _ **Insert witty remark here**_ _.'_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **In the Stands**

"I'll just ask Naruto about it when…he gets…back…" Despite starting off sounding normal, the shift in Kairi's tone alarmed Erza. The elder redhead's alarm was proven to be correct when Kairi's eyes grew distant. The next moment, Kairi's body seemed to lose all of its strength, and she slumped to the side.

Swiftly reaching out, Erza caught Kairi's other shoulder in order to support her. "Kairi!" Not getting any response, Erza mentally cursed and gently laid her down on the seats. "Kairi! Can you hear me?!"

By this time, Happy had vacated Kairi's lap and was hovering in the air with a clearly anxious expression. "Kairi? Erza, what's wrong with her?!"

Erza gritted her teeth. "I'm not sure…" Leaning over the girl, Erza noted that while Kairi's eyes were open, they were glazed over. "Did she fall unconscious?" If it wasn't for the fact that she had been talking and her eyes were open, Erza would have believed that Kairi was simply sleeping.

"Hey, Erza!"

"What's going on?!"

Glancing up, Erza noted that the commotion had attracted the attention of the others, and they had all rushed over. Because they were closer, Gray and Natsu were the first to reach them.

Natsu skidded to a stop next to the stands with his eyes darting between them. When they landed on Kairi, they froze. "Is she alright?" Tearing up, Happy flung himself into Natsu's arms.

Frustration growing, Erza shook her head. "I don't know. One second she was fine, and the next she was like this…" Erza was both worried and angry with the situation. She was worried for her new friend's health, but she was also angry with herself for her inability to help.

"Kairi!" It was then that Naruto appeared next to the group, not looking anywhere but the unconscious girl. "What happened?" He demanded, but the replies he got consisted of nothing but unsure answers.

"She just became like that out of nowhere!" Happy told him. "Kairi was talking to us, but then she passed out!"

Cloud gazed at the girl from his spot next to Naruto. "I take it that this is not normal?" His presence garnered some curious glances, but nobody thought much of it.

"Not as far as I know." Naruto confirmed. "Kairi?" Nothing. "Come on, Kairi. Can you hear me?" Still no response. "Damn it…!"

"It's almost as if she fell asleep." Gray muttered. It was at that point that a panting Phil finally joined them.

Pausing, Naruto sucked in a breath in remembrance. "Like when we first met her…" He said quietly. Crouching next to Kairi, he spoke up. "Let me try something." He reached out a hand, but he was stopped when another hand latched around his wrist. Turning his head in question, Naruto was surprised to see Gray giving him a serious look.

"Naruto, are you sure about this? There's no way that you forgot what happened the first time." He told him.

The memory of extreme pain tearing through his body made Naruto shudder slightly. Quickly shaking it off, Naruto pulled his hand free with a glare. "It doesn't matter. We can't leave her this way." Gray scowled, but didn't argue. If Naruto was willing to do it, then he should be allowed to. Gray was only concerned about his friend, but it was true that Kairi was also his friend. Taking a deep breath, Naruto moved his hand back to Kairi. "Here goes nothing…" He placed the hand on her shoulder.

Right away, pain erupted in Naruto's chest, making him clench his teeth. Distantly, he noted that it was not nearly as bad as it was the first time. Despite somewhat expecting to white out and view memories again, it never happened. Instead, Naruto remained aware as lights appeared over his and Kairi's chests. Not expecting this, Cloud's eyes widened, but he didn't react beyond that, as opposed to Phil, who yelped. They all watched the lights grow increasingly bright, until it got to a level that the lights became difficult to stare at.

Eventually, the lights began to fade away, leaving a fatigued Naruto. Once the lights were completely gone, he let go of Kairi's shoulder and sat down on the ground. "Well, that didn't suck as much as it did the last time…"

Understanding what he was referring to after hearing the story, Erza gave him a worried look. "Are you alright? I've been told that that process isn't exactly easy…"

Naruto smiled at her. "Yeah, I'm fine. But enough about me, what about Kairi?" All eyes moved back to Kairi. Seeing that she was still in the same condition, Naruto's hands balled into fists. "Damn…Did that not do anything?"

"Ugh…" Each one of them perked up at the quiet moan. "…What hit me…?" Holding a hand to the side of her head, Kairi pushed herself into a sitting position. "I was…" Blinking, it was then that Kairi noticed the people gathered around her. "W-What?"

"Kairi!"

"You're okay!"

Sobbing, Happy shot out of Natsu's arms and into Kairi's. The girl was not expecting the cat to do such a thing, but she still caught him. "D-Don't do that! You can't fall asleep whenever you want to! You really scared Naruto! He wouldn't stop crying!"

"Hey! You're the one who was crying-ttebayo!" Despite saying this, a relieved smile was still on Naruto's face. "But moving past Happy's lies, how are you feeling, Kairi?" He asked.

Briefly thinking over it, Kairi shrugged. "I feel…fine, I guess? A little lightheaded, but nothing serious…"

"Nothing serious?" Phil echoed. "Kid, people don't just pass out when it's 'nothing serious'! So let me tell you, _that_ was serious!"

"I passed out…" Kairi repeated softly, as if she was only comprehending it now. "I did?"

"Yes!"

"…But why?" Kairi asked. "I felt fine. Heck, I _feel_ fine! Why would I pass out?"

Natsu frowned and crossed his arms. "Dunno…" A grin split his face. "But does it matter? You're all better now! Don't worry about it!" He broke out into laughter, but it was cut off by Erza's fist embedding in his gut.

"Of course it matters, fool!" She shouted. "If we don't know what caused it in the first place, it may very well happen again!" Retracting her fist, she ignored Natsu as the dragon slayer crumpled to the ground. Kairi stiffened when Erza's attention shifted to her, but relaxed a bit when the glare disappeared in favor of a kinder expression. "Kairi, are you sure you don't feel any different?"

"Um…" Kairi hesitantly nodded. "Yeah, I am. I honestly didn't realize that I lost consciousness until you told me…It was kind of like I fell half asleep." She explained.

"It was more than that." Naruto cut in. "You didn't simply fall asleep or lose consciousness…If that was the case, then I wouldn't have needed to wake you up the way I did."

It took Kairi a moment, but she soon gasped. "You mean that you woke me up by touching me? And those lights came back?" Naruto nodded. Immediately, Kairi became upset. "But why? Doesn't that hurt you?!"

Naruto raised his hands in a placating manner and smile reassuringly. "Don't sweat it, I'm fine. I'm not going to lie, it _did_ hurt, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the first time it happened. Plus, I knew what was happening this time. I chose to help you." He grinned. "So forget about it. I'd rather we focus on finding out what caused it to happen in the first place."

Although clearly unhappy with this, Kairi agreed. "Okay…So does anyone have a clue what happened to me?"

Phil waved her off. "Sorry, I ain't a doc, so I don't know. I don't think there is anything I can do to help here, so I'll leave this to you." The goat(?) then trotted away.

At first, no one said anything, but the silence was broken by one of the least expected people. "You used light…" Naruto's eyes locked with Cloud's. "She wouldn't wake up, but you used light to do wake her. Maybe that has something to do with it."

Frowning, Naruto slowly nodded. "Maybe…On second thought, that would make a lot of sense. Not to mention the way that we found Kairi in the first place was really unusual…" His frowned deepened. "But what do you know about light?"

Cloud moved his gaze to the side, seemingly looking at something that wasn't there. "…I know enough about light…And darkness…" Without saying another word, he walked away.

" _You both prefer the light, but have inescapable ties to the dark."_

' _Going by what Sephiroth said, I guess it would make sense that Cloud knows_ something _…'_ Naruto thought to himself.

Gray quirked an eyebrow at the retreating blond. "I haven't asked, but who's that guy?"

Erza sighed. "His name is Cloud. He's someone who has been fighting in the tournaments for a while now." She shook her head. "But focus on the current problem. How does knowing that using light to wake her up help us?"

"I don't know, but at least it gives me something to work with." Naruto said.

Kairi tilted her head in confusion. "It does?"

"Yep. If light is what woke you up, then I'm willing to bet that this has something to do with your heart." Naruto smirked. "And _that_ is something I can check."

"You can?" Kairi's surprise was obvious through her tone. "How?"

"By doing this." Naruto raised a fist towards her. "All you have to do is press your fist against mine, and I will be able to feel out your heart, along with any abnormalities, but this only works if you don't fight it." Well, he was _pretty_ sure that was how Killer B got into his station of awakening the way that he did the first time. It didn't happen again, so that was the probable conclusion…Or it could have had something to do with Killer B being a jinchuriki. Naruto didn't think he would need to go as far as enter her Station of Awakening, but it would still be easier if she was calm.

Slightly nervous, Kairi nodded. She raised a fist and pressed it against his. "Like this?"

"Exactly. Now, just relax and let me do the rest." Naruto said before closing his eyes. The others remained quiet in order to not disturb him. After a minute with nothing, Natsu began to fidget. Losing his patience, he opened his mouth, but a swift glare from Erza made him pale and snap his mouth shut again. After another minute ticked by, a frown made its way onto Naruto's face. "…What…?" He whispered.

"What's wrong?" Erza asked. "Is there a problem?"

Unsure what to say, Naruto shrugged. "I…I actually don't know. Let me try something else. Kairi, I need you to do as I say, alright?"

Growing more anxious, Kairi agreed. "Okay…"

"Please close your eyes." Kairi did as instructed. "Take a deep breath and try to concentrate on nothing but me." She attempted to filter out the rest of the world. "I'm going to send a small pulse of light into you through the point that we are touching. I want you to focus on that light and the feeling it gives you. I am going to use that as a chance to better read your heart. Are you ready?"

Kairi took another deep breath. "Ready." Hearing this, Naruto channeled some light down his arm and into his fist. Controlling it precisely, he pushed it to Kairi.

Suddenly feeling a sensation of warmth enter her, Kairi gasped, but she didn't pull her fist away. Although she didn't know what she was expecting, she didn't think the light would be so…comforting. It was to the point that it almost felt like she was being reunited with something that she only distantly remembered.

While Kairi was experiencing this, Naruto was waiting for her heart to echo in response to his light. Injecting another person with an aura -whether it be one of light, darkness, or some mixture- always resulted in the recipient's heart reacting in some way.

But no reaction ever came.

A feeling of worry crawled up Naruto's spine as he continued to wait. _'Why isn't anything happening? Her heart should have responded by now. And why can't I feel it?'_ There was nothing about the situation that made sense to him. Deciding to take it a step further, Naruto tried to enter her Station of Awakening.

Only to find that he was unable to do so, just as he couldn't enter his own.

Determining his next course of action, Naruto sent a second pulse of light to Kairi, and never stopped tracking it. He felt it leave his body and enter hers, it then traveled up her arm and into her chest. Naruto sensed it move to the spot that her heart was.

Or at least, where her heart was _supposed_ to be.

Naruto's confusion and alarm skyrocketed when he felt the light he sent into her simply pool in the spot that her heart should have been. It wasn't that it was coating her heart or even transforming into her light, it was simply _there_. Now that he found the spot, Naruto realized that his light was getting amplified by something, but he didn't know what.

Taking a closer look, Naruto noted that there was more light there than only two pulses he sent. In fact, the two pulses joined together with what felt like a _constant current_ of light that was flowing through Kairi. Naruto had initially missed it because he was searching for a new aura, but this one felt identical to _his own_.

' _I_ know _I only sent those two pulses to her, and this is still being fed.'_ Frowning, Naruto examined his own aura, and he was shocked to find that there was a small stream of light leaving his heart. It was nothing significant, but it was still happening. _'But why? Why is Kairi's body taking my light? It's as if it's fueling it…'_ Coming to a conclusion that he _really_ hoped was wrong, Naruto slowly pulled back his fist.

Feeling the loss of contact, Kairi opened her eyes again. "Well? Did you find out what it was?"

"I…I think so." Naruto's quiet words worried them all. "Give me one more second." Closing his eyes, Naruto verified that a small portion of his light was still getting siphoned off, despite him not even touching her anymore. Swallowing, Naruto opened his eyes again. "Kairi…Do you really not remember anything from the point that you ran away from the heartless? I'm talking about the night that your world was consumed by darkness."

Paling, Kairi shook her head. "No, nothing…It's all hazy."

"Figures…" Naruto sighed. "And are you _positive_ that this is the first time that this has happened since you met us? It doesn't have to be that you fainted, but were there any instances where you suddenly felt lightheaded?"

"Um…" Kairi's face scrunched up in though. "No…Oh!" Her face lit up in realization. "I did feel lightheaded once before, back on the mountain summit where I met you guys. It happened during your fight with the dragon…It was actually because of that that I drew attention to myself."

Thinking back to the fight, Naruto recalled the moment prior to the dragon attacking her. Glancing over to the lobby, he absently nodded. "It looks to be about the same distance…" He muttered.

Getting tired of being left in the dark, Erza cleared her throat. "You said you discovered the issue? What was it?"

Naruto scratched the back of his head. "I'm not sure how to say it, honestly…And it's mostly a theory…" Choosing to get it over with, Naruto continued. "Kairi…I think that you didn't escape your world completely unharmed." Kairi stilled. "Like I said, I was feeling out your heart by sending small pulses of light into you." A nod. "The way that this was supposed to work was your heart was going to send out some sort of response. Whether it be a follow-up pulse of an influx of your aura, I should have felt it."

Gray immediately caught onto the hints. "You're saying 'was supposed to work' and 'should have'…I'm guessing that's not how it turned out?"

"Exactly." Naruto confirmed. "At first, I thought I had missed it, so I decided to test it another way, but that also proved ineffective…Although I don't know if that was your fault or mine." His concern over his inability to contact Hikari and Yami was now well beyond small, and not being able to enter the Station of Awakening only made it worse. "When _that_ didn't work, I moved to the final method, one that I knew would lead me to your heart." He grimaced. "But it didn't…I couldn't find your heart at all."

Dead silence.

"What?! Kairi doesn't have a heart?!"

"That means she's a heartless! Or Lucy!"

Growling, Erza whirled around to face Natsu and Happy. "Be quiet! That is obviously not the case!" The two of them instantly stopped running around and shouting.

"What? I-I don't have a heart?" Kairi's entire body was shaking as she said this.

"Hey, relax. Don't you think I would be more worried if this meant disaster?" Naruto's reassurance calmed her down somewhat. "While it's true that you somehow lost your heart, you're also here talking to us, so it isn't the worst case scenario."

Blinking, Kairi stared down at herself in confusion. "Y-You're right…How am I here?"

Natsu cupped his chin in thought and leaned closer to Kairi. Uncomfortable with the proximity, Kairi leaned back. Humming in consideration, Natsu examined her from multiple angles. Quickly growing irritated with the fire dragon slayer, Naruto reached out a hand and pulled him back. "What are you doing?"

"I was just checking for any black skin, claws, or emblems." Natsu explained easily before grinning widely at her. "I didn't see any, so you're not a heartless!"

Releasing Natsu, Naruto rolled his eyes. "Yes, we already established that, but thanks." Despite saying this, a small smile was on his lips. "Besides that, a heartless is the manifestation of the darkness in people's hearts, not beings that literally don't have a heart. They were only named that way because they act 'heartless'."

Happy flew in circles around Kairi. "Well, if things made from only hearts are called heartless, then what about the ones who are the opposite? If you only have a body, but no heart, what are you called?" He came to a halt as his eyes lit up. "I got it! If just a heart makes a heartless, then just a body makes a nobody! Nobodies are the ones with a body, but no heart!"

Scowling, Naruto swiped a hand at Happy. "That's not how it works. You can't name something like that on the spot. We don't even know if there is such a thing as beings with a body, but no heart."

Could this stupid cat get any more ridiculous?

Hearing a giggle, Naruto froze in place. He slowly turned his head to the source and smiled when he saw that Kairi was the one laughing, fright and uncertainty completely gone.

Relenting, Naruto sighed. _'Good, she isn't freaking out.'_ Taking a short moment to glare at Happy, he spoke up. "But back to the point, I couldn't detect your heart."

Kairi nodded. "Okay…But then how am I…Well, me?"

"As far as I can tell, you have some kind of special connection to light." Naruto answered. "When we first found you, all of the heartless in that world were focusing completely on getting to your location, but you were protected by some barrier made of light." Kairi's eyebrow's furrowed. "Then there was this _second_ barrier made of light that protected you. It was only after we got you out of that second one that we were able to reach you. It was then that my heart suddenly reacted to your presence, coating us in light." He paused with a frown. "…Which actually doesn't make much sense because I don't know what it was reacting to…Or where the light over _your_ chest came from…"

"Um…But that doesn't tell me why I'm awake…"

"Right…When I searched for your heart a minute ago, I found out that while you don't have your heart, your connection to light is what is keeping you awake. Because _you_ don't have your own heart to generate the light, your body is siphoning off a small portion of _my_ light, which it somehow…amplifies. I think it's acting like a pseudo-heart for you. As long as you stay near me, you will stay awake." Naruto explained. Off to the side, Natsu and Happy were clearly lost, but Gray and Erza had thoughtful expressions on their faces.

"Wait, can that really work?" Gray asked. "Is it possible for you to give a person some of your light, in order to act as a replacement for a heart?"

"Normally I would say it couldn't happen, but that's why I said that Kairi has a special connection to light." Naruto said quietly. "A heart is made up of both light _and_ darkness, and yet Kairi is able to operate purely on light, despite not truly having a heart…That isn't normal." Although he was speaking out loud, Naruto was mostly speaking to himself. In his mind, he was piecing all of the known facts together.

' _Special connection to the light. Able to operate on just light. Her body amplifies the power of light, both in my_ _ **Dark Link**_ _and in her body. Heartless were focusing on her. My heart resonated with her presence.'_ Realization soon dawned on him. "You're one of them…" He whispered, gaining the attention of the others. "You're one of the seven Princesses of Heart."

Kairi tilted her head in confusion. "The who?"

Tiredly rubbing his eyes, Naruto answered. "I'm _really_ not sure how to explain this…" Naruto said. "I'll try to keep this short…You already know about the 'true light' and how people fought over it." Kairi nodded. "And as you now know, that story was true."

"Yeah…" Any doubts of such had left her by then.

"Well, the true light has another name…Kingdom Hearts." Kairi rolled the name around in her head. "Like the story says, Kingdom Hearts disappeared into the darkness."

"And a door to the innermost darkness will open one day, showing the way to Kingdom Hearts." Kairi finished. "So I have something to do with the story?"

Naruto frowned. "The door that leads to the innermost darkness, and therefore to Kingdom Hearts, is known as the Door to Darkness. In the beginning, there was only one thing that could summon Kingdom Hearts, and that was the χ-blade, a keyblade that was a perfect fusion of light and darkness. The ancient war was started over people fighting over both the χ-blade and Kingdom Hearts, and when Kingdom Hearts disappeared, the χ-blade shattered into twenty pieces. Seven of those pieces were light, which in turn went on to create seven hearts of pure light. Those seven hearts were the original seven Princesses of Heart. Because of their connection to Kingdom Hearts, they have the ability to open the Door to Darkness." Kairi was wide eyed at this new information.

"So you're saying that I'm one of these princesses? How do you know? How is that possible?!"

"I can't say that I'm completely certain, but I'm pretty sure." Naruto said quietly. "The fact that you only need light to function and the way we found you are big indicators. But the biggest clue is how my heart resonates with your presence."

Kairi swallowed nervously. "What do you mean?"

"Kairi…I was chosen by Kingdom Hearts to be the one to ensure balance between light and dark. Because of my connection to Kingdom Hearts, I have the potential to wield the χ-blade." Naruto shrugged. "I can't summon it at will yet, but I've managed to do it for a second when I was in trouble."

After taking a minute to digest all of this information, Kairi hesitantly nodded. "I-I think I understand." Her eyes met Naruto's. "So what does this mean?"

Naruto opened his mouth, but frowned when he realized that he didn't have an immediate answer. After some brief thought, he sighed quietly. "I hate to quote the moron, but…" His lips quirked into a small smile. "Don't worry about it." None of them were expecting such a response."

Unsure he had heard correctly, Gray cleared his throat. "Uh, Naruto? _Shouldn't_ we be worried about this?"

"I don't mean that we should forget about this completely, but we are missing the most important piece of information." Naruto's smirk morphed into a full grin. "Kairi is fine, so we can start looking for a solution. She is obviously healthy enough that she didn't even realize anything was wrong, so as long as she stays close, she will be okay. I'll start putting more effort into figuring out what is going on. So until then, I don't think it would be a good idea to panic." Kairi stared at him for several long moments, but she eventually broke out into giggles. "What? What's so funny?"

Kairi shook her head apologetically. "I'm sorry…It's just that your so much like him." Naruto quirked an eyebrow. "You're so much like Sora! Natsu too!"

The other eyebrow joined the first. "I am?"

"Yep. Sure, you both are still really different, but you're also really similar. I can easily see Sora saying something like that!" Getting control of herself, Kairi continued. "So I just need to stick around so it doesn't happen again?" She smiled. "Easy enough." Her smile vanished as she jabbed a finger into a surprised Naruto's chest. "But you had _better_ promise me that you will do your best to find a way to fix this."

"Uh, yeah…Of course."

"Good!" Kairi chirped. "Then we don't have a problem…Well, we do, but it isn't an immediate one."

"That's what I've been saying." Natsu said as if it was obvious. "You guys should really listen to me more."

Erza smiled at him. "I apologize, Natsu. It seems that it was wrong of me to doubt you." Natsu gave her a wary look, cautious of her doing something excessive again."

"Nah…It's fine…" Wanting to quickly get away from this topic before Erza took her apology too far, Natsu went to the first thing that came to his mind. "So who was that guy?! You said his name was Cloud?" His face lit up in excitement. "And that he fights in the tournaments? Is he strong?"

Both caught off guard and exasperated at the sudden change in topic, Erza smiled. "Yes, that is his name. And as I said, he does fight in tournaments. As for his strength…" Her smile grew. "I would say that he is very strong."

Natsu was visibly vibrating with excitement. Out of nowhere, he turned his face towards the sky and release a powerful blast of fire. "Yes! I'm all fired up!"

Gray had a smirk of his own on his face. "Now I _know_ this is going to be good."

Shrugging, Naruto spoke up. "Oh, by the way, I decided to join you in the tournament." All eyes moved to him.

"You did?" Gray asked. "How come? I thought you didn't want to fight."

"Well…It turns out that Cloud wants to fight against someone who I've lost to in the past." Naruto explained. "The both of us want to fight each other." He grinned. "So? You mind if I join in?"

"Ha! I knew you wouldn't want to pass this up!" Natsu cheered. "This is gonna be awesome!"

"But wait." Gray cut in. "Didn't you say that you need to stay close to Kairi? Or else she would pass out again?"

Naruto shook his head. "This distance is fine. She only passed out once I nearly reached the lobby, but the arena is much closer to this spot in the stands than that."

"Oh, I understand."

"So Kairi is fine! Enough about that! We need to go talk to Phil!" Natsu clamped a hand around Naruto's wrist. "Come on!" He spun around and was prepared to drag Naruto over to the goat(?), but was interrupted by a voice.

"Talk to me about what?" None of them had noticed Phil approaching them again while they had been talking. In his hands were some papers.

Grinning, Natsu shoved Naruto forward. "Naruto says he wants to fight!"

Phil blinked. "You do?" He asked. "I thought that you said you ain't interested."

Taking a short moment to glare at Natsu for the shove, Naruto replied. "Something came up, so I decided to fight as well." Naruto frowned. "Is too late to participate."

"Nah, you're fine. I just gotta-" Phil froze in the middle of his sentence and slowly turned his head around in the direction of the arena. Following his gaze, the others were greeted with the sight of smoldering and charred pieces of wood strewn about the vicinity. Phil's hand came up to his face. "…You know what? Never mind. You're in, kid." Natsu had the decency to at least look a little sheepish. Phil thrust the papers and a pen into Naruto's hands. "Fill those out and bring them to me in the lobby." Without saying another word, he left.

Smiling slightly, Naruto sat down on a seat. "That works out for me because I didn't feel like smashing barrels anyways." Kairi leaned over to peek at the papers.

"So all you need to do is fill these out to get in the tournament? What kind of information is it asking for?"

Naruto quickly skimmed over it. "Nothing much. It's a contract saying that we are aware that we are entering a tournament, and getting injured is a possibility." He blinked when he reached the bottom of the page. "A team name?"

"We need a team name?" Gray asked in confusion. "Why?" This question was directed towards Erza.

"You will be fighting as a team, so you need something to go by. It is easier if people don't have to call you each by name every time they wish to refer to you as a group." She said simply. "Do you have anything in mind?"

Natsu's grin returned. "Fire Dragon Warriors!" Naruto groaned quietly when Gray immediately scowled.

"No way in hell. Why would we use such a stupid name?" He crossed his arms. "We should go by something cool…Something like the Frozen Knights."

"Huh? How is that cool? It sounds totally lame!" Natsu shouted.

"It's better than that crap you suggested!"

"Like hell it is!"

"I say that you should be the Cat brigade!"

' _Happy, you aren't even participating…'_ Naruto was pulled from his thoughts by a hand suddenly taking the pen and form out of his hands. Turning to the owner, Naruto saw that Kairi was now writing something down. "You think of something?" His question attracted the attention of the others.

Smiling happily, Kairi nodded. "Yep. I thought of a name for you guys, and it's perfect." She handed the paper back to him. "Check it out!" Natsu, Gray, and Erza all crowded around Naruto to see what she wrote down.

Erza had an approving look on her face. "That will do nicely. It makes a lot of sense, given your abilities."

Gray smirked. "Not half bad, Kairi. In fact, it's pretty good."

"Nice! It's awesome!" Natsu pumped a fist. "That's our name from now on!"

"Aye!"

Naruto grinned at Kairi. "Thanks for the name. We'll go with this one." Kairi blushed a bit from all of the praise. "Then let's go give this to Phil."

* * *

 **In the Arena (Later)**

" _Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! I welcome you to the grand reopening of the Olympus Coliseum!"_ The crowd burst into loud cheering at Phil's words. _"As you all know, my name is Phil, and I am your announcer for the games!"_ He waited a moment for the cheering to die down. _"We have an exciting lineup for you today, so you know that this is gonna end in one hell of a fight!"_

Phil gestured towards the side. _"I know you people just want to see me get out of the way so the games can start, so without further ado, allow me to introduce to you our first team!"_ The crowd cheered again as Naruto, Natsu, and Gray entered the arena. _"First up is our newcomer team! This team of three consist of the flaming powerhouse, Natsu! The guy that's colder than ice, Gray! And the kid that puts up with their antics, Naruto!"_

' _Why is my intro like that?'_

" _Together, they make up our newest team, Twilight's Frigid Blaze!"_

* * *

 **In the Stands**

Erza smiled upon hearing Phil announce the team name and the responding enthusiasm from the crowd. "I knew it was a good name, and it appears that the crowd agrees." Kairi flushed and she attempted to distract herself by petting Happy, who was in her lap again. The blue cat eagerly melted into her touch.

"It was nothing much. I just thought about their different fighting styles and put them all together in a name that worked."

"Well regardless, good job." Erza looked back to the arena. "I look forward to seeing how the three of them work together. Although they often bicker, I know that Natsu and Gray do work fairly well together."

A small frown made its way onto Kairi's face. "You're not fighting, Erza?" She had been wondering about it for a while, but she had yet to ask.

Shaking her head, Erza spoke up. "Not this time, no. Until yesterday, I have been working nonstop on the reconstruction of the arena and the damaged portions of the stands, so I want to pass up on this tournament. I'll join the next one…But I _am_ slightly disappointed to miss out on the chance to fight the three of them." Kairi nodded in understanding. Unnoticed to them, Happy shuddered.

' _I don't think that they wanted to fight you…'_

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

Natsu grinned and put his arms behind his head. "Man~ Kairi really did think of a great name!"

Gray nodded in agreement. "It is a good one…Way better than the crap you were trying to get us to use." Naruto sighed as Natsu instantly whirled around on Gray.

"Bastard! My suggestion was way better than yours! Yours sounded like some cheap ice cream parlor!"

"What?! At least mine didn't make it sound like the three of us were some stupid kid's superhero team from a crappy TV show!"

" _Uh-oh, it looks like our newest team has some issues! Is this a sign of a fallout before they even began?"_ Despite the sparks flying between Natsu and Gray, the crowd was laughing at their interaction.

"Enough!" Naruto shouted, fed up with their arguing. "Take it out on the opponents-ttebayo!"

" _And there goes the straight man of the comedy trio! And what a cute catchphrase!"_ The laughter in the audience reached new heights.

' _I am so going to kick that goat's ass for that…'_ Naruto shook of his anger as Phil continued.

" _Now that we have the first group entered, it's time to introduce their opponents! As you know, we often do not get enough people who come out to participate, so we fill in the empty spots with whatever we can find!"_ That set some alarms off in Naruto. _"Now here they are! Team Ghost Bandits!"_

Naruto's eyes widened when a total of six pools of darkness formed on the ground in front of them. Understanding what was happening, Naruto scowled. Behind him, Gray did the same while Natsu simply grew excited again. Two Search Ghosts, three Air Soldiers, and a Bandit sprouted from the darkness. The Bandit drew its sword while the others rose into the air.

"The opponents in this tournament are heartless?" Gray asked. "Is that safe?" Naruto glanced around the audience and noticed that no one seemed to be concerned in any way.

"You heard what Phil said. This is apparently a normal thing here." Naruto responded. "Not only that, but it should be safe enough. Erza-san is here, along with Hercules and Cloud. They have it under control."

"So we don't have to worry about hurting anyone too badly!" Natsu said. "Let's get this started! The sooner we get through the weak ones, the sooner we can fight the strong people!"

Shrugging, Naruto allowed a small smirk to show on his face. "I guess this will be a nice enough warm up." Raising a hand, he summoned his keyblade. Gray took this as the cue to slip into his own battle stance, Natsu doing the same.

" _It looks like all of our combatants are ready!"_ Phil announced. _"If that's the case, then I don't see a reason to keep you waiting any longer! I now announce the that the first match of today's games…is a go! Fight!"_

Not needing to be told twice, Natsu created some flames and jumped at the closest heartless, which happened to be one of the Search Ghosts. " **Fire Dragon's Claw**!" The heartless didn't have a chance as the powerful kick immediately killed it.

Following the dragon slayer's opening, Naruto and Gray dashed forward. Gray placed a fist in his hand and made a large hammer. Using this weapon, he swiped at the Air Soldiers.

As this was happening, the Bandit launched itself forward and slashed at Naruto. Reacting to the threat, Naruto brought his keyblade up and parried the blow. The crimson blond didn't let up as the heartless stumbled back, instead choosing to swiftly follow up with a stab. The keyblade stabbed into the heartless, dispersing it into darkness. Spinning around, Naruto ducked under the swipe from behind sent by the remaining Search Ghost.

Remaining calm, Naruto thrust his keyblade at the heartless, only for it to meet nothing but air when the heartless faded from view in order to avoid the blow. Frowning, Naruto scanned the arena for his target, and he soon found it floating above him. Acting quickly, Naruto thrust his hand at it. " **Thunder**!" The bolt of lightning met its target and killed the heartless.

Despite this, Naruto didn't let his guard down. Glancing around, he searched for any remaining heartless, but all he saw was Natsu burning the last one from existence. In response to this, the cheers from the crowd skyrocketed again.

" _Well would you look at that! In a show of some fantastic coordination, Twilight's Frigid Blaze defeated their opponents in record time! Each of them instantly knew who their teammates were going to target, and used that to not mess each other up by squabbling!"_

"More like we just attacked whoever was closest." Naruto muttered to himself. After dismissing his keyblade, he walked over to Gray and Natsu. "You two alright?"

Gray smirked. "Of course. That was nothing." His smirk faltered. "But I seriously hope that they get tougher than that. That match was almost too easy."

"It'll get tougher, I'm sure." Naruto replied. "And you, Natsu?"

"I'm good. Did you see how I kicked ass back there?!"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Yes, it was a sight to see." He gestured toward the stands. "Come on, we can sit with the others while we wait for our next match." The lobby wasn't exactly an option if he couldn't get that far from Kairi. Nodding, the two Fairy Tail members followed him.

The crowd continued to cheer for them as the three exited the arena, although they did get some curious looks when they walked over to the stands, instead of the resting room attached to the lobby.

Kairi smiled and waved them over as they approached. "Hey guys! Great job out there!"

"Aye!"

From her seat, Erza smiled as well. "That was an impressive display." Natsu puffed out his chest in pride. After taking a seat, Naruto turned to Erza.

"I never bothered to ask about it, but do you know how many rounds there are in this tournament?"

Erza smiled at the question. "This tournament is a standard sized one for this coliseum, meaning there are nine rounds. Each round becomes progressively more difficult that the last. In addition to this, to make things even more exciting, you never know who your next opponent is until it is time for the match."

"Good! 'Cause I don't want them all to be that weak! And the surprise makes it better!" Natsu declared.

Naruto sighed. "Keep your enthusiasm down a bit…"

" _And now it's time to welcome a crowd favorite…Cloud!"_ Naruto's attention snapped to the arena as Cloud stepped in. Not wanting to miss anything, he leaned forward.

The rest of the group noticed Naruto's actions and followed his line of sight to the target. Erza nodded when she saw what had made Naruto act like that. "Pay attention. This is a good chance to see what you will be up against in this tournament." Cloud had his apathetic expression in place, even as a large amount of heartless appeared in the arena, only choosing to slowly take his sword off of his back.

" _If everyone is ready…Fight!"_

At once, all of the heartless rushed at Cloud. Seeing this, Kairi let out a startled gasp. "He's going to get hurt!" Naruto narrowed his eyes at her words.

"…I doubt it." He said quietly. "He's in complete control." This statement proved to be correct the next moment when the spectators were blinded by a bright flash of light. Naruto raised his arm to shield his eyes, and he was one of the first to look back to the arena when the light died down. What he saw made him grin. "Told you."

Cloud was standing in the arena, all of the heartless already killed off. The blond was crouched in a battle stance, but he soon stood up from it and replaced his sword.

"That was…" Kairi whispered. "He's so fast!"

Gray whistled in appreciation. "I've only ever seen Naruto, Jet, and Erza move that fast." Next to him, Natsu was vibrating in excitement.

' _No doubt about it…That was_ _ **Sonic Blade**_ _.'_ Naruto concluded. He wasn't surprised to learn that there were other people who could use similar -if not the same- techniques as him, but it was still not what he was expecting to see here.

Erza's smile returned at this. "What's truly impressive is that he does this on his own. I need my armor to reach such speeds, but he does not." Her eyes shifted to Naruto. "But you're able to move that fast as well? That is amazing, giving your age."

Naruto grinned at her. "Thanks. I've been training since I was six, so I'm pretty proud of how far I've come."

"That is a good attitude to have, but don't let it go to your head." Erza advised.

"Trust me, it won't." Naruto was aware of how he wasn't the strongest person around, so he wasn't stupid enough to get arrogant over his strength.

Instead of immediately replying, Erza chose to observe Naruto for a few moments. Eventually, she nodded. "Good. I can tell that you aren't simply saying that. The ability to acknowledge one's own limits is something that I know a lot people struggle to gain. For example…" Her face darkened and her head whirled around to Natsu, who had been shouting in excitement for the past few minutes. "Natsu!" The pink haired teen froze and broke out into a nervous sweat. "Stop shouting like that! You're disturbing the other spectators!"

"Aye!"

Gray smirked at Natsu. "Ha! Serves you right for being so annoying, idi-"

"Gray!" Said ice mage stilled. "You're just as much to blame for not stopping him!"

"Aye!"

Kairi stifled a giggle into her hand as Naruto facepalmed.

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 42!**

 **I know Phil is a Satyr, I just get more amusement by saying "goat(?)".**

 **Yes, that nobody mention was absolutely the setup of a joke that comes later.**

 **I'm not entirely sure where a crowd would come from to watch the tournament, but I'm doing it anyways. I** _ **think**_ **I recall mentions of spectators, despite never seeing any. Besides, the stands are there for a reason. Don't think about it too much.**

 **Twilight's Frigid Blaze is something that I came up with after a couple of days of thought. What do you think?**

 **And now I'm off to do the next chapter of Embers…Great.**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	44. Fishcake vs Chocobo

**If you didn't get the memo, I'm starting to stray away from a schedule that is weekly based. Instead, I'm starting to lean towards rotating out my stories. I could go back to the weekly thing soon, but I don't see the point of saying it is weekly if I am going to continuously be late. This means that updates will come every 9-15 days.**

* * *

 **And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 43!**

… **Wow…I** _ **really**_ **did not expect to be so late with** _ **this**_ **chapter…I can give you many excuses, but I doubt that any of them will make up for it…My bad.**

* * *

 **Kairitrion Cerulean: Hahaha…Yeah…Poor readers…Anyways, I'm not going to comment on the Kairi theory, 'cause spoilers. :P They registered as a team because I wanted to have a team name I could use in place of saying all of their names or identifying them as "the off-worlders"…Although I might still do that.**

 **Dark Natsu Dragneel: Perhaps…**

 **redlox2: I don't see the harm in answering, so I will tell you that Sora does not pass out as well. It was a onetime thing.**

 **kavell Anderson: Not this time, nope. As for when will they find out…At some point.**

 **Raidentensho: I already know when I want Naruto to meet Yen Sid, so yeah. As for your second question, read the chapter!**

 **prototype gear: Holy crap, are we really going to argue over this? Does it** _ **matter**_ **if there is a visible/living crowd or not? And it could have been that they just didn't add it. Also, Herc expressed concern after the Hydra destroyed the stadium and said "I left everyone unprotected." (I looked up the script). Why would ghosts need to be protected?**

 **V0idSw0rd: The Kyūbi keyblade that Kuro used is actually one I got from deviantart. I'm absolutely not against doing that, but I would rather get confirmation from the artists before I use them. I've messaged a couple people to ask, but only that one has responded.**

 **IceHound: Naruto's nobody? I guess people would like for him to have one, huh?**

 **Kalbario: I don't like confirming/denying things that could be considered spoilers, so I will just say that the world of RWBY has been considered since the early stages of the story.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else. I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Deity Talking: " **Insert witty remark here**."

Biju/Deity Thinking: _'_ _ **Insert witty remark here**_ _.'_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **In the Arena (A Little Later)**

" _And now it's time for our semifinal match!"_

"Finally." Naruto muttered. "I was getting tired of fighting nothing but heartless." If this was the semifinal match, that meant that if their opponent wasn't Cloud this time, then he would be their next match.

Natsu sighed sadly. "Aww, is it over already? I was having a lot of fun." Natsu had been having a blast participating in the sanctioned violence. The fact no one got hurt, no matter how into it he got, made it even better.

"This has been a good chance to let loose…" Gray reluctantly agreed. "We should come back sometime to participate in another tournament."

Naruto shrugged. "Maybe, if we ever have the chance." He agreed. Glancing over, he glared. "Put a damn shirt on! We're in the middle of a crowded area!" Or maybe he should have considered himself lucky that Gray's pants were still there?

"Holy crap! When did that happen?!" Like they usually did, the audience laughed at their conversation.

" _Here they are! The first team in the next match! Twilight's Frigid Blaze!"_ Natsu grinned widely and raised his fists into the air in response to the cheering, as opposed to the more controlled actions of Gray smirking or Naruto waving a hand somewhat halfheartedly. _"And their opponents, Shadow Battalion!"_ Nine pools of darkness sprouted out of the ground, and from it emerged the next batch of heartless.

When he saw what they were up against, Naruto grew slightly apprehensive. "Well, this entire thing has escalated…" Floating in two rings were smaller heartless, each of them nearly identical to one another, meaning they all had conical bodies and hats. The only difference was that one ring was made up of heartless with blue bodies, while the rest had yellow bodies. But that wasn't what made Naruto slightly concerned.

The two rings of smaller heartless were floating around a heartless that looked the same as the one that he, Sasuke, and Misa fought at the academy, back during the invasion in Konoha. However, while its shape was the same, this heartless was red, not purple. Also setting this heartless apart was how it lacked any arms and legs.

Focusing back on the matter at hand, Naruto summoned his keyblade and slid into a battle stance. _'_ _Those smaller heartless are all ice and thunder based. It shouldn't be too hard getting rid of them…'_

" _Are you ready? Fight!"_

"Natsu, focus on the blue ones! They're weak against fire!"

"On it!" Rushing forward, Natsu began to create flames around his arms before he raised them above his head. " **Fire Dragon's…** " He slashed his arms down. " **Wing Attack**!" Twin waves of fire streaked at a pair of Blue Rhapsodies. While one was killed on the spot, the other was fast enough to react and get out of the way.

While Natsu engaged his specified targets, Naruto and Gray broke off and took on the remaining heartless. "Gray! I go high, you go low! On my mark!"

"Got it!" As they approached, the Yellow Operas darted around the arena. Seeing that they were getting closer, two of them started to charge up blasts of electricity. Naruto watched them carefully out of the corner of his eyes.

Then, right when they were about to fire, Naruto spoke up. "Now!" Naruto jumped high into the air above the Red Armor while Gray made a sword of ice. Startled slightly at their separation, the two attacking heartless readjusted their aim towards the one that shouted. Then at the same time, the two heartless fired large orbs of electricity at Naruto. _'Perfect.'_ Smirking, Naruto deflected the orbs towards the large heartless below him.

The attacks hit their mark and exploded upon contact with the heartless, having the additional benefit of momentarily stunning it. Using this chance, Naruto came down with a hard blow to the top of the heartless' head as Gray attacked its body from below.

Expecting that to be enough, Naruto was caught off guard when the heartless survived the two attacks and retaliated by rapidly spinning its body around. "Gah!" Naruto and Gray were both knocked back by the force of the attack, but neither of them were incredibly hurt by it. "Whoa. This one is tougher than the others. I thought that would take it out for sure." Gray commented.

Naruto nodded. "I did too." He should have figured that the different coloring was more than a cosmetic thing. "We'll just have to keep hitting it until it does go down."

"Easy enough." Gray glanced around. "But it looks like these smaller ones don't want us doing that." The two of them had become surrounded in the short exchange.

"Doesn't matter…These ones are a lot easier to get rid of." Naruto quickly counted them. "There are four of the yellow ones left, and Natsu is down to the last blue one…" Forming a plan, he spoke up. "Let's take care of the smaller ones first, they are easy to take out."

Gray smirked. "Sounds good to me." Not needing to share another word, the two of them dashed in different directions, intent on destroying the heartless. Naruto jumped to the side as a bolt of lightning struck the spot he was previously standing in and quickly dispatched the offending heartless.

Without pausing, he spun around and knocked a second one into the air and leapt after it. Coming to a stop next to it, Naruto slashed his keyblade at the heartless and killed it. Seeing that Natsu had finished with his last heartless, he called out to him. "Natsu! I need some fire!"

Natsu's grin would have scared anyone who knew him well enough. "I'm on it!" He brought his hands up to his mouth and took a deep breath. " **Fire Dragon's Roar**!" Not even questioning his actions before executing them, Natsu launched a large fireball at Naruto.

' _It didn't need to be that big…'_ " **Aerora**!" Naruto generated a small whirlwind around his body, and used it to intercept the fireball. Making sure that he wasn't going to get burned, Naruto fell back towards the large heartless. "Take this!" The combination attack proved to be successful when the heartless faded into darkness a moment later.

" _And they've done it! Twilight's Frigid Blaze wins again!"_ The crowd roared in appreciation at the announcement. _"Don't go anywhere! The final match will begin in a few minutes!"_

Naruto relaxed and dismissed his keyblade before turning to Natsu and Gray. "That one was definitely harder than the others."

Gray nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it was. It still wasn't the hardest thing I can imagine, but that level was higher than the others."

"And now we are going to win the entire tournament!" Natsu cheered.

"You've done well." All of them turned to the side at the sound of the new voice suddenly joining in. Standing there was Cloud. "I've watched your matches…It's obvious that you know what you're doing." While he said this, his eyes were fixed on Naruto. "I look forward to the next match."

Smiling, Naruto shook his head. "Thanks, but you've also had an easy time so far. None of your opponents stood a chance."

"They simply were not very strong…The quality of this tournament is lower than the ones in the past." Cloud said quietly. "But I think the next one will be more interesting."

"You know it!" Natsu interjected. "We're gonna kick your ass!" Gray rolled his eyes as Naruto sighed. "We're the only ones who're gonna win this!" Instead of responding right away, Cloud chose to gaze at him silently, making a glare form on Natsu's face. "Hey, are you lis-"

"I have a request." Cloud interrupted. "I would like it if Naruto and I fought the next match one on one." Naruto didn't seem surprised by the quest, but Gray's eyebrows shot up.

Natsu, however, had the biggest reaction.

"What?! No way!" The pink haired teen stomped on the ground angrily. "Why the hell should I give up on this fight?! I wanna be in on it!"

Gray suddenly thrust a hand out in front of Natsu. "Hold on a second." Gray glanced between Naruto and Cloud, who were staring at one another. "Naruto…Do you want to do this fight on your own?"

"…Yeah, I do." Naruto said softly. Natsu's glare darkened, but Gray didn't give him a chance to speak.

"Fine, this one is all you." Turning towards the spot the others were sitting, Gray started to walk off. "Come on, flame brain. Let's sit this one out."

"What?! But I want to fight t-"

"Natsu." Naruto's near silent voice caught Natsu off guard. "Please. I want to do this one on my own…This is a good chance for me to see where I stand."

Natsu scowled, but he soon deflated. "…Fine…" He said dejectedly. Recovering a second later, he thrust a finger at Naruto. "But you better win! Or else I'm coming for you!"

Naruto smirked at him. "You got it."

* * *

 **In the Stands**

"Yes! Good job, you guys!" Kairi cheered as Naruto attacked from above with a combination of his own and Natsu's moves. "Just one more win and they're the champions!" She said happily.

"Aye!"

Erza smiled at the younger girl, but it soon dimmed. "Don't forget, the next match is going to be the toughest one yet. Cloud is strong and won't be easily defeated."

Kairi stuck her tongue out at her. "Bleh! You can think however you want! I'm going to stick with cheering for them!"

" _Don't go anywhere! The final match will begin in a few minutes!"_

Not able to stop herself, Kairi bounced up and down in her seat. "Ugh, I can't wait that long! I want to see it now!"

The elder redhead gave her an amused look. "You have certainly gotten into this."

"I can't help it! This entire thing has been so exciting!" Kairi grinned. "This is the first time that I've seen fights like this. The only things I've seen before now were small 'spars' back on my world…Well, those and the dragon…" She finished quietly, not fond of the memory.

"Yes, I suppose this is pretty exciting." Erza agreed. "And the people in the crowd has been enjoying themselves as well." As she said, the entire area was buzzing with conversation centering around the upcoming fight. Noticing something in her peripheral vision, Erza shifted her attention and frowned. "That doesn't look good…"

Following her line of sight, Kairi saw that Naruto, Gray, Natsu, and Cloud were all standing in the middle of the arena. All of them had serious expressions on their faces, except for Natsu, who was stomping on the ground angrily and shouting something. Because of the audience, it was impossible to make out the words. "I wonder what's wrong…"

Soon, Gray broke off from the group and began to walk towards them, Natsu not far behind, although clearly dissatisfied. Because of this, Naruto and Cloud were the only two who remained in the arena. As he left the arena, Gray paused for a minute to tell Phil something, but he then continued.

Kairi barely waited for them to come within ten feet before she couldn't hold herself back any longer. "What happened? Why did you leave the arena? Why is Naruto still there? Is something wrong?"

Gray held up his hands in a placating gesture. "Relax, nothing is wrong." He plopped down into the seat next to her. "Just a small change of plans."

Erza's frown deepened. "What does that mean?"

"It means that Naruto is hogging all of the fun!" Natsu declared from his seat. "He won't let us fight!"

Shrugging, Gray nodded. "Natsu is being overdramatic, but he isn't completely wrong."

"Naruto is fighting Cloud on his own?" Kairi asked in shock. "How come? You guys are a team!"

"Hmm…" Erza cupped her chin in thought. "He did say that he and Cloud wanted to fight one another...I suppose that it would only make sense if they wanted to do it in a one on one battle."

"And that theory is backed up by how Cloud was the one to request for this to be a one on one battle." Gray agreed. "I'm a little put out, but I understand."

"But I wanted to fight!"

Erza smiled slightly at Natsu's whining. "Natsu, think of it this way...If Laxus was in this tournament, would you not insist of fighting him alone?" Natsu blinked at her. "You would wouldn't you? If not to prove you can do it, then to test yourself."

A pout formed on his face. Crossing his arms with a huff, Natsu slumped. "...Fine...Naruto can have this fight..."

Kairi giggled at his behavior. "That's very nice if you to allow, Natsu...And you too, Gray." She grinned and turned back to the arena. "Go, Naruto! Kick his butt!"

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

Naruto and Cloud stared at each other impassively, waiting for the Phil to announce the start of the match. Slowly, Naruto's blank face cracked, allowing a small grin to form. "...When I first found out about this tournament, I wasn't eager to participate in any way...But the more I watched you fight, the more I realized that I _actually_ wanted to fight you."

Minuscule traces of surprise flashed through Cloud's eyes, but he soon recovered and smile faintly. "I have also been looking forward to this...You are much more skilled than I thought you would be and I can see that you have worked hard to get where you are." Reaching to his back, he pulled out his sword and slid into a battle stance. "Let me test you."

Smirking, Naruto raised a hand and summoned his keyblade. "Let's have a good match." As he got into his own ready position, Cloud's gaze never left the keyblade.

"I've been wondering this for a while now...but is that a keyblade?" Naruto blinked, not expecting that. "It's different from the last one I saw, but the general shape of a key is still there."

Regaining himself, Naruto nodded. "I didn't think that this many people would know about keyblades, but I guess it's more well known by people on other worlds..." He mused. "Yeah, this is my keyblade, Two Become One."

Cloud stared at it for another moment. "This will be even more interesting than I thought..."

Seeing that the two of them were ready and done talking, Phil took over. _"Ladies and gentlemen, as you probably have already noticed, this fight is missing a couple of people. As it turns out, by the request of the involved teams, this will be a one on one duel!"_ The crowd cheered. _"You know them already, but let me introduce them anyways! On one side, we have the Olympus Coliseum veteran! The glowing eyes swordsman! The swinger of giant swords...Cloud!"_ The crowd roared, but Cloud acted as if he didn't even hear them.

" _And his opponent! The newcomer upstart! The only kid I know with two eye and hair colors! A swinger of giant keys...Naruto!"_ Like Cloud, Naruto didn't react to the cheers. _"These two are the finalists for today's games! Are you ready?"_ Naruto tightened the grip on his keyblade and Cloud crouched a bit lower. _"Three! Two! One!"_ The entire coliseum went silent as they waited for the beginning of the fight.

 **Play Super Smash Bros. 3DS/Wii U - Let the Battles Begin!**

" _._.. _Fight!"_

Immediately, Naruto and Cloud shot forward and clashed in the center of the arena, creating a shower of sparks. The two remained there for a moment, simply staring at one another.

Then at the same time, they _moved_.

Strike after strike, clash after clash, blow after blow, the two of them rained attacks down on one another, but neither was able of getting anything through. Eventually, they broke apart by jumping away to opposite ends of the arena. However, the reprieve was short lived because the instant that their feet touched back down, they rocketed forward again.

Swinging low, Cloud's large sword streaked towards Naruto's legs, but it missed when the crimson blond jumped over the blade. In retaliation, Naruto slashed his keyblade down at Cloud, but he met much of the same result when Cloud stepped to the side. As he avoided the keyblade, Cloud spun his body around in a circle, which gave him the momentum to bring his sword back with even more force.

Seeing this, Naruto brought his keyblade up to intercept it, but he was thrown back by the power behind the attack. Landing on the ground, Naruto's eyes widened in shock when he saw that Cloud was already upon him with a downward slash. Because he wouldn't be able to avoid the attack in time, Naruto instead opted to block it. Unfortunately, he underestimated the strength the attack had, making his knees buckle somewhat.

Naruto gritted his teeth and pushed back with all of his strength, but he found himself losing the battle. His arm slowly shook as Cloud pressed down harder on Naruto, who in turn watched the blades near his neck. Cutting his losses, Naruto threw himself to the side with a roll, barely avoiding the large sword as it swiped at him. Springing back to his feet, Naruto crouched in preparation of any further attacks, but none ever came. The two of them stared at each other for a minute, not saying a word. But then they smirked, and as if it was waiting for such a cue, the crowd broke out from its previously silenced state into a deafening roar.

"You're really good." Naruto complimented. "I'm not surprised that you're stronger than me, but I _am_ a little surprised that you can keep up with me so well."

Cloud nodded. "The same to you. I wasn't expecting you to be able to match all of my blows, but I suppose that it was dumb of me to judge you based on your age…"

Lifting his keyblade up slightly, Naruto's smirk grew. "Shall we continue?"

"Yeah…And this time, let's step it up a bit." His body took on a soft glow. Knowing what this meant, Naruto called upon some light.

" **Sonic Blade**!" The two disappeared in a burst of speed, only to reappear in the center of the arena. The crowd barely had time to register the loud clang of metal on metal before the two combatants vanished again. This time, they reemerged off to the side, but Naruto was ducking under a swing of Cloud's sword. When they next came into view, it was Cloud's turn to be dodging an attack. This pattern continued for the next few blows, but they it soon ended.

Naruto landed in a crouch in the center of the arena and thrust a hand out at Cloud. " **Flame Salvo**!" A volley of fireballs shot out of Naruto's hand and towards Cloud, but the mercenary didn't hesitate to weave through them in a dash at Naruto, expertly dodging each one. Once he judged that he was close enough, Cloud leapt into the air above Naruto and moved his sword aimed his sword down.

Taking a guess at what would happen next, Naruto cursed and cut off his attack before quickly rolling to the side. The next second, Cloud's blade stabbed into the ground where he had been standing and a small explosion was created. Springing back to his feet, Naruto crouched low. " **Shadow Breaker**!" Naruto's keyblade was encased in darkness as he spiraled at Cloud.

Seeing this, Cloud jumped to the side to avoid the strike, but he wasn't expecting the follow-up one that was enshrouded in light. The keyblade made a clean hit on his chest, forcing him back with a pained grunt. Recovering, Cloud gripped his sword with two hands, making to glow softly. Once his attack was charged, he swung it down at Naruto.

The crimson blond's eyes widened in shock when a blue shockwave rocketed at him. Acting hastily, he raised his keyblade into a defensive position. " **Refle** -Argh!" He was too late to block the attack, allowing it to instead hit him and send him flying back. Not letting up, Cloud pursued his target, intent on dealing more damage. Reaching Naruto, he readied his sword again and swung it at Naruto, knocking him higher into the air. "Gah!" Pushing through the pain, Naruto noticed that Cloud was still coming at him, another blow only a moment away. Growling, Naruto twisted his body in the air so that he was upright. " **Spark Dive**!" He streaked back toward the blond, meeting him head on.

Cloud winced as electricity tore at him, but he held strong. Disengaging from Naruto, he back flipped through the air and was the first to land on the ground, giving him the opportunity to be the first to prep his next attack. Naruto watched as a light coated his blade, ready to be unleashed. "Haa!" Cloud slashed his blade towards Naruto, creating an arc of energy that streaked at him. However, that proved to only be the beginning when Cloud added to with more arcs.

' _Aw, crap…'_ Pulling upon some twilight, Naruto pumped it into his keyblade and swung it in the direction of the oncoming attack. A brilliant burst of light shot out of his keyblade, which was then followed by a streak of darkness. Naruto's attacks met Cloud's head on, creating small explosions between them. Eventually, the newest bout ended and gave way to another clash of their weapons.

* * *

 **In the Stands**

"Come on, Naruto! Kick his ass!" Natsu cheered. "Stop messing around and finish this!"

Gray shot him an annoyed glance. "Idiot, I don't think Naruto _is_ messing around."

"How can he not be?! He's getting knocked around out there!" Natsu demanded heatedly. "If Naruto wasn't messing around, then he would be winning!"

Erza sighed. "Natsu, I've already explained that Cloud is not someone you should underestimate. He is extremely strong." She smiled faintly. "In fact, I'm surprised that Cloud is having so much trouble. Normally, he would have finished the match by now." She watched as the two combatants traded blows. "It's a testament to Naruto's strength that he is fighting Cloud so evenly."

"Tch. Whatever…I'll still be mad at you if you lose!" Natsu shouted.

"Aye! Don't get your butt handed to you too badly, Naruto!"

Noticing the silence of one of their members, Gray looked to the side. "Something wrong, Kairi? You've been awfully quiet since the match began…" A rush of concern hit him. "Do you feel like you might pass out again?" He would jump in there to stop the match if he had to. His question automatically caught the attention of the others, making them pay attention to the girl as well.

Seeing their looks, Kairi quickly shook her head with a small smile. "No! I'm fine, honestly…It's just…" Her eyes shifted back to the ongoing fight. "…They're really going at it, aren't they?"

Natsu frowned. "Huh? Of course they are. That's the point of the fight!"

"No, I mean…" Kairi sighed. "It's incredible…They move so fast and they have so many strong attacks…You all do. I know I was excited to see more of what you can do while you fight in this tournament, but now that I'm seeing it…"

"Is it overwhelming?" Gray asked.

"Overwhelming…?" Kairi thought it over. "I…guess…? I'm not sure if that's what I'm trying to say…"

Erza smiled softly in understanding. "As someone who is unable to do any of this, you're finding yourself somewhat inadequate?"

Kairi's titled her head, eventually giving a slow nod. "Yeah…Yeah, that's it. You are all able to do so much, and are able to help people as you go…" She sighed. "But I'm not able to do that…" She watched as Naruto grinned in victory when an attack landed successfully on Cloud's back. "If I'm seriously one of those seven princesses, then I am going to be targeted again, like I was back on the mountain. But I won't be able to do anything but rely on others to defend me…I would never be able to do what you guys do."

"What? That's dumb." Natsu replies, earning multiple surprised looks. Erza glared at the dragon slayer, prepared to _discipline_ him, but he continued. "No one starts out strong. If you want to get stronger, then do it!" He said simply.

Happy nodded. "Aye! Natsu was even weaker than he is now, but he got stronger…I guess."

"You're supposed to be on my side!"

"I'm a good cat who tells the truth!"

Losing her glare, Erza spoke up. "Despite Natsu's crude way of saying it, he is not wrong." She said. "The solution is simple."

"What? It is?" Kairi asked in disbelief.

Gray smirked at her. "Yep. If you seriously want to be able to fight for yourself and not be stuck on the sidelines all the time, then all you have to do is be willing to learn how to fight." He shrugged. "If even the flaming king of morons could figure that out, then it actually _is_ that simple."

"Bastard! You wanna go?!"

"The fight is over there, dipshit! You missed your chance!"

"Then I'll start a new one right here and now by kicking your ass!"

"I'd love to see you try!"

"Enough!" Erza silenced the both of them with dual hits to the back of their heads, knocking them out. "Don't squabble here!" Kairi let out an uneasy giggle at their interaction, but she soon turned back to the fight, just in time to see Cloud prep his next attack.

' _Become strong enough to fight_ with _them?'_ She grinned. _'Sounds good to me!'_

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

Naruto tensed in preparation of another rush, but Cloud beat him to it by raising his sword. " **Stars! Rain down**!"

' _That doesn't sound good...'_ A shadow passing over him and the crowd screaming in a mixture of fright and awe made him snap his head up. What he saw made him swear. _'I freakin' knew it!'_ Naruto dove to the side, narrowly avoiding a meteor that impacted the ground where he was. Not even taking a moment to breath, Naruto rolled to his feet and pumped chakra to his legs. _'Kami damn meteors?! Really?! These are way bigger than the ones I can make!'_ Naruto zipped around the arena as flaming rocks streamed towards him. _'How can he create this many of them?!'_

Cloud's eyes tracked Naruto's every move, concentrating on altering the trajectory of his meteors, each having enough force to create small explosions every time one struck the ground. _'He can't avoid them forever.'_

' _I can't avoid them forever.'_ Naruto thought grimly. _'But I also know that he can't keep them up forever.'_ Naruto dashed to the side to not get struck by the newest rock. _'That means I just have to wait until he falters...'_ That moment soon came when Cloud's blank expression twitched into a frown. _'Now!'_ Turning on his heel, Naruto changed his direction so that he was aiming right at Cloud.

' _Damn.'_ Seeing the oncoming threat, Cloud cut off his attack entirely and swung at Naruto. Unexpectedly, Naruto smirked at him. _'What-'_ Cloud's Buster Sword sliced through nothing but air when Naruto suddenly whirled around his body. _'-the hell?!'_ A reversal?!

' _I've got you now!'_ Naruto jumped at Cloud with his keyblade attacking in a downward slash. Knowing that there wasn't any way for him to dodge the attack in time, Cloud instead began to prepare himself for his counter. Naruto's keyblade made a solid contact to his back and sent the mercenary stumbling forward, but he immediately caught himself.

Spinning around, Cloud swung his sword at Naruto, causing fireballs to shoot from it and at the crimson blond. Startled, Naruto raised his own keyblade. " **Fira**!" The fireballs collided, rocking the arena with harsh explosions and blanketing the area with smoke. Naruto attempted to peer through the smoke in an attempt to find his opponent, but it was proven to be pointless when Cloud abruptly emerged from the smoke with his blade already in motion.

Naruto rolled to the side to avoid the attack and spring back to his feet. Not halting for a second, he slashed at Cloud. " **Ars Arcanum**." One slash was joined by another, and then another, and a third. Naruto attacked relentlessly in an attempt to down him for good.

Eventually, Cloud decided to stop him before Naruto was able to deal to much damage. Acting swiftly, he brought his blade up and parried Naruto's keyblade towards the sky. "Oof!" Caught off guard, Naruto was not prepared for the following boot that was thrust into his unguarded gut. Using the chance, Cloud swung his blade and made a thin cut in Naruto's chest. However, the surprising part was the way that a strong gust of wind appeared and _pulled_ Naruto closer to Cloud.

Not giving Naruto a chance to do anything, Cloud added two powerful slashes to the first, with the last sending Naruto flying. Naruto felt the air rush from his body as he crashed back into the ground. Coughing, he pushed himself back to his feet and glared. _'All of his attacks pack a punch...I can't take much more of them...'_ Slowly, he moved a hand to his chest. " **Cu** -"

"Do you really think I would let you do that?" Naruto's spell was interrupted when Cloud dashed at him and brought his blade down. With no other choice, Naruto jumped to the side, only to find himself on the receiving end of a furious combo. "I figured that you would be able to heal yourself...But I won't let you." Cloud said.

Glaring harder, Naruto vaulted up and over Cloud. " **Cu** -!" In a flash, Cloud was upon Naruto with a kick to the side. _'Damn it!'_ Naruto rolled to his feet and slid into a defensive stance. _'Note to self: Learn how to cast healing spell while under attack.'_ Naruto panted lightly as he and Cloud stared at each other, willing the other to make the first move.

"...You seem to be winded." Cloud's voice was soft, but Naruto was still able to hear it. "Are you finished?"

Naruto smirked at him. "I admit that keeping up with you has been harder than I expected...But I can continue for a little longer." His smirk widened. "I still haven't reached my limit."

Cloud gained a smirk of his own at this. "Your limit?" He repeated. "That's a dumb concept." Naruto blinked, not entirely sure what he meant. "Limits will do nothing but hinder you. They are obstacles that will prevent you from realizing your true potential." He tightened the grip on his blade. "When your enemy has pushed you to the edge, _that_ is when you can truly surpass yourself and break your limits." He crouched lower. "That is something that took me a long time to figure out."

' _Break my limits?'_ Naruto thought to himself. That sounded somewhat questionable…But there must be some truth to it if Cloud believed it to be so. His attention was snapped back to Cloud when the blond continued speaking.

"Naruto…Let's end this." Cloud said. "One final clash to decide the winner."

Naruto's eyes widened, but he soon grinned. "That sounds like a good idea…" He brought his keyblade back. "I'm ready when you are." Cloud nodded. The arena was thrown into complete silence, with even the audience waiting with baited breath.

They both blurred forward.

" **Zantetsuken**!" Naruto's speed tripled as his body shot at Cloud. Carefully aiming his strike, Naruto slashed his keyblade down at the exact moment that he reached Cloud.

"It's not that easy…" Cloud kept a blank face as he blocked Naruto's attack, shocking the crimson blond.

' _How could he have kept up with that?'_

Cloud quickly spun his body around and came back at Naruto with a slash to the side. Naruto parried the blow, but Cloud wasn't done yet. Out of nowhere, a large amount of wind swept through the arena.

"Gah!" A tornado formed around Naruto and blasted him into the air. Flipping to get into a better position, Naruto looked back down towards the arena, only to find that Cloud was nowhere in sight.

"I'm breaking my limits!" A shout from above made Naruto rotate his body around. Up in the air right above him was Cloud, who was shining brightly. His orange glow slowly started to transition into a bluer hue.

' _Damn!'_ Clang! Naruto barely got his keyblade up in time to intercept the strike. He felt some relief rush through him, but it vanished upon Cloud falling back and _flying_ to get behind him. _'Wha-?'_ "Argh!" Cloud sliced at Naruto's back. Gritting his teeth, Naruto tried to spin around and hit him, but Cloud flew to another spot to strike again. Like the one before it, this attack managed to contact Naruto.

Four slashes. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. They just kept coming, and each one was from a different direction. Soon, Naruto found himself looking up to a still glowing Cloud, who was staring back down at Naruto with his sword poised to strike. Naruto watched as the glow surrounding the mercenary became brighter. "This is it…"

Pulling himself together, Naruto glared. "No…it's not!" He channeled twilight into his body and keyblade. "And if it is, then it's only it for you!" Cloud dove towards Naruto right when Naruto launched his own attack. " **Limit Storm**!"

The two of them collided in the air, allowing their attacks to push against one another. At the same time, their auras flared to new levels, with Cloud's orange and blue aura meeting Naruto's silver-white and purplish-black aura. Suddenly, their aura's began to fluctuate, but neither of them did anything but struggle against the other.

Boom!

 **End Music**

* * *

 **In the Stands**

Kairi gasped when an explosion suddenly broke out and blocked their view of Naruto and Cloud. "Are they okay?" She asked worriedly.

None of the Fairy Tail members took their eyes off of the arena. "They should be fine." Gray assured. "An explosion like that might singe them a bit, but they can both take it." Erza nodded in agreement.

"He's right, however I believe that this battle has now come to an end..."

"It's over?" Kairi tried to see through the smoke, but had little success. "Then who won?"

Erza smiled as the smoke began to clear. "We're about to find out."

* * *

 **Back in the Arena**

The resulting smoke from the explosion of Naruto and Cloud's attacks finally cleared, showing everyone present the aftermath.

Standing in the arena were Cloud and Naruto, and both of them were still standing.

However, despite still being on their feet, neither of them made a move, instead opting to wait for something that only they seemed to expect. Suddenly, what they were waiting for was made clear when Cloud coughed, expelling a small amount of blood from his mouth. Falling to one knee, Cloud used his sword to hold himself up. "D-Damn...Your last attack did too much damage..."

Naruto grinned. "It was an awesome attack, that's for sure, but..." He sighed and shook his head. "It still wasn't enough..." Naruto could feel his start to shut down. "Your attack still got me..." He fell forward onto the ground. "Ah well...It was fun..." Naruto's world turned black.

Cloud watched him fall in silence. _'He nearly had me...'_ The crowd broke out into loud cheers upon Naruto's collapse.

" _Well there you have it! The winner of today's games is...Cloud!"_ The cheering reached new levels.

* * *

 **In the Stands**

"What the hell?! He lost!" Natsu shouted in anger. "How could he have lost like that! I knew I should've fought!"

Sighing, Erza smacked him over the head. "Natsu, be quiet! Everyone has to lose a battle sometime. It's impossible to win them all." She smiled. "But Naruto did very well. Managing to push Cloud so far says a lot about his strength."

Gray shrugged. "It sucks that he lost, but it was a good match." He glanced to the side, noticing Kairi's fidgeting. "You know...If you want to go over to see if he is alright, then no one will stop you..."

A small finch escaped Kairi as she stammered for words. "Uh, W-well, I..." Sticking out her tongue, she got up. "You know what? Yes, I want to go see if he is okay. So that's what I'm going to do!" Erza's smile grew at this.

"That sounds like a good idea. We should all head over." She stood up. "Are you coming?" She asked.

The ice mage nodded and joined them. "Yeah, I'm right behind you." Although Natsu was still grumbling, he and Happy followed after the three.

* * *

 **Infirmary**

A pair of cerulean and violet eyes cracked open, before instantly shutting again when the owner groaned. "Kami, that hurts..."

"Naruto!"

"You're awake!"

Naruto opened his eyes again and was greeted with a pair of blue eyes accompanied by red hair. Smirking weakly, he spoke up. "Hey, Kairi...How're you doing?"

Rolling her eyes, Kairi responded in an exasperated tone. "Oh, I've been fine. Sitting in an infirmary to wait for your lazy butt to wake up is a lot of fun."

"Really? That's nice, but I'm sorry to say that I'm going to try and avoid situations like this in the future..."

A snort was heard from nearby. "I'd assume so. I know that I hate it when I get knocked out." Naruto turned his head to the source. Gray nodded in greeting. "But that could just be me." Kairi huffed and crossed her arms. She didn't understand how they could joke about something like this.

"Nah, I'm weird like that too." Naruto quipped. He pushed himself into a sitting position and managed to only barely wince as he did. "How long have I been out?"

"About an hour and a half has gone by since the end of the match." Kairi told him. "After you collapsed, Phil announced Cloud as the winner and we brought you here."

Naruto hummed lightly. "That's not too bad…" He glanced down to his body. "Although this isn't the worst I've ever been injured either…" Fighting Sephiroth hurt a _lot_ more.

"All things considered, it wasn't too bad." Gray agreed. "Sure, you lost the match, but no one holds it against yo-" He was cut off by the door getting kicked open.

"Naruto's awake?! Good, now he can tell me how he lost!" Natsu raged. "You were supposed to win, dammit! How could you lose?!" The dragon slayer stalked up to Naruto's bed. Once he reached it, he lashed out a hand and grabbed Naruto's collar in order to pull him closer. "Tell me!"

"That's enough!" An armored fist slamming down on top of Natsu's head floored him. "Naruto is still injured, you fool! And this is no place for shouting!"

' _Aren't you shouting too…?"_

"…A-Aye…" Natsu groaned.

Satisfied, Erza turned to Naruto, making him stiffen slightly out of instinct. Unexpectedly, a small smile formed on her face. "That was a wonderful match. While it is true that you did emerge as the victor, you should be proud of what you managed to accomplish."

Relaxing, Naruto returned the smile. "Thanks." The attention of the room's occupants was caught by another person walking through the door. When he saw who it was, Naruto's expression brightened and he waved. "Hey, Cloud. That was a good match."

Cloud nodded. "It was…I honestly thought you had me for a little bit." His admission elicited a chuckle from Naruto.

"Thanks, but I know it isn't true." He shrugged. "I may have been able to do some damage to you, but you were able to deal more of it at a faster rate." Naruto smirked challengingly. "But don't expect it to go the same way the next time."

"Hmph. Even if you improve, that doesn't mean that I won't as well." Cloud shot back before shaking his head. "I wanted to say that I enjoyed fighting you…" He stared at Naruto for a moment. "I also have a question I want to ask you."

Naruto quirked an eyebrow. "Go for it."

"In that fight…You used both light _and_ darkness…That itself is not strange, but you didn't show any hesitation while doing so…" His brows furrowed. "You act as if you don't fear it. How? How can you be so content with your darkness? How do you not lose yourself to it?" His question was quiet, but Naruto had no difficulty hearing it.

"My darkness…?" Naruto muttered. Closing his eyes, he leaned back against the wall. "To tell you the truth…I know that I can lose myself to it."

A frown appeared on Cloud's face. "You…know?" Then why doesn't he distance himself from it?

"Yeah…And up until a little while ago, I was afraid of my darkness. I was so afraid of it that I subconsciously rejected it, even though it is part of me." Naruto opened his eyes back up and locked them with Cloud's. "You want to know how I don't lose myself to my darkness? How I can use it so easily? The answer is simple…I don't fear it, because I _know_ that it is a part of me, just as much as my light is." Naruto said softly. "If I were to reject my darkness, then I would be rejecting myself." He smirked. "And that's a stupid thing to do, so I accept it. There is nothing wrong with being cautious of your darkness, but don't fear it."

His answer brought about a stretch of silence in the room as everyone in it thought his words over. Eventually, Cloud's lips twitched. "Embrace my darkness, huh…?" He sighed. "Easier said than done…but I can work on it." He nodded to Naruto. "Thank you for your answer, I won't forget it." He turned back towards the door. "I look forward to the next time we meet."

Naruto grinned after him. "No problem. And I look forward to it too." Right when he was about to walk out, Cloud paused as if a thought came to him.

"Oh, right…" He reached into his pocket and pulled something out of it. "Here. You will probably get more use out of it than I will." He tossed it at Naruto, who caught it with one hand before looking down at the object in curiosity. What he saw made his eyes widen in surprise.

"This is…" He looked back up to Cloud, but the mercenary was already gone.

Interested in Naruto's reaction, the others gathered around him. "What's that? Some kind of wolf?" Natsu asked, clueless. "A dragon would have been cooler."

Realizing what it was, Gray whistled. "Isn't this a…?" Naruto's grin returned.

"It absolutely is…" Naruto responded and held the item up. "Cloud gave me a keychain." Dangling in his hand was a keychain that depicted a silver wolf.

"A keychain…?" Happy tilted his head. "That means that you have three of them now." The cat commented.

Naruto frowned slightly and dismissed the cat's words. "No, I don't. This makes the second one."

"No, it's the third."

"How can this be the third one?" Naruto asked in exasperation. "I already had one, and then I got this one. That makes two."

"But you have two others!" Happy insisted. "I know you do!"

"Then what's the second one, Happy? When did I get it?"

"You got it back in «Aincrad»! I found it by the lake after you sealed the keyhole." Happy told him.

A small twitch made itself known in Naruto's eye. "You found a keychain in «Aincrad»?" He quietly clarified.

"Aye! That's what I've been saying!" Happy shook his head. "Come on, Naruto. I know it can be hard for you, but keep up…"

"Why the hell didn't you say something before now?!" Naruto shouted in anger. "And if _you_ found it and never said anything, then there was no way for me to know about it-ttebayo!"

"You were being mean to me back then." Happy pointed a paw at Kairi. "You took my seat away from me and gave it to Kairi! So I kept quiet about the keychain as revenge!"

A glare made its way onto Naruto's face. "Yes, it is _absolutely_ my fault…" He said sarcastically. "Whatever, can I please have that keychain now?"

"Sure! You could have had it a while ago if you had asked!"

Naruto took several deep breaths. _'Don't kill the stupid cat, Naruto…That would make the others angry…'_ Happy dug through his knapsack and pulled out the requested item. As he took it, Naruto inspected the design of the keychain. This one depicted a black arrowhead with a diamond-shaped gap in the center. Placing it down on the bed, Naruto glanced between the two items. "So I have three keychains now…And yet I'm still mostly using Two Become One…" He muttered. "If I have them, I might as well start using them." He decided.

Erza chose that moment to speak up. "So now that the tournament is over with, what will you guys do now?" The others traded glances.

"Well…I guess that we will leave for the next world soon." Naruto replied. "I'm still a little tired, so would it be alright with you if we stay here for the night?"

The elder redhead smiled. "I need to clear it with Phil, but I don't think that will be a problem." Suddenly a frown appeared on her face, and Naruto couldn't help but shiver when he saw that it was directed towards him. "But you said you're still tired? Then we will let you sleep."

"Ah, t-that's not necessary. I only meant that I shouldn't be moving around so much ye-"

"I said _sleep_." Naruto broke out into a cold sweat while everyone else inched away. "Is that clear?"

Naruto swallowed nervously. "A-Aye."

* * *

 **Gummi Ship (The Next Day)**

"So this is your ship?" Erza glanced around the interior of the gummi ship as she followed the group onboard. "Impressive."

"Thanks, but the credit goes to the man who designed it." Naruto said. "…But I won't tell him that to his face…" He finished quietly.

Despite Naruto speaking the end to himself, Erza still heard it. "Why not? If he built this, then he should be commended."

Gray, Naruto, and even Natsu grimaced to one another. "…It just makes sense that way." Gray informed her. "Don't worry about it."

Shaking his head, Naruto walked over to his seat, only to blink when he noticed a flashing light on the control panel. "A call?" Pressing a button, some information popped up on the screen. "We missed a call from my world." He told the others. "We only missed it by about half an hour."

"Then if you call back now, there is a chance that they will pick up!" Kairi chirped. "Do it! You said that you would introduce me to the people from your world, so why not now?"

Naruto smiled and pressed another button. "Sure, sure. Give me a sec…" They all waited for a few moments as the call attempted to connect. Soon, the screen came to life, showing them an amused Yoruichi. "Hey, Yoruichi-san. Did you ca-"

" _WHERE IS HE?!"_ Naruto was interrupted by a loud shout coming from the background on Yoruichi's end.

" _I'm telling you that I don't know!"_

" _Well figure it out-ttebane!"_

" _I could, but it makes more sense to just wait for him to call!"_ The owner of the voice let out a suspiciously high-pitched yelp.

" _I swear, if something happened to him, I_ will- _"_ Naruto groaned with a red face when he realized who was doing the shouting.

Yoruichi smirked when she saw his reaction. _"Hey, Naruto-kun. You've called at a good time."_ She glanced over her shoulder. _"Kushina-san! Naruto-kun called!"_

Instantly, a nearly frantic Kushina Uzumaki appeared next to her, and Erza's eyes widened in surprise upon seeing Kushina. She sighed in relief when she saw Naruto, but her face was then covered with a glare that froze Naruto. _"Where have you been-ttebane?! I was so worried about you!"_ Yoruichi took a step back to watch the show. A moment later, a somewhat battered Urahara joined her.

"S-Sorry about that, Kaa-san." Naruto quickly gathered himself. "We've been off the gummi ship for the last day, so we couldn't answer the call…"

Kushina's glare darkened. _"But then why haven't you called before now? It's been nearly a week since the last time you did!"_

"Lost track of time?" Naruto suggested weakly. His mother did not like that answer.

And it showed in the chewing out that Naruto got the next second.

* * *

 **One Ruthless Scolding Later**

" _Am I understood?"_ Kushina asked dangerously.

"Crystal!" Naruto responded. "I promise it won't happen again-ttebayo!" Kushina's face immediately cleared into a brilliant smile.

" _Good!"_ Naruto slumped as the tension left his body. _"Now then, how have you been? Make any new friends in the different worlds since the last time we spoke?"_

Naruto grinned. "Yeah, I have. In fact, one of them is travelling with us." Turning, he gestured for Kairi to join him. Intimidated, by Kushina's previous display, she hesitantly walked over. "This is Kairi. We found her on the previous world we went to and she has been travelling with us since then so she could find her friends from her world."

Steeling her resolve, Kairi waved to the woman on the screen. "Hi, it's nice to meet you."

Kushina's smile could have lit up the entire room. "Nice to meet you too!" She shot her sun a suspicious glance. "The boys haven't been too much trouble, have they?" Even though they weren't in her field of view, Natsu, Happy, and Gray all shuddered, Naruto doing the same.

Giggling at their reaction, Kairi shook her head. "No, they haven't been. I haven't been with them that long, but's actually been a lot of fun!" She shot Naruto a sly look. "The biggest trouble has been getting Naruto to eat something other than ramen~" She teased. While Naruto felt his face heat up at this, Kushina's brightened.

" _You make him eat other things? Thank you for doing that! He unfortunately inherited my love of ramen…All of my kids did…"_ She rubbed the back of head sheepishly. _"I'm glad you're there to limit how much he can have…"_ Kushina took in Kairi's appearance again. _"And you're a redhead! That's a plus in my book-ttebane!"_ She shot Kairi a thumbs up.

Sweat dropping at his mother's antics, Naruto cleared his throat. "There was actually something about Kairi I wanted to get your opinion on, Urahara." Blinking, Urahara stepped forward.

" _And what would that be?"_ He was about to crack a joke, but Naruto's face turned serious, prompting him to do the same. _"…Is it something to be worried about?"_

Thinking it over, Naruto shrugged. "It could be worse, but it also could be better." He crossed his arms. "You remember what I told you about the seven Princesses of Heart?" Knowing that this conversation was leaving her area of complete understanding, Kushina stepped back to Yoruichi's side.

Urahara nodded. _"I do."_ His eyes flicked to Kairi. _"Are you saying that…"_

"Exactly." Naruto confirmed. "But…there is one problem…"

* * *

 **One Explanation Later**

Urahara's face was set in a complicated expression. _"I see…"_ A person without a heart? And they were sustaining themselves off of the light of another person? _"I'm not sure how much I can figure out, but I'll look into it."_ He promised.

Naruto smiled. "Thanks. I would ask Hikari and Yami, but…" He trailed off, but Urahara understood what he was referring to. That had also come up in his explanation.

" _I suggest that you keep trying to contact them, Naruto. It doesn't make sense that you wouldn't even be able to enter your Station of Awakening at all…"_

"Yeah, I'll keep trying…" Naruto said quietly. Noticing his pupil's obvious worry, Urahara decided to do something to lift the mood.

And what better way than to piss of said pupil?

" _Anyways, Naruto-kun…I'm impressed!"_ Naruto frowned to himself at Urahara's words, not getting what the annoying bastard was talking about. _"I was mostly joking when I told you to get a girlfriend, but here I find that you really got one~!"_ The result was immediate.

Both Kairi and Naruto turned red at Urahara's statement, but while Kairi only turned her face away, Naruto growled and slammed his hands down on the control panel. "Stop messing around! It's not like that!"

" _Kairi-chan is your girlfriend, Naru-chan?! Why didn't you tell me-ttebane?!"_

"I said she isn't!"

" _Oh, I need to tell Minato!"_

"Listen to me-ttebayo!"

* * *

 **A Little Later**

Gray smirked widely as Naruto shut off the monitor, having said goodbye to his mother, Urahara, and Yoruichi. "That was a great conversation." Naruto glared at the ice user.

"Shut up…" The crimson blond grumbled. "That jackass is always doing _something_ to mess with me…" What made it worse was the fact that Naruto couldn't tell if his mother was intentionally messing with him as well or if she was actually that enthusiastic about him and Kairi getting together. Wanting to forget the entire thing ever happened, he continued. "Are you guys all set to go? If we have nothing left to do here, then we should head out."

Erza smiled and walked up to him. Extending a hand, she spoke up. "It has been nice to meet you, Naruto. I look forward to the next time you stop by."

Naruto accepted the hand and smiled back at her. "The same to you, Erza-san. If we have time for it, we might stop by at some point to participate in another tournament." Nodding, Erza turned to Kairi.

"It was nice to meet you as well, Kairi. I hope that you fix your…problem." The younger redhead grinned.

"Thanks! I know I can fix it." She gestured to her travelling companions. "After all, I have some of the best help I can get!"

Natsu puffed his chest out. "You know it! We'll help you find your heart!" Erza's expression turned fond at the dragon slayer's declaration.

"Natsu…" She reached out a hand and used it to smash Natsu's head to her armored chest. "Don't do anything foolish out there, alright? I want you all to be safe."

The only response she got was a muffled groan.

* * *

 **Gummi Ship (A Little Later)**

Naruto smiled as they exited the world. "In the end, that was a fun tournament." He didn't expect to wind up in the tournament, but he wasn't complaining. "We really should come back at some point."

"Yeah! And next time, we'll win the entire thing!"

"Natsu, you do realize that Erza might not sit the next one out, right?" Happy's innocent words brought Natsu crashing back down to reality. "…That's what I thought."

"T-That doesn't matter! I'll kick her ass too!"

Gray snorted. "Good luck with that…"

"Hey, I can so beat her!"

"There's no way."

Not wanting them to descend into _another_ fight, Kairi hastily spoke up. "Guys, relax! You can worry about who is stronger than who the next time we come here." Smiling, she pointed to the world map. "For now, let's just pick the next world." Natsu and Gray eyed each other for a moment, but agreed. "Good…Now that that's settled, what's our next stop?" Naruto hummed in thought.

"I'm not sure…We only have a couple of choices left before we-"

"Hey! It's my turn!" Happy shouted.

Frowning, Naruto turned to the cat. "What? How is it your turn to pick? You picked this world!"

"No I didn't!" Happy denied. "That was Natsu!"

Naruto shot him an incredulous expression. "You picked it because Natsu wanted to come here! You gave up your chance!"

"That's not fair! It wasn't me who chose this world!"

" _Yes,_ it was! Look, you can't jus-" Naruto cut himself off by taking a deep breath. "You know what? I don't care! It doesn't matter in the end, so you can go ahead and pick!" He turned back to the map. "Would I be correct to guess that you want to go to whichever world looks the most interesting?"

Happy gasped dramatically. "How did you know?! Can you read minds?!"

"…Lucky guess…" Naruto enlarged the image of a world on the map. "Is this the one you want?"

"That's it!" Happy was practically bouncing in excitement. "Come on, let's go! That world looks like fun!" Rolling his eyes, Naruto set the course into the ship. He was sure that he was just going to snap one day.

It was only a matter of time.

' _What's so fun about a giant tree?'_

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 43!**

 **You think that I should have made it so Naruto could cast Cure while he was being attacked? If you would be so kind, please remember that Sora wasn't able to do that himself until he learned the Leaf Bracer ability. Is that just an excuse to do what I want? Sure, it could be seen that way. Does it make sense? I'd like to think so. Whose logic wins in the end? Well…that'd be mine, of course. :P**

 **Okay, I'm going to get this out of the way…What the hell is the fun if Naruto always wins his fights? I don't want to write a story like that, so I won't. If your problem is how I made him lose to Cloud, then allow me to say why I think it works.**

 **Obviously, I made Cloud a lot stronger than he was in the Kingdom Hearts game. In fact, if you played Final Fantasy VII or Dissidia, then you probably noticed where I got some of his attacks. The Cloud I'm using is one that is pulled from those games, not just whatever the hell the one in the Kingdom Hearts game is. This Cloud is** _ **way**_ **stronger. If I could have gotten away with it, I** _ **absolutely**_ **would have made him use Omnislash Ver. 6. Don't know what that is? Look it up. The one I used is the one from Dissidia.**

" **But then how could Sora have beaten him?!"**

 **If you would be so kind as to recall, that particular part of the game can be completed whether Sora wins or loses to Cloud…So take a guess as to which one happened here.**

 **Okay, I'm going to** _ **try**_ **getting on top of the keychain/keyblade thing.** _ **However**_ **, I know myself, so I know that it is very likely that future me will just go "Fuck it" and stick to a single keyblade (Probably Two Become One) at some point. But since I do the same thing in the games sometimes, I'm not too torn up about it.**

 **I hesitated to pick this next world because I'm not too sure of how many people will know the series. It's a relatively popular one, but I don't know if I would call it huge.**

 **Ending was slightly rushed, but whatever.**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	45. What's In A Spell?

**And we're finally back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 44!**

 **As no doubt many of you have noticed, I went AWOL for a little while. There were multiple reasons for this. The first was writer's block. The second was no motivation whatsoever to write fanfiction (Not the same thing as writer's block, in my opinion). The third was because I have been working extra hours at my job…every freakin' day of the week. And the fourth is that once you start being lazy, it is** _ **really**_ **hard to get back into some sort of schedule.**

 **Why am I updating this and not Embers like I was supposed to do next? Because I felt like working on this, not Embers. Following this train of thought, I worked on what I felt like working on.**

 **I'll start going through my PM inbox soon (Tomorrow), I promise. But keep in mind I only immediately respond to the ones that are about stories I'm working on or are important conversations that _need_ an immediate response. If I stopped contacting you in the middle of a conversation, I apologize. Basically, don't be offended if I didn't respond to a PM in the past week or two. It was nothing personal, I'm just an asshole to everyone.**

 **Glad you guys agree with me making Cloud stronger.**

* * *

 **The Sith'ari: I am not 100% sure about it, but I'm still pretty sure. Misa as Naruto's Riku? Thereabouts, yeah.**

 **ImagineBreaker7: Kairi's relationship with Sora is the biggest reason for why I** _ **wouldn't**_ **do that pairing…I put stuff off until the last possible moment, so I haven't made any final decisions about the pairing yet. When I first started, Aqua was my favorite pick. If I decide to later, then I won't have him and Kairi get together.**

 **Kairitrion Cerulean: The Kushina and Erza interaction was going to make an appearance there, but I decided not to for later use (Meaning that it** _ **will**_ **happen…probably).**

 **guest-bat: Kairi's -hypothetical- weapon…I won't comment on that for now. As for your ideas, I have been considering doing something like a trial, but that won't be for a while yet.**

 **kavell anderson: As it is right now, I don't have a world like that planned. However, it is still possible for me to add one.**

 **redlox2: It isn't much of a spoiler, so I'll answer. Yes, they will make appearances. I've already shown that Orochimaru has a connection to Pete, so it makes sense for that to extend to Maleficent as well (Meaning the rest of the villains too).**

 **iReadWriteType: I won't be answering any questions about Roxas, sorry. As for the pairings, it is tentatively NarutoxKairi right now. When it comes to Ventus, Aqua, and Terra, there is still a bit of planning needed.**

 **Kalbario: Flawless logic! :P**

 **NatNicole: Thanks, but unfortunately, I can't claim that this story is perfect. You might not see any problems with it, but there are flaws and inconsistencies I don't like.**

 **rex4487: No worries, I totally agree. The story did start at a pretty slow pace.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else. I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Deity Talking: " **Insert witty remark here**."

Biju/Deity Thinking: _'_ _ **Insert witty remark here**_ _.'_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **Gummi Ship**

"Exactly like that…It may help to envision the element in your head to make it easier." Kairi's eyes were closed as she frowned in concentration. She tried to filter out the world around her to focus on nothing but Naruto's instructions. Taking a deep breath, she slowly raised a hand so that her palm was facing up. Making sure that the image of fire was firmly in her mind, she spoke.

" **Fire**." Something warm ran down Kairi's arm towards the tips of her fingers. With baited breath, she opened her eyes to see the result…

Nothing.

Groaning, Kairi's arm dropped and she hung her head in defeat. "Nothing again…" She lamented. Why couldn't she get his right?

Seated across from Kairi, Naruto gave a small smile as a means of reassuring her. "Hey, don't worry about it. It's not like you were going to get this down right away." He said.

Kairi shook her head. "But we've been at this for hours! I still can't even get anything beyond a small feeling of being warm, and you said that this was a basic spell!" The two of them were seated at the table in the kitchen. Earlier that day, Kairi decided to use the free time they had in between worlds and battles with heartless ships to ask Naruto if he could teach her some magic. Because that was the first time he heard of her desire to learn, he was understandably confused, but he happily agreed once Kairi explained the reason for her request. So, leaving Gray to pilot the ship, the two of them moved to the kitchen for some quiet.

"But this is also the first time that you have ever attempted to learn magic, so it takes a while. Added to that, you also have no experience with channeling an energy source such as light, like I did when I started." Naruto responded. "I'm confident that you will get the hang of it."

A look of worry made its way onto Kairi's face. "When we started, you said I should at least be able to feel the temperature of my hand go up because I wouldn't be able to completely shield myself from the heat, but that hasn't happened beyond the slight heat…What if I can't do magic?" She hesitated. "…What if I can't do it because I don't have my heart…?" Naruto almost didn't hear the whisper.

Unsure of what he could say, Naruto averted his eyes. Truthfully, he had already thought of that possibility a while ago, but he was reluctant to admit it. Shaking his head, he looked back to Kairi. "…I won't lie to you, Kairi…Your current condition might be making it impossible for you to use magic." The redhead grew even more crestfallen. "But I don't think that's it."

Blinking in surprise, Kairi frowned. "You don't?"

"No, I don't…" Naruto responded. "While it's true that there are some spells that _need_ to have light or darkness infused with them, not all of them are like that. So don't worry about not having a heart, it shouldn't stop you. And besides that, you also have access to _my_ light, so it won't matter in the end if your heart isn't there." It was then that another thought came to him, prompting Naruto to smile at her. "Let's try another approach."

Grateful for his words and excited that he might have thought of another way, Kairi returned the smile. "Okay, what do I do this time?"

"Close your eyes and face your palm up again." Naruto instructed. Once she did so, he continued. "This time, I want you to instead focus on yourself, not any specific element. Remember the feeling you got when I pushed some light into you? Try bringing back to the forefront of your mind." Kairi nodded and recalled the warm and comforting feeling, almost wishing she could truly feel it again. "When you have it, think about how it feels to you. Is it wild? Is it calm? Is it invigorating? You need to narrow it down to its core traits."

"Right…" Kairi vividly remembered how Naruto's light felt, so it didn't take her long to imagine it. After a moment, she noticed something inside of her that was somewhat new. Pulling on it, Kairi was flooded with a soothing fooling. Diving deeper, the feeling grew and spread throughout her body. If she had to liken it to something, Kairi would say that it reminded her of the gentle waves that she feels when she is in the ocean. The sensation she had right now was the exact one she got when she closed her eyes and relaxed on a boat, or when she was floating in the water.

Naruto watched Kairi as she followed his instructions, waiting for a sign that she was making progress. Suddenly, he detected a small presence skim across his senses. Zeroing in on it, he noted that the light in Kairi's body was starting to stir. _'There we go…'_ "Good…Now that you've done that, try directing it towards your palm. Don't command it, just let it flow there. You do this by thinking of where you want it to gather. But keep in mind of the way it feels to you." Taking a breath, Kairi began to picture the light in the form of a liquid, which she then diverted to her palm.

A smile broke out across Naruto's face when he saw how easily she controlled it. "Perfect…I want you to try condensing a portion of that feeling into the center of your palm. If that doesn't make sense, then instead get as much of it as you can." He gave her a moment to do so. "Now for the last step. All at once, drive it out of your hand as if you were expelling it from a cannon. You'll do it on three, alright?" Kairi's expression slowly slipped back into a frown as she gathered as much as she could together. "One…Two…Three!"

A small flash lit up the space above Kairi's hand as the redhead abruptly felt marginally more tired. _'Did it work?'_

"Kairi…You should open your eyes." Hesitantly, Kairi cracked an eye open at Naruto's suggestion. The next second, the other one opened as well as she stared at what was floating above her palm. Naruto grinned at her reaction, letting her take it in.

"This…This is…" Kairi said quietly, not completely sure if she was imagining things or not.

Naruto nodded with a chuckle. "Yep, you cast your first spell. Congratulations."

"My first spell…" Floating above Kairi's palm was a bubble that was no bigger than the size of a tennis ball. "A bubble?"

"A bubble." Naruto confirmed. Smirking, he continued. "But don't let its appearance fool you. I'm willing to bet that it isn't a normal bubble…" Taking a short moment to think, put his hands together in a hand seal. " **Shadow Clone Jutsu**." A clone appeared in a puff of smoke. Without having to be asked, the clone walked off to the far wall and stood there. "Try picturing the bubble shooting off towards my clone."

"Uh, okay…" Somewhat unsure of what she was doing, Kairi moved her hand so that her palm was facing the clone. To her surprise, the bubble followed her movements. "So I only need to picture it firing at your clone?"

"Yeah, that should do it."

Shaking off her nervousness, Kairi turned her head back to the clone. "Alright…Here goes nothing…" Steeling herself, Kairi did as instructed. "Go!" Responding to her command, the bubble rocketed at the clone and hit it squarely in the chest. Kairi let out an involuntary yelp of surprise when the bubble _exploded_ upon contact with the clone. It was nothing extreme, but it was definitely more than she had been expecting. The damage from the bubble dispelled the clone. "Whoa…"

Naruto smiled. "Not too shabby."

Her mind finally catching up with what she did, Kairi grinned widely and began to jump up and down. "Yes! Yes! _Yes_! I cast a spell! I actually cast a spell!" She cheered. Naruto had no problem admitting that he found her reaction amusing. After another minute of cheering, Kairi whirled around and beamed at Naruto. "Thank you so much, Naruto!"

"No problem, I was happy to help." Naruto said. "And by the way, I _told_ you that you would be able to get some results."

Kairi stuck her tongue out at him. "Yeah, yeah. You were right and I was wrong." Blinking, Kairi's expression shifted into a thoughtful one. "But why was I able to do that? Wasn't I learning how to cast **Fire**?"

"You were." Naruto agreed. "But then I realized that you may have an easier time doing something else." He paused to think of the best way to explain it. "You've already seen me cast some spells, so you know that there are different elements, right? Not counting light and darkness?"

"Yeah. I've seen you cast fire, ice, lightning, and wind."

"Exactly. But have you noticed which ones I use the most? Whether it be by choice or out of reflex?" Naruto asked.

"Um…" Kairi thought it over. Soon, she had her answer. "I'm pretty sure that you cast wind and fire spells the most…"

Naruto smiled. "Right again. More often than not, I fall back onto using wind and fire spells. I've been trying to reign in the use of fire since I started travelling with Natsu, but it's still a reflexive thing. The reason I do this is because those two elements are the easiest ones for me to use. It's not because the other elements are necessarily more difficult to learn for everyone, but instead because I personally have less trouble with them. They're also less exhausting for me."

Kairi frowned. "Wait, people can be better at some spells than others?"

"Yes, they can. It all depends on your mindset and your fundamental traits as a person. When you felt the light in your body, how did it feel to you? Did it remind you of something?"

"It reminded me of the ocean…" Kairi said after a few seconds. "It was really soothing." She perked up. "Wait, so does that mean I would do the best with water spells?"

"Judging by the fact that you created a bubble with only some instructions, as opposed to the flame you were working towards for the past few hours, I would say so." Naruto said with an amused tone. However, he didn't voice his other thoughts. _'But seriously, she managed to do that after only a few minutes with the new instructions?'_ Even if she was better with water spells, that was insanely fast. "This time, you used light to kick start the spell, but it will become less and less necessary to use light as you get more practice in."

Soaking up his words, Kairi nodded. "I understand. So I need to keep practicing…" Now that she thought about it, that bubble didn't really look like it did too much damage anyways. She hung her head in defeat again. "Dang it, I thought I would be good to go once I did the spell…"

Naruto smirked. "Sorry, but it's not that easy. Practice is of course needed, so expect to be here for a while. For now, try making the bubble bigger, while at the same time forming it faster. A heartless won't give you the time you need to concentrate and make it. And after _that_ , you're going to need to learn how to fire multiple ones at a fast pace."

"Great…"

Taking pity on her, Naruto continued. "You know, the sooner you get this down, the sooner you can start learning the next spell." Immediately, an excited gleam entered Kairi's eyes.

"More spells? Just give me a little time and I'll have the bubble of doom mastered!" Her silly name made Naruto sweat drop.

' _I'm pretty sure there is already a name…'_ He only hoped that they didn't do too much damage by doing this in the ship.

* * *

 **Gummi Ship (Orbit of World)**

Gray whistled in appreciation. "That tree is _huge_. It's at least as big as the one back on Tenrou Island."

Naruto sent an incredulous look his way. "You mean that's there's another tree that is this big? Really?"

"Aye! Tenrou Island's tree is massive, like this one!" Happy said. "Now less talking and more landing! I want to explore!"

The crimson blond sighed. "We aren't here to have fun, Happy. And not only that, but I also don't trust you and Natsu without supervision."

"Hey!" Naruto easily ignored Natsu's shout.

"But it's so boring being cooped up in the ship. No one even lets me be the one to fire the guns when we are attacking heartless ships." Happy complained. "So I wanna get out of here and move around!"

Despite his reluctance to agree with anything Happy said, Naruto found himself as somewhat understanding. There wasn't much for Happy to do on the ship in between worlds, so it would make sense if the cat looked forward to getting off. Sighing, Naruto began to input the needed commands for landing. "Everybody strap in." After they did so, he guided the ship toward the world. Suddenly, Naruto's eyes widened when he felt something from the world. "Hey, does anyone else feel that?"

Gray frowned and shook his head. "I don't feel anything. You know that I'm not exactly the sensing type, so that's no surprise."

"Same here." Natsu said.

"Aye."

However, unlike the Fairy Tail members, Kairi slowly nodded. "Y-Yeah…I think I know what you're talking about. It's faint, but there is something about that world that is giving me goosebumps."

"…It's light…" Naruto told her. "…Or at least, it's something similar to it. It might even have light infused with it…And there is a _lot_." He glanced over to her. "I'm not surprised you can sense it, Kairi. The goosebumps should go away once you're used to sensing things." His attention went back to the world. "Anyways, I'm taking us in now."

* * *

"Come on, hurry it up!" A black haired boy called over his shoulder to a boy with red hair. "We gotta get to the good places before there are lines everywhere!"

Smiling, the redheaded boy ran after his friend. "There's no need to rush. This is the first day of the festival!" His eye caught something off to the side. Gasping excitedly, he darted over to it. "A robot dinosaur!" The boy's awe over the mechanized dinosaur was obvious to everyone in the area.

"Tch. Even if he tries to act mature, he can't help but act like a brat…" A girl with orange hair muttered.

The black haired girl next to her simply smiled. "It's fine, isn't it? This is a good chance for him to relax for a change." On her shoulder was a small animal that resembled a white ferret.

The orange haired girl sighed. "I guess you're right…He is pretty serious most of the time, so this should be good for him." Out of nowhere, the two boys' and black haired girl's bodies all tensed. The orange haired girl watched warily as the three of them glanced around with suspicious looks. "What's up with you three?"

"You mean to tell me that you seriously don't feel that, Nee-chan?" The black haired boy asked. "It's hard to miss." The other two nodded in agreement, still attempting to locate the source.

"Sorry to burst your bubble, but not everyone has your weird sensing skills!" The orange haired girl yelled irritably. "Now tell me what's going on!"

"Someone has entered the area…Someone strong." The black haired girl said quietly. "And they aren't making any effort to hide their presence, as if they want us to know that they're here…"

Finally understanding the situation, the orange haired girl also became cautious. "Oh, that's what's going on…"

The redheaded boy's eyes snapped to the side. "There!" Without waiting for any response, he dashed away.

"Hey, wait!" The orange haired girl attempted to stop him, but the boy didn't listen. "Damn it, why can't he _not_ rush off to every fight?!" She ran after the boy, the other two falling into step with her right away.

* * *

"Alert, unknown energy signatures have entered the vicinity. Threat levels unknown."

A girl with large glasses frowned to herself and began to type rapidly on the terminal she was standing at. "These readings…I don't know who this is." A girl with her hair done into two buns and pigtails stepped up next to the terminal. "Do you know what's happening?" The second girl considered the readings. After a minute, a smile slowly spread across her face.

"I do believe that the final players have entered the stage-ne."

* * *

A man with mostly grey hair sighed and took a long drag of his cigarette. "…Why can't things ever go smoothly?"

He was certain that the headmaster would be observing the following events as some form of entertainment.

* * *

A blue eye cracked open as its owner lounged lazily on a rooftop. "This feeling…" Where had she felt this? _'Was it recently…No, not too recently. Maybe a century or two ago?'_ She shook her head. _'No, not that long ago either…Then perhaps within the last century?'_ That sounded about right. _'But what is it?'_ Frowning, she tried to put a name to the feeling. _'…Something about a key?'_ The other eye snapped open once she finally remembered where she had felt this before. A wide grin made its way onto her face.

"A keyblade wielder? This may be just the thing I need…" Standing up, the girl dusted her skirt off. "Come on, let's go meet our new guests, Chach-" She cut herself off when she remembered that her servant was on loan to someone else at the moment. Heaving an aggravated sigh, the girl walked towards the door that led back into the building.

"Never mind…"

* * *

An extremely overgrown eyebrow raised as the person attached to it picked up a new presence entering the area. After assessing what it was, the eyebrow lowered and a smile stretched across the person's lips. "Oh? This should be interesting. Ohohoho~" A small part of the old man wondered if it would be a good idea to tell the others that the newcomers weren't a threat…

But a bigger part wanted to see what kind of entertainment this would bring.

* * *

The off-worlders took in their surrounding with great interest, along with poorly contained glee on Natsu and Happy's parts. "This is a pretty big festival." Kairi commented. The world they had entered was a large city that was full of activity.

"As far as I can tell, it seems like it spans the entire city." Gray added. "And with this amount of people, it needs to be that big." The four humans and cat were working their way through the crowd as they headed deeper into the city. No one paid the normal looking people any thought, but Happy did get some strange glances. Naruto would have thought it to be a problem if the people didn't quickly shrug and continue walking. Suddenly, the group's attention was caught by the sound of something flying overhead. They and the crowd watched as multiple planes flew in formation before careening off in different directions at the same time, leaving multicolored trails of smoke behind.

" _Good morning, everybody! The moment you have all been waiting for is here! I now announce that the Seventy-eighth Mahora Festival is a go!"_ Explosions in the sky announced the presence of fireworks.

Naruto quirked an eyebrow at the display. "They are going all out with this, aren't they?"

"Natsu, look! They have games!"

"Oh, you're right…And they have food!"

"I wonder if they have fish?"

"I'm sure they do! Let's go find some!" The fire dragon slayer only managed to take two steps.

"Hold the hell up-ttebayo!" Naruto lashed out and grabbed him by the scarf. "You're not going anywhere. Didn't I already tell you that I don't trust you two on your own?"

Natsu gaped at him. "But Naruto, it's a festival! What kind of trouble could I get into here?"

Naruto glared. "There are a lot of things that could happen when you're surrounded by strangers, but the fact that it's _you_ makes it way worse." Off to the side, Gray had an amused smirk on his face while Kairi giggled. "So with that in mind, you are not wandering off on your own. Got it?"

"But…" Naruto's glare darkened, prompting Natsu to break out into a cold sweat and avert his eyes when he was reminded of the boy's mother, as well as another redhead. "…Fine…"

Nodding in satisfaction, Naruto released Natsu's scarf. "Good, and the same goes for you, Happy. Do you understand as well?"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Oh, Kami damn it."

* * *

 **With Happy**

"Fishy, fishy. Fishy for Happy~" Happy easily glided above the heads of the crowd as he scanned the nearby booths for one that sold some type of fish. "Where's the fish…?" It should have been easy to find!

A loud squeal from nearby pulled Happy from his thoughts. "Guys, look! He's so cute!" Turning to the direction of the voice, Happy found himself getting wrapped in a hug by a girl with pink hair. Happy considered protesting, but the euphoric petting convinced him otherwise.

"A blue flying cat?" A girl with her dark hair done into a side ponytail asked. "Is it some kind of mascot for the festival?"

The tallest girl nodded. "Probably, but I am surprised by how real it looks."

"I wonder how they made it fly like that…" The fourth girl had light blue hair that was cut relatively short. "It has to be a robot or something, right? So maybe Professor or Chao-san made it?"

"Hey, I'm not an 'it'! I'm Happy!" Happy's words surprised all four of the girls, but the pink haired one was the first to recover.

"And he even speaks?! This is the greatest thing ever!" She gushed.

The tall girl sweat dropped. "Um, Makie? I agree that he is very cute, but we were kind of in a hurry, remember? We need to get back to the classroom."

The pink haired girl, Makie, shook her head with a happy expression. "It's fine! They already have more than enough people, so what does it matter if we aren't there to help?" She pouted. "It was already bad enough that class rep made us work overtime last night, so I say we earned a little break! I want to spend some time with this little guy~"

Happy gave her a hopeful look. "Will you help me find some fish? I'm really hungry!"

Makie easily nodded to the request. "Sure, I don't mind!"

' _The robot eats? It eats fish?'_ The girl with the side ponytail wondered. Shrugging, she grinned. "Sounds good to me. I kind of wanted to explore for a bit anyways."

"You'll both help me? Thanks!" Happy turned towards the direction he came from. "Natsu, isn't it great? They're gonna help us find some fish!" It was then that Happy finally noticed that the others weren't there. "Huh? Where'd they go?"

"Where'd who go?" The light blue haired girl asked.

"My friends. They were right behind me!" Happy sighed and shook his head. "They must have gotten lost. They're stupid like that sometimes…"

The tall girl frowned. "Should we look for them?"

"Nah, they'll be fine. Fish is more important!"

* * *

 **With the Others**

Naruto had a scowl plastered across his face as he scanned the crowd again for any sign of the stupid cat that was giving him another headache. Whenever Naruto saw a flash of blue, he thought he found Happy, only to become more irritated upon realizing that he was mistaken. "When I get my hands on that damn fur ball…" He muttered.

"Happy! Where are you, buddy?!" Natsu shouted, but was met with the same results. "Happy!"

Kairi had a worried expression on her face. "Where could he have gone? He couldn't have gotten too far, right?"

Gray snorted. "I wouldn't be surprised. Not only can Happy fly, but he _also_ gets easily distracted by fish. It's been a few minutes, so he could be anywhere by now." His apathetic answer only served to increase the read head's worry.

"I hope he is okay…"

"I'm willing to bet he is, but he won't be once I get my hands on him…" Naruto muttered. Suddenly, he paused when he caught sight of someone ducking around a corner ahead of them. Normally, Naruto would have dismissed it, but this was the third time in just ten minutes that he has seen the same person doing that. Coming to a possible conclusion, Naruto was careful to not show any signs that he had noticed the person while he turned down a different corner, the others following him as they searched for Happy. A moment later, his suspicions were confirmed when he saw another person duck their head out of the way ahead of them. _'I've seen that person more than once too…We're definitely being followed…And they're somewhat bad at hiding themselves…'_ Deciding on the next course of action, Naruto sighed. "Guys, get ready for a fight." He said quietly.

Immediately, Gray's bored expression faded into neutrality, while Kairi's took on a nervous one. As opposed to the reactions of the rest of the group, Natsu appeared to grow excited at the prospect. "Why do you say that?" Gray asked.

"There's a small group of people following us." Naruto answered. "I don't think they know that I've spotted them, so we should act natural, for now. I doubt they want to start anything in such a crowded area- _That means_ _don't go shouting challenges at them, Natsu!_ " He hissed at the dragon slayer, who had taken a deep breath in order to do exactly that.

"Ehehehe…My bad…"

After glaring at the pink haired teen, Naruto turned his gaze to Kairi and noticed how tense she was. "Kairi, relax. This could very well be your first fight, but the three of us are here to help. We won't let anything happen. And you've been practicing spells for a couple of days now, so I know you aren't defenseless. Just relax and leave most of the fighting to us…If it comes to it."

Reassured by his words, Kairi smiled and slowly nodded. "Right…I'm sorry about that. I won't let you guys down." Naruto returned the smile.

"So what's the plan?"

"This is their world, so they know the area better than us. That means that it won't matter where we fight, but we may as well try to get a place that has more room to do it, along with less people who can get hurt…But I doubt we will find a single place that _doesn't_ have at least some people around. I would also prefer talking to them, instead of resorting to a fight." His eyes swept over the area again and landed on something nearby. "There. That plaza is pretty empty, so that would be a good spot. We'll stay there for a bit and give them a chance to confront us. If they don't, then we will continue searching for Happy." Seeing that they agreed, Naruto led them over to the plaza. When they neared the center of the plaza, Naruto noticed a strange sensation that had filled the air, somewhat reminding him of a genjutsu. A quick glance around informed him what had happened. "I guess they will be confronting us…They emptied the plaza." Exactly as he had said, all signs of people in the immediate vicinity had vanished without any of them noticing.

Natsu grinned widely and cracked his knuckles. "So they want to fight too? Sounds good to me!"

' _Fighting isn't our first choice…'_

"Ha! Looks like this guy speaks my language!" The unknown voice sounded as excited as Natsu to be fighting. A pool of something dark appeared in front of them. When he first saw it, Naruto thought it to be darkness, but he then decided it was something else. The off-worlders watched as a boy rose out from it. "I hope you can back that up!"

Once the boy fully emerged, Naruto noticed that the boy seemed to be slightly younger than him. He had spiky black hair that fell in front of his face and down the sides of his cheeks, along with brown eyes. His outfit was made up of dark pants, a white t-shirt, and a dark jacket. Naruto found himself momentarily staring at two of the boy's features.

Namely the wolf ears and tail.

'… _They're twitching…So they're real…?'_ The boy's grin reminded Naruto of Natsu, and he couldn't help but compare the two. _'Great, someone else who jumps at the chance of a fight…'_ Footstep from behind prompted Naruto to look over his shoulder at the next person.

Standing nearby was a girl who was slightly older than Naruto. The girl had black hair and brown eyes. Like the boy, she was wearing an outfit similar to some kind of school uniform, but hers was a sailor uniform. Hung over her shoulder was the case of a sword. Unlike her companion, she didn't seem to be looking forward to a fight, instead opting to have a neutral countenance.

The sound of something chiming encouraged Naruto to turn his head and spot yet another new person. This time, it was a girl who was the same age as the first girl, but she had orange hair done into two long ponytails with bells tied to the start of the tails. Like Naruto, she had heterochromatic eyes, but her left eye was blue while the right one was green. She wore the same outfit as the previous girl, but unlike the first, this girl was glaring at them.

Taking one last glance between the three, Naruto spoke up. "Can we help you with something?"

"Yes, would you please tell us what you want here?" Naruto blinked at the voice coming from their other side before he saw who had spoken.

It was another boy who was younger than Naruto, but this one had spiky, reddish-brown hair and eyes of the same color. This boy was wearing an entirely green suit, which was slightly odd on someone so young. Clutched in one hand was a long staff that was partially wrapped in bandages. Naruto could tell that this boy was apprehensive due to the situation, but he was also determined.

Pulling himself from his thoughts, Naruto responded. "We arrived in town and were taking a look around. You're the ones that confronted us, remember? Why don't _you_ tell _us_ what you want? Why have you surrounded us?"

The orange haired girl's glare darkened. "Don't try acting innocent, you stupid brat! We know you're up to something!"

Naruto frowned at her. "And how do you figure that?" His question startled the girl a bit, but she soon recovered.

"Um, well…We just do!" She declared and glanced to the other girl. "Right, Setsuna-san?"

The black haired girl, Setsuna, nodded. "If you were truly not up to anything, then you wouldn't be exuding so much power at once."

' _Wait, what?'_ Naruto frowned. _'They sensed us and assumed that we were plotting something?'_ "Why does us not suppressing our presence mean that we are doing something wrong?"

"Because such displays of power run the risk of exposing the magical world to those who are unaware of its existence, as you no doubt know." The redheaded boy said seriously.

' _Oh…That explains it…'_ Now how to get out of this one? "Sorry about that, we'll be more careful form now on." Naruto told them with a reassuring smile. "If that was all, then we will continue on our way…"

"Like hell we're gonna let you walk away like that!" The orange haired girl growled irritably. "You're going to tell us who you are, or we're going to beat it out of you!"

The redheaded boy appeared to be startled by his companion's words. "Asuna-san! He has already agreed to show more caution in the future, so there is no reason for us to pursue the matter!"

"You can't just believe them because they said so, Negi!"

The black haired boy nodded, never having lost his grin. "I agree with Nee-chan this time, Neg. You're too trusting." He locked eyes with Natsu. "Besides, pinky over here looks like he wants a fight as much as I do."

Natsu's grin somehow widened further. "So you're game then? Great!" He crouched and ignited his fists. "Then let's go!" In response to the flames, each of the four strangers tensed and prepared themselves for a fight. Setsuna pulled out her sword, Negi gripped his staff tighter, the black haired boy created more of the dark stuff at his feet, and Asuna pulled out a…card?

' _Probably used to summon something like my cards do…'_

Negi quickly called out in an attempt to salvage the situation. "W-Wait! There is still no reason for us to fight!" The black haired boy scoffed.

"Reason? I'll give you a reason. We'll fight to figure out who's stronger!"

"That's not a good reason!"

"It's good enough for me!" With that last shout, the black haired boy launched himself forward.

Seeing this as the signal to get started, Natsu rushed to meet him partway. "Sounds like a good reason to me, too!" Once they were close enough to each other, Natsu and the boy both hurled a fist forward, making a small explosion from the fire and dark stuff colliding.

"You see! They _are_ here for a fight!" Asuna declared. Not wasting another moment, she held her card up. " **Adeat**!" In a flash of light, a large fan materialized in her hand. Naruto would have questioned her weapon choice, if not for the fact that the girl was seriously treating it like a weapon.

Naruto groaned quietly as the situation fell apart. "I blame Happy for this…" Refocusing on the matter at hand, Naruto raised a hand and summoned his keyblade. "Kairi, we haven't practiced in any spars yet, so I would rather you sit this one out." Seeing her expression at the suggestion, he continued with a small smile. "But I know you don't want to do that, so keep your distance and use ranged attacks, okay? I've got your back." Kairi smiled at the instructions.

"Got it!"

Chancing one last glance to the side, Naruto noted that Gray was already engaged against Setsuna. Returning his gaze to the front, he saw that Asuna was charging him. "Here we go!"

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 44!**

 **I pushed a little Naruto logic into the Kingdom Hearts magic thing. I'm not dedicating to any specific type advantage format yet (If at all), but I don't see a problem with giving people a natural element that they are better at. The name Kairi literally means "sea", so it makes sense for me to have her start with a water spell. Added to that, I can't help but want to give her some similar abilities to Aqua, whom Kairi has met and gained the ability to wield a keyblade from.**

 **What the hell powers the spells? I don't think it's light or darkness, or else there wouldn't be any "neutral" spells (Some types of heartless cast spells, so it can be done without light at least, but that doesn't disprove darkness as a source…). Or am I just wrong and it is light and/or darkness? And for the love of god, don't tell me it's MP, because I need something that I can actually use. Mana is an option, I guess, but I would rather not.**

 **Wow. A lot of people actually guessed the world.**

 **Okay, if you've read Negima, then you know that there are a** _ **lot**_ **of characters that I would need to introduce/describe in a short time span, so I'm only going to do that for the important ones. Usually, I have no problem describing how a character looks so that the people who don't know the series have something to go off of, but there are simply too many that I would need to put in a single chapter. You wanna know what any of them look like? Look it up.**

 **That wasn't a typo when I had Kotarou say "Neg" instead of "Negi". If you see that, then it's just a nickname. I'm not sure if I needed to explain that, but I thought I should anyways.**

 **When is the next chapter going to come out?**

… **I'm honestly not sure. I would like to keep working on this, but I would hate to put my other two stories on hold.**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	46. Back To School

**Holy crap, we're actually back?! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 45!**

 **You know…When I first started this, I never would have figured that I would turn into one of the things I hate the most…A fanfic writer who just disappears for months at a time after a somewhat reliable schedule, and doesn't give any warning or explanation. I really should not have been that optimistic…Yeah, my bad. Am I back for good? I don't know. I honestly thought I was with the last chapter, but then before I even realized it, three months had gone by and I was still only about 3k words into the next chapter. Don't expect me to go through PM's or anything else anytime soon.**

 **I've been having problems with things in real life. It both takes away the time I have for fanfiction and destroys my temptation to work on any stories. Is this a generic excuse? Pretty much. Is it true? For the most part. Do I feel bad? Yes, yes I do. Bad enough to revive all my stories and get back to a schedule? Ha!**

 **Not too long of an update, length-wise, especially given the amount of time it took me to get this out…But hey, progress, amirite?**

* * *

 **Kairitrion Cerulean: Hey, don't you miss those days when I was only late by a week? And ugh, you're over thinking things! I've honestly considered that, but the easier option is to use game logic. Munny is the currency of the KH games (For the most part), and it is accepted everywhere! Don't know how, but it is.**

 **The Sorrowful Deity: Yeah, about that…**

 **jburk40: That's a decent assumption.**

 **Dark Natsu Dragneel: Oh, a like-minded person! I like the way you think!**

 **Guest: Keep waiting!**

 **Remzal Von Enili: Yes, and I am** _ **loving**_ **it. The only downside to the game is the waiting period where I'm caught up to all of the story missions.**

 **Guest (2): The Fairy Tail members are before the Tartarous arc. Hell, I haven't put anything concrete yet, but I'm thinking about making this before the grand magic games arc.**

 **ImagineBreaker7: The Negima girls as a pairing would be a little weird and harder to work…At least, some of them would be.**

 **NoFocus: Probably will be at some point, yeah. At the very least, I can't see myself resetting Naruto for every new part of the story (Like what happened to Sora with every game. Having to relearn magic? Seriously?).**

 **Anthony Do-Urden: I still have a couple of slots open for worlds, so suggestions are welcome. Just keep in mind that I reserve the right to either go with it or ignore it completely.**

 **Guest (3): Next chapter of Embers is when I feel like it. When is that? Not even I know…**

 **Jack of Blade's Daughter: Agreed. At that point, not much is going on besides the basic Naruto stuff.**

 **Rio Skyron: Shhh. That there's spoiler territory. No one goes into spoiler territory.**

 **Satner'sKagune: Happy super belated birthday!**

 **TravisUmbra: :P**

 **Skywolf99: Life can really suck sometimes, you know?**

 **Psychochiken: I'm contemplating returning to some worlds, if that's enough of an answer.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else. I'm just a broke college student...**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Biju/Deity Talking: " **Insert witty remark here**."

Biju/Deity Thinking: _'_ _ **Insert witty remark here**_ _.'_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

"Take this!" Asuna rushed at Naruto and brought her fan down at him in a strike from above. Quirking an eyebrow at the somewhat poor technique and speed, Naruto calmly stepped to the side. "Eh?"

"You need to be faster than that." Naruto teased, making Asuna blush in a mixture of anger and embarrassment. "More like _this_!" He lashed out a leg that caught her in the center of the chest, hurling her away.

"Asuna-san!" Negi cried in alarm. Swiftly pulling himself together, he abandoned thoughts of avoiding any fighting. "You won't get away with that!" He placed his staff on his back and slid into a battle stance. " **Song of Battle**!" Naruto frowned when he saw a bright glow came to life around Negi.

' _Definitely not a spell that I've seen…'_ Despite not knowing the spell, it's purpose became abundantly clear when Negi rocketed at him with a palm strike to the chest. _'Well, he's faster than I thought!'_ Unable to move out of the way in time, Naruto settled for using the side of his keyblade as a shield.

Although he wasn't expecting this, Negi was quick to follow up with whirling his body around in a reversal so that he was behind Naruto. Using that opening, Negi gathered wind in his palms and thrust them both into Naruto's back. " **Double Ramming Palm**!"

Grunting in pain and surprise, Naruto's body launched forward. Flipping in midair, Naruto landed on his feet and raised his keyblade for his counter. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to go with this idea when Asuna came back at him with another attack. "I've got you now!" Naruto shot his keyblade up to intercept the strike before immediately rolling to the side to avoid the elbow Negi sent at him.

Naruto sprang back up and swiped his keyblade at the two of them. " **Wind Storm**!" A harsh explosion of wind accompanied Naruto's strike, flinging Negi and Asuna away.

"Whoa!" Asuna flailed as she flew through the air before quickly righting herself again. Next to her, Negi was much more graceful in his landing.

"Seriously, I would rather not fight you guys!" Naruto called to them. "We can still end this now before someone gets hurt!"

Asuna growled in response. "Shut up, brat! You guys are the ones who came in here and picked a fight!" She readied her weapon again. "Trying to act innocent won't save you!" Negi nodded in agreement and got into his own battle stance.

A quiet groan escaped Naruto. "No, we didn't pick a fight with you…Or at least, only my idiot companion did…"

"I said stop making excuses!" Asuna demanded. "Negi, power me up!"

"Right!" Negi took a card that was similar to Asuna's out of his pocket and began casting. " **I invoke the contract for 180 seconds! Ministra Asuna Kagurazaka**!" Asuna twitched as a light encompassed her frame.

Encouraged by the boost, Asuna grinned and pointed her fan at Naruto. "Now you're definitely going down!" She took a moment to crouch before rushing him again, surprising Naruto slightly with her increased speed, but she only managed to get a few feet before a shout stopped her.

"Asuna-san, watch out!"

Eyes wide in surprise at Negi's words, Asuna skidded to a stop. The next second, a volley of bubbles sped by in in front of her face. Asuna yelped and jumped back in shock. "What the hell?!" Naruto smirked as Asuna and Negi turned their heads towards the source of the bubbles.

Standing off to the side was a smiling Kairi with her hand raised at them. "You should quit before you get too far behind~" She quipped.

This only served to anger Asuna further, as shown by her darkening face. "Why you…" She shook her fan at Kairi. "What kind of weapon is a bubble?!"

Naruto quirked an eyebrow. "A bubble isn't a weapon, it's a spell." His eyes slid to her fan. "And the girl swinging a giant fan has no room to talk about dumb looking weapons."

"Says the kid with the oversized key!" Behind Asuna, Negi had a small frown on his face as he stared at Naruto's weapon.

"I never said mine wasn't weird!" Naruto sighed in irritation and shook his head. "But back to the point, none of us want to fight!" At that exact moment, an explosion boomed from somewhere nearby, along with the gleeful laughter of a certain dragon slayer.

"Come on, step it up! I'm having fun!"

A similar bout of laughter was heard from the black haired boy. "You're pretty tough! But are you sure you can handle me going all out?!"

"Of course I can! Ha, in fact, I'm _really_ getting fired up now!" This declaration was punctuated with another explosion. "I knew there would be people to fight here!"

The crimson blond closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "…He doesn't count."

"Save it for someone who believes you!" Asuna shouted. "This ends now!" She sped at Naruto again, who looked to be getting increasingly annoyed that she wouldn't listen to him.

Frowning, Naruto pulled his keyblade back. "Fine then…" A soft glow covered his body. "I will just have to make you listen…" Deciding upon the best way to disarm her, Naruto tensed his body. In a flash, he shot across the plaza at the older girl. Asuna's eyes widened in shock when Naruto appeared in front of her with his keyblade raised. "Sorry about this." He slashed at her.

"I think that's enough for now." Both Naruto and Asuna were stopped cold by a newcomer seemingly materializing between them, blocking Naruto's keyblade.

Naruto blinked at the sudden appearance of the man. _'Where did he come from?'_ Naruto didn't even notice the man get close, let alone get close enough to get in the middle of them and end the fight.

The man had a small smile on his face as he glanced between the plaza's occupants. "You guys are getting pretty loud. I realize that this is a festival, but this kind of noise is typically frowned upon…" Looking to the side, Naruto noted that the other fights stopped too.

Asuna blushed crimson when her brain caught up to who had stopped her. "T-Takahata-sensei!"

Next to her, Negi was equally shocked to see the man. "Takamichi!"

Naruto had a small frown on his face as he took in the man's appearance. At first, Naruto thought him to be an older man, but a closer look made Naruto second guess that notion. The man was wearing a white suit, but unlike Negi's, his seemed more natural. A cigarette hung from his lips in a manner that reminded Naruto of Asuma, and the effect was only increased by the way the man had both hands in his pockets, like Asuma often does.

The now named Takahata took one last scan of the plaza and its current condition before releasing a tired sigh. "I knew this was going to be trouble…"

"Y-You knew we were going to be attacked, Takahata-sensei?" Asuna stammered. Naruto blinked at the sudden shift in personality for the girl. If he hadn't seen firsthand how loud and brash she was, he would have thought her to be a somewhat shy teenager. "So does this mean you know what they're up to?"

The orange haired girl's question only prompted Takahata to sigh again, much to her and her companions' confusion. Instead of answering, he turned towards Naruto with a sheepish expression. "I'm really sorry about this…"

"Takamichi? Why are you apologizing to them?" Negi asked.

Not having expected the apology, it took Naruto a moment to process it. "…It's not a problem." Shaking off his surprise, he smiled and got into a more relaxed stance. "I'm just glad that it ended before things went too far." Hesitantly, the others also got into non-hostile stances and walked over to where Naruto and Takahata were standing.

"I'm really confused…" The black haired boy muttered, getting an agreeing nod from Setsuna. "Why are you talking like these guys are guests or something?"

"That's because they are." Takahata said tiredly, further shocking the them. "These four people are not a threat. In fact, we should be welcoming them to Mahora."

"B-But they attacked us!" Asuna cried out.

Naruto frowned minutely. "Hey, remember that I tried to avoid a fight, but it still escalated into one." He threw a glare at the dragon slayer, who whistled innocently. "But that isn't entirely your fault."

Takahata nodded. "I can imagine that one of the people on our side was eager to fight someone." He shot the black haired boy a pointed look.

"That's…They…" Asuna's eyes were wide as she attempted to come to terms that they were the ones who had messed up. "Wait, then who the heck are these people?!"

Smiling slightly, Takahata turned towards Negi, who seemed to be extremely guilty over the situation. "I'm actually surprised that Negi didn't realize who they are. After all, he is a collector and must have done quite a bit of studying into magical artefacts and weapons."

Negi's eyes grew wide at that Takahata's words. "Um, I should have known they were not a threat because of a magical artefact?"

Takahata's smile grew. "Negi, how many magical weapons do you know of that is shaped like a giant key?" Negi frowned at the clue and took another look at Naruto's keyblade.

"I'm not sure I have heard any weapons of that nature…" His frowned deepened as his mind raced to remember his readings. Suddenly, he released a gasp. "Wait, I think I _have_ read about weapons that were shaped like keys, but one hasn't been seen in a long time!" Naruto watched as Negi's face glowed in excitement. "If I recall correctly, your weapon is a keyblade!"

Naruto slowly nodded. "Yeah, it is…" He could feel a resigned weariness creep up on him. _'I thought that most people didn't know about keyblades or other worlds…Out of the four worlds we've been to, only one of them had people who didn't know anything…'_

The black haired boy and Setsuna traded a confused glance while Asuna's agitation rose. "Okay, so his weapon is an oversized key, so what?"

"Um…" Negi rubbed the back of his head. "I'm…not too sure, really. Takamichi, how does knowing what his weapon is help me know that he isn't a threat?"

Takahata hummed in thought. "I suppose you didn't come across the purpose of a keyblade and its wielder then…" He shrugged. "In the end, I guess it doesn't matter. I will let the headmaster explain it to you." Takamichi turned back towards Naruto. "Would you mind coming with me, please? Besides stopping the fight, the reason I'm here is to guide you to the headmaster."

Naruto frowned and dismissed his keyblade. "That's fine…But a member of our group got separated from us before the fight. We were searching for him when this entire thing happened…"

"Oh, that could be a problem…" Quickly considering his options, Takahata spoke up. "There are other people here who are aware of magic's existence. I can send out a message to them and ask for their help in finding your friend. Would that be alright?" Seeing that Natsu was about to protest, he continued. "I promise that we will let you continue searching for him as soon as possible, but he shouldn't be in any danger."

Although he didn't like it in the least, Naruto slowly nodded in agreement. "…That's fine…But I'm not sure I trust him to be on his own for too long and not get into any trouble."

Takahata huffed a laugh. "Sounds like some troublesome students I know. I can think of a class that is full of students like that." Off to the side, Asuna blushed while Setsuna simply averted her eyes.

' _Judging by their reactions, I can take a guess as to who he's talking about…'_ Naruto thought dryly.

* * *

 **Headmaster's Office (A Little Later)**

Takahata led the group into a large room with a window that overlooked the city. Taking a quick glance around, Naruto noted that the room somewhat reminded him of the Hokage's office back in Konoha. Once he was done, he turned his eyes to the old man behind the desk.

It took a lot of self-control not to show any surprise over the man's appearance.

"Whoa! Look at his eyebrows!"

Naruto immediately turned his head around to glare at Natsu, who was openly gaping at the old man. "Idiot, don't say things like that-ttebayo!"

"But look at them! They're huge!" Natsu defended. Gray sighed at the spectacle and Kairi released a nervous giggle. Despite this, it was obvious that Takahata thought the dragon slayer's words were amusing, judging by the fact that his smile grew. Standing near the back of the room, Negi appeared to be shocked by Natsu's words while Asuna and the black haired boy snickered quietly. Setsuna's face was carefully blank, but it had lost some color.

"It doesn't matter! That's not what you say to people when you meet them! Especially not important people!" Naruto reprimanded before looking back to the old man. "I'm really sorry about him. He doesn't have a complete grasp of basic manners yet..."

"Ohohoho~" Naruto blinked in surprise when, instead of getting mad, the old man began to laugh. "It's not a problem, it's actually refreshing to hear such an honest opinion!"

Natsu grinned. "You see? Everything is fine. He's not mad!"

"That's not the point!" Naruto growled. Shaking his head in frustration, he shifted his attention back to the old man. "It's nice to meet you, sir. I apologize for any trouble we caused by coming here."

The old man waved him off. "Again, it's not a problem. No damage was done so there is nothing to apologize for."

"If you say so..."

"I do say so." The old man nodded. "Now, before we get any further, how about some introductions? I'm sure that there are a few people here that would dearly like to know what is going on."

"Finally." Naruto heard Asuna mutter from behind. "Who the heck are these people?"

Ignoring her, Naruto smiled slightly. "My name is Naruto. This is Gray," Said ice mage nodded. "Natsu,"

"Hey there!"

"and Kairi."

"Hello."

"Naruto, Gray, Natsu, and Kairi." The old man repeated. "It's very nice to meet you. I'm Konomon Konoe, the headmaster of Mahora Academy."

A small frown made its way onto Gray's face. "...Isn't Mahora the name of the city?" He asked. "Which part of it is the academy?"

"The entire thing."

Gray blinked. "...What?"

Konoe appeared to be amused by their shock. "The entire city is the academy. There are many divisions, but Mahora Academy spans the entire city."

Natsu's gaped at him. "This city is a gigantic school?! It's huge!"

Laughter erupted from Konoe as Takahata chuckled. "Yes, I suppose it is somewhat larger than normal." The headmaster waved a lazy hand at the other people in the room. "You've introduced yourselves, so now it is our turn. You already know my name, the others are Setsuna-kun," The black haired girl nodded silently. "Kotaro-kun,"

"Yo!"

"Asuna-kun," The orange haired girl glared before huffing and turning her head away. "Takahata-sensei," Takahata smiled. "and "Negi-sensei."

Negi bowed formally. "H-Hello there."

All of the off-worlders stared at the boy. Slowly, Naruto turned back to the headmaster, unsure if he had heard correctly. "...Did you say Negi- _sensei_?" He asked hesitantly. "He's a teacher?" Negi blushed at the question and began stammering in an attempt to explain.

"Oh! I-I promise that I'm qualified for the position!" Negi said quickly. "And I like to think that I've been doing very well!"

Sighing, Naruto shook his head. "Never mind..." He wasn't going to question it. Things would be easier if he simply accepted it as something normal for this world. Naruto shifted his attention to the headmaster again. "Back to the reason we're here…Takahata-san said that you wanted to see us?"

Noticing the subject change, Konoe nodded. "I did request that, yes." He leaned forward. "Many of the magically aware people on campus noticed your arrival earlier, as I'm sure you have deduced. And while not all of them were able to tell who you were and what your purpose coming here was, some people were able to tell...Myself included."

"Wow, you were able to tell just by sensing them, headmaster?" Negi asked in awe. "That's amazing!"

Konoe smiled at the boy. "Thank you, but it is hardly a difficult feat for those who have come across a keyblade wielder before." Takahata nodded in agreement. "Keyblade wielders give off a very specific aura and presence, so it was simple to recognize young Naruto's status." His eyes locked with Naruto's. "...Although I _do_ sense something slightly different about your aura..." He shook his head. "But it was still easy enough to tell."

Naruto frowned slightly in thought. "You've met another keyblade wielder? Who?"

"I haven't seen them in many years, but I have friends who are keyblade wielders." Konoe explained. "I imagine that by now, they have become masters and perhaps have taken on students of their own. Their names are Eraqus and Yen Sid." Naruto's eyes widened.

"Master Eraqus..." He repeated.

"Oh, you do know him?" Konoe happily inquired. "So he managed to become a keyblade master then? Are you his student?" He paused when he saw the sad look on Naruto's had. "Oh, I see..."

"I'm sorry...Master Eraqus died over a decade ago." A scowl formed on Naruto's. "He was betrayed by another keyblade master."

Konoe sighed deeply. "That's terrible..." After a moment of silence, he spoke up again. "What happened to the other master?"

"Master Eraqus' students fought him and took him out, but it is doubtful that he is gone forever." Naruto said quietly. A determined expression made its way onto Naruto's face. "But when he does come back, I'm going to be there to stop him. He is a danger to all the worlds out there, he can't be allowed to win. It isn't the main reason I'm traveling from world to world, but it is definitely one of them." Naruto's companions were giving him surprised looks, not having heard this story before.

"May I ask why the main reason is then? It is unusual for a wielder to travel far from their master, unless the master has a specific task for them...And you seem to be a tad too young to be a keyblade master..." He paused. "Unless this is your Mark of Mastery exam? Are you taking it early?"

Naruto shook his head. "No, I'm not here for my exam. There has been an alarmingly large number of worlds that have been consumed by darkness recently. That, along with another issue, makes us believe that there is a person out there behind it orchestrating things."

The atmosphere in the room instantly turned tense. While Negi, Asuna, Setsuna, and Kotaro didn't appear to understand what they were talking about, it was obvious that Takahata and Konoe did.

The headmaster steepled his hands, his presence completely changed into something far more grave. "That _is_ a serious problem...One that cannot be allowed to continue. I will admit that this isn't my area of expertise, but I have learned enough from Eraqus and Yen Sid to understand the implications." His eyes trailed over the off-worlders. "So then your mission is to find the person responsible and stop them?"

The crimson blond nodded. "Exactly. And I'm locking up the keyholes I come across along the way."

This time, it was Konoe's turn to nod. "That is a good idea..."

Before anything else could be said, a voice interrupted them. "Wait, now just hold on a minute!" Glancing back in surprise, Naruto saw Asuna standing there with a glare. "I'm sorry, headmaster, but what the heck are you guys talking about?! You guys aren't making any sense! You're talking like there are other worlds!" Negi, Setsuna, and Kotaro seemed to agree with her.

Despite the situation, Konoe allowed a small smile to pull at his lips. "That's because we _are_ speaking about other worlds that are out there, Asuna-kun." A stunned silence from those who were unaware. "It is a well-kept secret, one that is even lesser known than the existence of magic." They just stared at him.

Kotaro was the first to recover from the revelation. "Wait...Hold on...So they're aliens?!" Negi gasped dramatically as Naruto twitched. As opposed to Naruto's irritation, Kairi released a giggle while Gray snorted.

"We are?!" And then there was Natsu...

"Strictly speaking in terms of what world we're from...yes, we're aliens." Naruto rolled his eyes at the shock they displayed. "But we're still humans...Just ones that aren't from around here."

Asuna glanced at them warily. "Are you gonna probe us?"

"...What?" Did she seriously ask that?

"You know! Abduct us, tie us down to a table, and then dissect us! And then drop us back off with no memories of what happened when you're done!" Asuna ranted.

"They're going to dissect us?!" Negi asked frantically.

Taking a deep breath, Naruto spoke slowly. "Did you not hear the part about us being humans too? Or the thing about being here for a reason?" Asuna's wide eyes blinked at him. "...You know what? Never mind." He shifted his attention back to the obviously amused headmaster. "As I said, were here to both search for any clues on who is behind the worlds disappearing and to lock the keyhole."

Konoe stroked his beard thoughtfully. "I see...And time is of the essence..."

"Do you know where this world's keyhole is, headmaster?" Kairi asked curiously. If he was able to tell them, then it would save a lot of trouble.

With a sigh, Konoe shook his head. "Unfortunately, I do not know. The keyhole only appears when it is needed, and usually only to those who wield a keyblade. If it appears for any other reason, then things are indeed dire." He glanced out the window that overlooked the city. "It could be anywhere."

Crossing his arms, Naruto frowned. "Then we need to start searching. When this world came up on our ship's computer, this city was what was focused on. That makes me believe that the keyhole is at least somewhere within it. All the light I'm detecting in the area only improves the possibility of this." He grimaced. "Although I don't know how much of a comfort that is. This place is huge."

"It _does_ seem to be a difficult job." Takahata began, a small smile playing at his lips. "Especially if it is just the four of you looking...And to top it off, none of you are familiar with the city..." His smile grew as Negi gasped.

Beaming, Negi took a step forward. "I'll help them, headmaster! I know my way around the city _and_ I know what's going on!" He actually appeared to be somewhat excited to help.

Unfortunately for Negi, Asuna immediately dashed all his hopes. "Don't be stupid, Negi. You're already busy enough without worrying about all this alien stuff! There's no way that you will be able to keep all of your promises _and_ help them!"

"B-But..." Negi faltered. "This is important!"

"And your students aren't?" Asuna demanded.

"I never said that!"

Still smiling slightly, Takahata interjected. "Your enthusiasm is appreciated, but it wouldn't be right for you to break your promises." Negi looked dejected at this, not noticing the amused glances that Takahata and Konoe exchanged. "...However, this is a serious situation where any help offered would be appreciated. I'm sure you can rotate out helping finding the keyhole with your normal patrols. You can do both."

Konoe nodded in agreement. "That sounds like a good idea. I approve of this and will send you a revised schedule as soon as I am able to." His eyes moved to the off-worlders. "And I assume you are not against having some people tag along to help?"

Naruto smiled and shrugged. "Like I said, this place is big. Having another person who is willing to help and knows the area is always welcome."

"Sweet! Then I'll help too!" Kotaro cheered before shooting a small look of distaste at Negi. "And unlike Negi, I _didn't_ fill my schedule up with a bunch of meetings with girls..." Those who didn't know what he was talking about were shocked about the implications of a ten-year-old being so busy because he had too many dates.

"It's not like that!" Negi's face was nearly as red as his hair. "They're my students!"

"Ehehehe...But they're still dates, Aniki..." For the first time, Naruto noticed something white sitting on Negi's shoulder. "Deny it all you want, but it's true."

"It is not!"

' _Now there's a talking ferret...'_ Deciding that he didn't want to follow this direction for the conversation any further, Naruto turned to the headmaster. "I have two more things to ask you."

Konoe quirked an eyebrow in interest. "Yes? Go on."

"How much heartless activity do you get here?" Naruto asked.

A small frown formed on the elder's face. "Heartless activity...We're fortunate that we don't get that much of it, but there is no denying that activity has picked up somewhat in recent months. Because of the secrecy concerning other worlds, they are classified as a type of demon. There is a barrier surrounding the city that keeps them out, so there shouldn't be any problems with them."

After absorbing the information, Naruto moved on to his second question. "Alright...The other thing is that we were separated from one of our companions after entering the world. We were in the process of looking for him when it was requested that we meet you."

"Oh, I see..." Konoe stroked his beard in thought. "A person lost in an unfamiliar place is already a potential problem, but I assume that your companion at least knows to stay out of trouble and not draw attention to himself..." He stopped upon seeing Naruto and Gray grimace while Kairi smiled sheepishly. "Or is that not correct?"

Hanging his head in resignation, Naruto spoke up. "No...No it's not. I don't trust him on his own. Whether it's to keep his mouth shut or not get into trouble, I wouldn't be surprised if he has already started a commotion."

Takahata sighed quietly. "That could be a problem...We should focus on finding your missing companion before searching for the keyhole. What does he look like?"

Gray snorted. "He's a talking, flying, and blue cat. You can't miss him." All of the locals stared at him in disbelief. "I'm completely serious."

Asuna scowled at him. "Yeah, right! Cat's aren't blue, they can't fly, and they _definitely_ can't talk!"

"And I guess a talking ferret is acceptable?" Naruto muttered, earning a glare from said rodent.

"Hey, whisker face! In case you haven't noticed, I'm an _ermine_!"

"I'm sorry for my inability to tell the difference. I'll do my best to not make that mistake in the future." Naruto said sarcastically, not liking the name the ermine used for him. "Now then, if that's all, I would like to start searc-"

Suddenly, he was cut off as the room and its occupants were submerged into an overwhelming feeling of cold. Tensing, Naruto summoned his keyblade out of reflex and slid into a battle stance, his companions preparing themselves in similar ways. The thing that _really_ set Naruto on edge was the fact that there was the feeling of darkness mixed in to the new presence.

Kairi glanced around nervously with wide eyes. "W-What is this?" She had never felt something so… _sinister_ before. Slowly, she began to inch closer to Naruto while preparing herself to either attack or defend as needed.

Before anything else could be said, a glowing magic circle appeared on the floor in the center of the room. A moment later, a voice that sent chills down the spines of the off-worlders echoed. "Kukukuku…No, that is _not_ all, boy."All eyes were locked on the magic circle as a person rose from it. "You see, you will be doing me a _special_ favor…" Naruto tightened the grip on his keyblade and glared at the woman who was giving off the feeling of overwhelming darkness. "Ah, that is a good expression you have." Her already wide grin spread further. "But I advise you to not do anything foolish." Her eyes moved to his keyblade. "I am lucky to have such an opportunity. It has been a long time since I have met a keyblade wielder…"

Naruto glared at her. "Who the hell are you?" He demanded.

The woman was tall, blond, and had ice blue eyes. She was wearing a grand outfit fit for a dark queen, complete with a cape. Had circumstances been different and she wasn't giving off such an evil aura, then Naruto would have even called her beautiful. But the fact that he felt uneasy simply by being in her presence destroyed any such thoughts.

A dark chuckle escaped the woman as her eyes glinted maliciously. "Me? Do you truly not know who I am?" She released a cold laugh. "In that case, allow me to grant you the honor of knowing whom you stand before!" She flourished her cape dramatically. "I have gone by many names over many centuries, but there have been a few that I am particularly fond of." A chilly wind swept through the room, making her cape billow again. "I am the Puppet Master. The Advent of Evil. The Apostle of Calamity." The wind picked up as frost slowly crept across the floor. "The Queen of the Night! The Disciple of Dark Tones! The Gospel of Darkness!" She laughed high and cruelly. "I am-"

"An overdramatic, talkative, and annoying little _brat_!" The extensive introduction was cut short by Asuna wielding her oversized fan. Not bothering to pay attention to the wind or ice, the orange haired girl rushed up to the woman and struck her in the face.

"Gah?!" And just like that, the entire changed from only a moment away from a fight to everyone staring at the spectacle in front of them. The moment Asuna's fan hit the woman, there was a puff of smoke and the feeling of cold and darkness vanished. In the woman's place was a little girl around Negi's age, and she was clutching her cheek while glaring with teary eyes. Taking a closer look, Naruto noticed that she looked like a younger version of the woman, but she was instead wearing a school uniform. "W-W-What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

Asuna pointed at the girl, matching the glare head on. "Me?! What the hell do you think _you're_ doing?! You're the one who came in here and started the whole doom and gloom evil queen speech!"

Naruto slowly relaxed his posture as he watched the two girl descend into bickering, both of them ignoring Negi's pleas to stop arguing. "…What am I watching…?" He asked.

Behind them, Takahata sighed silently, already having figured out what this was about. _'Here we go…'_ Dearly wishing he could take out a cigarette while inside the office, he answered. "That girl is Evangeline A.K. McDowell, one of Negi's students. She is magically aware and powerful, so it isn't a surprise that she detected you guys and recognized what your presence meant."

The crimson blond frowned and took in her appearance. _'The darkness is still there, but it seems…muted now. Something is suppressing it.'_

As if reading his mind, Takahata spoke up again. "Don't worry about her, she isn't an enemy." He said reassuringly. "Evangeline _does_ use darkness, but she doesn't let it control her. And she has enough experience with it at this point that it is extremely unlikely for her to lose herself to it, if not outright impossible."

Humming in thought, Naruto studied the girl one last time before nodding and relaxing completely. "Alright then." He glanced back at the man. "So? Why is she here?"

Hearing this, Evangeline stopped arguing with Asuna and sent a wicked smile at Naruto. "Me? I'm here for one reason." She pointed at Naruto. "Boy, you will use your keyblade to release me from my prison!"

Smiling, Takahata interjected. "Sorry, Evangeline, but that won't be happening." The blond immediately faltered.

Recomposing herself, she glared at Takahata. "And just why the hell not?!"

Takahata chuckled. "You know full well that keyblade wielders aren't supposed to interfere with matters that don't concern other worlds. Your seal has no impact on the balance and safety of other worlds, so he can't release you." Evangeline scowled at that.

"Oh, so it's a seal." Naruto realized, regaining the attention of the room. "I was wondering why your darkness felt like that."

With a huff, Evangeline crossed her arms. "Yes, yes. My power and I are bound. While I can access it in small amounts, most of it is still out of my reach." Her scowl deepened. "And to make matters _worse_ I am forced to stay in this damn school as a student!"

Negi hesitantly spoke up. "Um, Master…How can Naruto-san help you?" Evangeline's scowl fell as she raised an eyebrow.

"Oh? I was under the impression that you had the abilities of a keyblade explained to you, boya. Was I wrong?"

Naruto shrugged. "They mostly just listened in while we told the headmaster we were here to find and lock the keyhole. They don't know the details or the other powers of the keyblade." He turned to Negi and the others. "Keep in mind that while the keyblade _is_ a weapon, it is also a key. A keyblade has the power to undo any type of lock or seal, no matter how powerful it is. On top of that, something locked by a keyblade can only be unlocked by another keyblade." Negi, the ermine, Asuna, and Kotaro's jaws dropped at that, while Setsuna simply had wide eyes.

"Something like that actually exists…" Setsuna said quietly. "That is a very powerful and dangerous weapon."

The crimson blond nodded in response before looking to Evangeline. "Like Takahata-san said, I can't undo your seal, sorry. While it is within my power, there are rules I need to follow."

"Tch." Evangeline wasn't happy to hear that. "Fine, fine, whatever…"

Smirking at her attitude, Naruto met the headmaster's amused eyes. "Anyways, back to the matter at hand, I would like to start searching for our missing companion now. After we find him, we can start doing sweeps for the keyhole."

Konoe nodded in understanding. "Very well. The search may take a few days to complete. Do you have a place to stay?" A smile began to creep across his face. "Because if not, I can arrange one for you…" Off to the side, Asuna began glaring at Naruto in distrust, already knowing where the headmaster was going with this.

Naruto shook his head. "That's alright, we can stay in our ship. But thanks for the offer." Asuna allowed herself to relax. "If that's all…?"

The headmaster nodded, slightly disappointed. "Yes, that's it. I wish you luck in finding your companion. I will send out word to the magically aware population in the city to keep an eye out. Also keep in mind that while you are in this world, you shouldn't use magic freely. That is a secret that must not get out."

"We understand. We won't do anything to expose magic." Naruto and Gray both pinned Natsu with glares. " _Right_?"

Swallowing nervously, Natsu averted his gaze with a nervous laugh. "R-Right…Of course. I can totally keep a secret…" Gray snorted but didn't comment.

"Glad we all understand…" Naruto muttered. _'But that can make locking they keyhole a problem…The entire process is pretty flashy.'_ Deciding to think about it after they found Happy, Naruto nodded to the headmaster. "Then we will be on our way now." He turned to Negi's group. "Sorry for the inconvenience, but we appreciate the help."

Negi smiled at him. "It isn't a problem at all! We're happy to help! I can help you search for about an hour before I need to check up my students who are operating our haunted house. After that, I'm free until this afternoon."

Setsuna dipped her head in agreement. "Helping you will be our pleasure. Is there anywhere specific that you think we should check for your friend first?" While Natsu took on a contemplative expression, Naruto, Gray, and Kairi traded glances.

Sighing, Naruto answered. "Can you take us to the booths selling fish?"

* * *

 **There we go! Finally all done with Chapter 45!**

 **I don't know how he did it, but the creator of Negima** _ **really**_ **stretched out the Mahora Festival arc. When it started, the Negima manga was on chapter 81, but the arc ended on chapter 162. So by the time it was done, it seriously spanned half of the manga…Wow. The weirdest part is that the entire arc took place over just three days, but it was hard to tell because of all the time travelling and stuff that goes on. Obviously, we don't have time for that, so I won't be putting everything in here.**

 **Okay, at this point in the series, the Negima characters…I'm not going to say they're weak, but I sure as hell am not going to say they're strong, either. It could be that I'm a little biased, but I don't think that Naruto would have too much trouble against them right now…Especially Asuna (Who has only just started actually training) and Negi (Sorta the same for him, but not to the same extent). Some of the other characters, sure, but not those two right now.**

 **Evangeline's nickname for Negi is boya, for those who didn't know.**

 **Expect the next chapter…Eventually.**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	47. The Friendly Neighborhood Martian

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 46!**

 **What the hell? Another chapter? And it** _ **hasn't**_ **been three months?!**

 **Yes, this is happening. Did you seriously expect me to not give you** _ **anything**_ **on the one-year anniversary of the story? Of course I have something! I was** _ **going**_ **to give you this extra-long chapter, but then I remembered that I was a lazy bastard. Sucks, doesn't it?**

 **I'll guess you'll have to settle for getting the other part** _ **tomorrow**_ **then, huh? :P**

 **I say I'm not gonna be going through PMs or anything and then I suddenly get more…Sorry, but I didn't even bother looking through who sent them. Hell, I didn't even read the reviews for the last chapter until just now.**

 **If you didn't know, out of my three stories, this is the one that I enjoy writing the most (Strange since it's also my least popular story, right? I write what I feel like writing). So that's why I'm more willing to get to work on this while the others haven't been updated for an even longer period of time.**

* * *

 **animeandgamerlover2: Thanks!**

 **animecollecter: I know, right?**

 **guest-bat: Thanks! Good to be back.**

 **Kairitrion Cerulean: I know…I'm terrible, aren't I? Oh, someone actually noticed that? That was on purpose! For reasons I have yet to divulge though, so sit tight (You'll be sitting there for a** _ **while**_ **). And is a little more than a week a short enough period?**

 **V01dSw0rd: Could there be? Sure. Is there? As far as I know, there isn't. Will I make one? …This idea intrigues me. As for the profile update, I kinda/sorta/halfway did. Granted, I just said I was unmotivated and had real life problems, but that's something. You mean like straight out saying they are on hiatus? I was reluctant to do that because to me, that is too close to abandoning them for comfort. Most stories on this site don't come out of hiatus. This way, it's more of me being a lazy jackass and the chapter is** _ **really**_ **late.**

 **redlox2: I feel like a bastard for not updating a story in 4-5 months, but over a year…? I'm definitely going to get back to the other two before that happens…Eventually!**

 **Vongola Jinja: The vampire loli is your first choice, eh…? That says a lot about you…Ha, kidding! Anyways, Eva is pretty much the only one that could really work…As for the rule breaking, you raise valid points. And that's as much as I'm willing to say on that subject for now. :P**

 **Lobod287: 'High quality writing'. Uh…Are you reviewing the right story? :P They're pretty much wrapped up, but I don't think it's the end of them. It's more like a lull.**

 **rinsegaku: I wanna finish the next chapter first. I'm starting it now.**

 **Guest: Ooohhh, there's an idea…But it contradicts what I've already established…Hm….**

 **NatNicole: Come on, there's no way I** _ **couldn't**_ **do it like that!**

 **rex4487: 'Greatness' is definitely not the word I would use for the crap I write, but thanks! I was reading a few One Piece fics recently, so it's** _ **really**_ **increasing my desire to put it…But will it actually happen? Who knows…**

 **Seaman109: :P**

 **ChronoMitsurugi: Ugh, multiple reviews…I'll be responding to the parts that stood out to me. I get what you mean on the Yūgao portrayal, but I also like what I have. To me, she can be a professional while in ANBU, but relaxed when not. For that matter, there weren't many** _ **canon**_ **references to use, so I did what I wanted. And I** _ **absolutely**_ **had Final Flash in my head when I did that! Oh, a NarutoxMisa fan! That's also one of my favorite possibilities. Sorry, but Fairy Tail is one of my favorite mangas. And I understand. Thanks for being mature about it and** _ **not**_ **calling all my decisions stupid.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts, or anything else. I'm just a broke college student…**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Bijū/Deity Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Bijū/Deity Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here.**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **Streets of Mahora (One Hour Later)**

"I-It's alright, I'm sure we'll find him!" Negi said optimistically to an irritated Naruto. "That last booth told us that they remembered seeing a blue cat flying around earlier."

Naruto scowled at the reminder. "Yeah, but the fact remains that we _still_ haven't found the little pest _and_ he is apparently with a few students. It's only a matter of time before he says something that will lead to trouble."

"Oh, that would be bad…" Negi conceded.

"Yes, it would be." Naruto muttered. Shaking his head with a frustrated sigh, he continued. "Sorry, I'm just annoyed that even after I told him not to run off repeatedly, he still did it. And now we're walking around this city looking for him."

Asuna crossed her arms. "If you ask me, it sounds like he is stupid." This earned twin snorts from Naruto and Gray.

"Hey! Happy is _not_ stupid!" Natsu glared at her. "He was hungry and went to find food, so what?"

Rising to the challenge, Asuna glared back. "So now he's lost in a city where he is risking exposing everything!"

Natsu gained a nervous look. "I trust Happy! He won't do or say anything he shouldn't." He said with finality.

"Yeah, and _you_ wouldn't vomit by the mere thought of a vehicle." Gray said sarcastically. "And Naruto's mom isn't as scary as Erza." Naruto wasn't sure how he felt about such a comparison, but he couldn't refute it either way. Gray crossed his arms. "Any other 'truths' you want to bring up?"

Naruto couldn't withhold a sigh when Natsu immediately spun around to the ice mage. "Sure, I've got one. How about the fact that you can't go ten minutes without dropping your pants?" He growled.

"That's not as true as me saying that you pick a fight with everything that can throw a punch!"

' _Here we go…'_ Naruto stared as the two descended into another argument, ignoring all of Kairi's worried attempts to get them to stop. Glancing to the side, he noticed that Negi and Asuna were also watching them, caught off guard by how fast the fight started.

After leaving the headmaster's office, they parted ways with Kotaro and Setsuna, whose patrol duties were starting, and began looking for Happy. The six of them had spent the last hour searching the area for Happy, but they weren't able to find him. _'I can't believe we're spending our time asking around for a cat instead.'_ Naruto felt like an idiot every time he had to describe to people what Happy looked like!

"Say that again! I dare you!"

"Alright, if we trusted you alone, we would have split up to find him by now! But that would just end up with us looking for _your_ dumb ass too!"

"Bastard!"

Naruto frowned as more and more people began to stop what they were doing to stare at them. His frowned deepened when he saw that some of them were whispering and pointing at the group. _'We're attracting too much attention.'_ Deciding to break it up before it escalated into a brawl, Naruto strode up to them. "Enough!" He barked, adding a slap to both of their heads for good measure. Immediately, they whirled around to glare at him instead, but he didn't back down, instead scowling right back. "You two want to go at it, fine. But _don't_ do it in the middle of a crowded street when there are more important things to worry about!"

"He started it!"

"Jackass, you did!"

"I don't care who started it!" Naruto interjected. "What I _do_ care about is that we have a missing member in a city we have never been to before and the longer it takes for us to find him, the bigger the chance of something happening!" He looked between them, daring them to argue. "So stop fighting so we can focus on the matter at hand." He ordered. "On top of that, you're drawing a crowd when we were specifically asked not to do anything that catches too much attention." He didn't need to state that they have no doubt forgotten that they weren't supposed to do magic here, and that they were probably only a moment away from either burning the area or freezing it.

Natsu and Gray grimaced at the same time, well aware of the truth in Naruto's words. They shouldn't be fighting while they didn't know where Happy was. And the hidden reminder that they couldn't do magic was received loud and clear. Throwing one last glare to one another, they grumbled out their agreement. Slowly, the small crowd began to trickle away.

Letting out a sigh, Naruto rubbed his temples for a moment. "Thank you." Turning to Negi, he spoke up. "Sorry about that. You've probably noticed by now, but we occasionally get arguments between these two."

Negi recomposed himself and smiled. "It's not a problem. Even the best of friends fight once in a while."

"We're not friends!" Two voices shouted in unison.

Blinking, Negi tilted his head. "Eh? You're not? But I assumed…" Shaking his head, he smiled again. "My apologies. It's just that Asuna-san does the same thing with another student of mine named Ayaka Yukihiro, and they are best friends…"

"Wha-?!" Asuna glared at the small teacher. "I am _not_ friends with her!" This only served to confuse Negi further.

"B-But the two of you-"

"I said I'm not!" Asuna repeated fiercely.

Deciding to end the topic before the shouting drew another crowd, Naruto spoke again. "Anyways, shouldn't we continue? You said that you were supposed to check up on your students soon, right?"

Negi nodded. "Yes, that's right. My students decided that they would set up a haunted house for the festival, so I would like to make sure that everything is going alright." He began walking. "We are close by now, so we should arrive within the next few minutes." With that, the group continued.

They soon entered a building that had an interior that vaguely reminded Naruto of the academy back in Konoha, if not for a vastly different layout. Naruto blinked in surprise when they rounded a corner and came upon a line that was so long that it actually went up a staircase that went to the next floor.

"Wow, this line sure is long…" Negi said in surprise as he led them by the line. "I wonder what it's for?"

Asuna quickly gained an expression of slight disbelief. "Don't tell me…" Reaching the second floor, she sighed. "Yep, it's our class…"

"That's amazing!" Negi exclaimed. "They're doing so well!"

"Negi!" The group turned at the shout to see a pair of girls running up to them with big smiles on their faces. The both of them were dressed up in costumes for the occasion, but their costumes made Naruto blush lightly and quickly glance away due to the amount of skin they were showing. "Check it out! Isn't it great?!" The girl in the cat costume asked.

"The turnout is even better than we were expecting!" The girl in the devil costume added. It was then that she noticed the people with Negi for the first time. "Hm? Who are you guys? Friends of Negi-kun?"

Realizing that he should introduce them, Negi nodded. "Yes, these are guests that the headmaster requested that I show around Mahora." Gesturing to them, he continued. "These are Naruto-san, Kairi-san, Natsu-san, and Gray-san."

The girl in the cat outfit grinned. "Hey there, I'm Yuna Akashi. Welcome to the city!"

"And I'm Sakurako Shiina. Nice to meet you!"

Naruto nodded, still having a little trouble looking directly at them. "Same to you." _'What is with these outfits? Aren't these girls like fifteen or something?'_

Noticing the tint to his cheeks, Yuna's grin became devious. Cooing, she grabbed Naruto in a hug and purposefully pulled him into her chest in the guise of a hug. "Those whiskers are so cute! Are they some kind of face paint?"

Now beat red, Naruto hastily pulled away. "B-Birthmarks." He responded, inwardly cursing at himself for the stutter. Taking a deep breath to get control of himself, he continued. "They're birthmarks, not face paint."

Both girls gasped, only to immediately squeal. "No way! That is so cute!" Sakurako proclaimed.

Desperately seeking a means of escape from the attention, Naruto looked to Negi. "Anyways, Negi-san said you guys were doing a haunted house? How is that going?"

Negi quickly became excited at the reminder. "That's right! We came to check up on you girls." Naruto let out a sigh of relief when the girls latched onto Negi and started to pull him towards the entrance.

"Come see for yourself!" Yuna insisted. She glanced back to the rest of the group. "Do you guys want to have a go, too?"

It only took one quick look to confirm with the others before Kairi shook her head. "No, we're fine, thanks. We'll just wait by the exit."

"Sure thing. It's right over there." Taking a moment to point in the right direction, they continued dragging him away.

Once they were out of earshot, Gray sent a smirk at Naruto. "So…"

"Not. A. _Word_." Naruto hissed back. If anything, that only served to make his smirk widen.

"If you say so." Dropping the subject, he took in their surroundings. "But I gotta say, your class seems to know what they're doing, don't they? This line is insanely long." He commented to Asuna.

Asuna allowed a smirk to cross her face. "If there is anything class 3-A knows how to do, it's how to do things in the flashiest and most attention grabbing way possible." Turning to the exit, she walked closer to it. "Come on, he shouldn't be in there for more than a couple of minutes." They each took up spots by the exit, content to wait it out.

Putting his arms behind his head, Natsu looked out the window. "I wonder how long it will take us to find Happy…" This made Asuna frown.

"No clue. This place is pretty big, like we've said before. So he could be anywhere by now. You'd think it would be easy to find a blue cat that can fly and talk, but then it wouldn't be our luck if it was that simple." She finished dejectedly.

Suddenly, their attention was drawn to the sound of screaming. All eyes went to the exit as the source grew closer. Naruto blinked as he recognized the voice. "Isn't that Negi-san?" He asked hesitantly.

Asuna sighed. "Yeah, it is…" Shaking her head, she made her way towards the exit. "I knew they would go overboard when they realized it was him in there." She reached a hand out to open the door, but she never got the chance to when a crying Negi flew out and into her. "Wha-?"

Naruto gaped at the sight. "Where the hell did his pants go?"

"Asuna-san!" Negi cried. "I-It was terrible! There were all h-hands! And then headmaster was d-dead! And the worst part was the flying s-sk-skull!" He balled, clutching her desperately.

Ever so slowly, red crept into Asuna's cheeks as she realized just _where_ Negi was grabbing her. "You…" She began darkly, raising a shaky fist as she did so.

A light blush made its way onto Naruto and Kairi's cheeks as they registered that when Negi grabbed Asuna, his hands landed on her chest. Gray snorted at the scene in disbelief while Natsu shivered at the look on Asuna's face.

"…You say that you're terrified of a skull…?" Asuna said quietly. "I'll show you something to be terrified of!" Her hand began glowing.

' _Hey, hey, weren't you guys the ones who said not to use any magic?'_ Naruto wondered, but stayed quiet in order to not turn her anger onto himself.

"You stupid brat!" Asuna reared her fist back in preparation of a strike, but was cut off by the sound of laughter.

"Ahahaha! Where you going?! I thought we were having fun?!" A voice asked from inside the haunted house. Recognizing this new voice, Naruto scowled.

"Found him…" Out of nowhere, a small object flew out of the exit and towards Negi, who yelped and ducked behind Asuna. Taking a closer look, Naruto noted with annoyance that it was a flying cat wearing a skull mask.

Happy laughed some more as he chased Negi in circles around Asuna. "Wow, you're a big coward!" He never noticed the angry boy walking up to him. "You're as big of a scaredy-cat as Lucy!"

" _Happy._ " Said Exceed froze in place and slowly turned towards the source. A cold sweat broke out when he saw the dark look on Naruto's face.

"O-Oh. Hey there, Naruto." Gulping, he raised a paw in greeting. "How you doing?" A smile that sent chills down his spine was given.

"We looked all over for you when you vanished - _after_ you were warned _not to_ \- and you're here having fun scaring people in a haunted house-ttebayo?!"

"I'm sorry!"

* * *

 **A Few Minutes Later**

Happy and a now fully clothed Negi sported twin lumps on their heads as the group spoke to a couple of Negi's students.

"I apologize for any trouble Happy gave you…" Naruto said, but was waved off with smiles from the girls.

"It was nothing, really." Yuna insisted. "We just took him to get some fish before coming back here. He even helped us out with the haunted house, so we should be thanking you guys!"

The girl who said her name was Makie nodded. "Yep, yep. It was fun having him around!"

Happy flew up to Naruto and poked him repeatedly in the cheek. "You see? I've been good."

Waving him off, Naruto frowned. "The point is that you shouldn't have just disappeared like that in the first place. We came here for a reason. We can have fun and tour the festival after that."

"But Naruto~" Happy whined.

The tallest girl, Akira, blinked. "Naruto?" She repeated, prompting Naruto to turn his eyes to her. "Is there any chance that you are Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze?"

Not expecting this, Naruto was put slightly on guard, but nodded anyways. "Yeah, that's me…" He tilted his head. "How did you know my full name?" He asked warily. There shouldn't be anyone in this world that knew him.

Akira smiled and pulled an envelope out of her pocket. "This was given to me this morning. I was asked to give it to you when you came by the haunted house."

Now fully alert, Naruto took the envelope and took out the letter inside it. Reading over the first part, his eyes widened in surprise.

 _Dear Naruto-kun,_

 _I hope this letter finds you easily (Although I know it will). By now, I'm sure you're wondering just who would leave a letter specifically for you._

 _Or more specifically, who_ could _leave a letter meant for a keyblade wielder who only got to this_ world _today._

 _Have I caught your interest? Good. Let there be no mistake…I know who you are. I know why you're here. I even know a little about your_ true _destiny~_

 _But back to the matter at hand…The reason that I'm leaving this letter for you is because I wish to provide you with some crucial information…_

 _The keyhole of this world is located at the main plaza in front of world tree._

 _A juicy secret, isn't it? Aren't you glad that I told you? You're welcome~_

However, _this good news does come with a bit of bad news as well…_

 _You can't lock the keyhole until the conclusion of the festival's third day._

 _Why, you ask? The reason is simple!_

 _If you lock it early, a forced recognition spell tied to it will activate, revealing the existence of magic to everyone in the country._

 _While I would prefer it to be done to the entire world, there isn't enough power for that yet, so the country will have to do for now. No doubt that if such a thing happened, the truth will slowly spread anyways, eventually reaching the rest of the world._

 _An event like that would no doubt throw the entire world into disarray, wouldn't it? And for that to be the result of your actions would be unacceptable…Isn't that right, Mr. Keyblade Wielder? You can't help be the cause of chaos like that, can you?_

 _Well, I've said my piece! Do what you will with this information. Lock the keyhole up and reveal magic or wait until the conclusion of the festival, the choice is up to you!_

 _Say hi to Kairi, Natsu, Gray, and Happy for me!_

 _-The Friendly Neighborhood Martian_

Naruto's eyes were narrowed as he quickly read over the letter again. Glancing to either side of him, he saw that his companions were all reading over his shoulders. Kairi's eyes were wide while she processed the words that were written, Gray had a frown similar to his own, and Natsu had his head tilted in thought, which Happy was mirroring.

"This changes things." Kairi said quietly. "We know where it is now, but we can't lock it yet…"

"That's only if these words are to be believed." Gray pointed out. "They could be a lie."

The crimson blond folded the letter back up and nodded. "Gray's right, but we should still check it out." He looked to Negi's group, who appeared to be slightly unsettled by their reactions. "Akira-san, where did you get this letter?" He asked.

"Um, it was handed to me by someone wearing a Mahora Rangers costume. I couldn't see their face because of the costume's mask, but I didn't think much of it." She answered. "They just told me that you would be coming by with Negi-sensei later and they would appreciate it if I handed it to you."

Negi had a serious expression on his face, no doubt also grasping the improbability of someone from this world expecting the off-worlders showing up to the point of knowing where they would go. "What did the letter say?" He asked.

Naruto gestured towards the staircase. "Come on, I'll show you in a bit." They couldn't discuss this openly with the present audience.

Nodding in understanding, Negi sent a smile at his students. "Sorry, but it looks like something has come up."

Makie opened her mouth to ask what was going on, but Akira cut her off. Bowing politely, she spoke up. "We understand. We hope that whatever situation arose is resolved easily."

Sighing in defeat, Makie quickly bounced back to her usual cheerful attitude. "Yeah, what she said. We'll see you guys later!" Saying their farewells, the students walked off.

Once they were gone, Naruto looked to Negi. "Is there an empty classroom or something we can use to talk?"

"Yes, follow me." Negi responded before walking down the hall. The group soon came upon an empty part of the school. Taking a quick scan inside one of the rooms, Negi gestured for them to go inside. Once they were all inside, Negi frowned. "Now, what was in that letter? And for that matter, how did whoever sent it know you would be there?"

"No idea how they knew I would be there." Naruto said, handing the letter over. "But you should know what it says. I'm sure the headmaster will want to know about what's inside it." Accepting the letter, Negi and Asuna began to read it. Their eyes slowly grew wider and wider, while their faces paled. "T-This is-!"

"This is _bad_ , Aniki!" Naruto blinked when he remembered the ermine on Naruto's shoulder. "A spell that will make everyone in the country recognize magic as reality? That's an emergency!" The ermine, Chamo, said.

"No, duh!" Asuna agreed. "Is there even a spell that does that, Negi?!"

Negi swallowed nervously. "There _are_ a few forced recognition spells out there, but one of this scale? I've never heard of such a thing! The power it would need would be-" Suddenly, the young teacher trialed off as his eyes grew distant. "…The power it would need would be incredible…" He muttered.

Crossing his arms, Naruto snapped him out of it by talking. "Judging by the look on your face, you thought of a way that it could work?"

The young teacher's mind rapidly put all the pieces together. "I need to see it to make sure, but…it's possible that whoever put that spell up tied it to the world tree." Negi reasoned. "Based on what I've been told, _that_ would be enough power for something like this."

"The world tree?" Naruto repeated, glancing out the window at it. After a moment, his eyes widened. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot! I've gotten used to constantly sensing it, but there is a _lot_ of power coming from the tree. I was able to sense it while we were entering the world."

"Now just hold on a minute!" Asuna interjected. "The world tree? How would a giant tree be able to power a spell? And how would it have as much as you're making it sound?" A beat passed. "And why do you know about it but I don't?! Where the hell was I?!" She demanded.

Frowning in thought, Negi answered. "Yesterday, the headmaster called the _officially_ magically aware staff and students to the plaza to brief us on the world tree's power. It's actually a sacred tree that is constantly building up magical power. That's fine, but every twenty-two years, that power starts to overflow. It was meant to happen next year, but special circumstances made it happen a year early. I suppose if done right, then it would be possible to use that power in such a way…"

"But that doesn't explain how this person knew about the keyhole." Kairi added. "Or how they were able to tie the spell to it."

Negi nodded. "You're right, it doesn't." He folded the letter back up. "This needs to be reported to the headmaster. Are you alright with me giving him this letter?"

Naruto shrugged. "Go ahead. He needs to know and I've already read it. But we should go make sure that what it says is true."

"Agreed." Negi turned to Asuna. "Asuna-san, can you please deliver this to the headmaster? I know that you would rather come with us, but this needs to be given right away."

Scowling, Asuna checked her phone for the time. "You're just lucky that I need to meet with my club soon and don't have time to investigate this, or else I would say no and hit you for even suggesting that I don't go with you." She took the letter. "Leave it to me." She swiftly left the room.

Once she was gone, Negi spoke once more. "I'll guide you to the plaza. Follow me."

* * *

 **Streets of Mahora (A Little Later)**

The group made their way towards the world tree, and the closer they got to their destination, the more power Naruto was able to feel in the air. _'This power is insane…I feel like I can almost touch it.'_ He thought to himself. Looking to the side, he frowned when he noticed the expression on Kairi's face. "…Kairi."

Blinking, she turned to him. "Y-Yeah?"

"Are you okay?" This prompted the others to turn to her.

Not liking the sudden attention, she offered a shaky smile. "Of course! Never better! Why would anything be wrong?"

Naruto didn't believe it for a second. "It's the light, isn't it?" Kairi's eyes went wide. Seeing this, Naruto smiled at her. "I feel it too…It's weird isn't it?"

Sighing, Kairi bit her lip and looked around. "…Sorry, it's just…There is so _much_ of it. It's not _bad_ , but…"

Nodding in understanding, Naruto finished for her. "It's uncomfortable."

"Yeah, that's it." Kairi paused. "And it's strangely… _energizing_ , too. The more of it I feel, the stronger I feel…" Naruto quirked an eyebrow at that. If he had to guess, then it would be because of her status as one of the princesses that she was having such a reaction. Despite sensing it as well, Naruto wouldn't say it was giving him more energy…

"Excuse me." They turned to Negi, who had a curious expression on his face. "Did you two say that you can sense the magic of the tree? From here?" If he concentrated, Negi could detect some high concentration of magic in the air, but to do it to the extent that they're implying?

Naruto hummed in confirmation. "Yeah, we can. The tree has a lot of it stored up, like you said. But the thing that makes it easily detected by us is the amount of light that's infused with it. I don't think I've ever sensed so much light in one spot before."

"Fascinating…" Negi said quietly. "If you don't mind, would you be alright with explaining the workings of light to me? And darkness?" He requested.

Shrugging, Naruto responded. "If we get the chance, sure. But based on what I felt back in the office, I think that Evangeline-san knows her fair share about darkness…Maybe even more than I do, if what was implied about her is true. I wouldn't be surprised if she knows about light as well…You could also ask the headmaster or Takahata-san."

Negi smiled. "True, but you're a keyblade wielder. Your entire job revolves around light and darkness, so I'm interested in what input you can provide."

"Oh, I get it. Well, like I said, if we get the chance, sure." He looked ahead of them. "But based on huge amount of power I'm feeling just ahead of us, I think that we've arrived, right?"

Hearing this, Negi followed his line of sight and nodded, his expression turning more serious. "Yes, we have. This is the main plaza of the city, as well as the one of the six points where most of the tree's magic gets compiled." They were now walking up a grand staircase that ended by opening up to a large plaza. Naruto grimaced when he saw how many people were there.

' _This could be a problem…'_

"Negi-kun!" The group turned to see three people rushing up to them. While Naruto recognized Takahata, the other two were unfamiliar to him. Although judging by how they were both wearing suits, he guessed that they were also teachers.

Once the teachers reached them, Takahata spoke quietly. "We received a message from the headmaster that told us a bit about the situation. So you found the keyhole, but there is something preventing you from locking it?"

Negi nodded. "I'll explain to you in a moment. But first, can you help us clear the plaza? We won't be able to do anything with this many people here."

The teacher on Takahata's right grimaced lightly and scanned the area. "We can set up a barrier, sure, but it won't last for long. This is a high traffic area, so it makes it harder to keep everyone away. It worked yesterday, but we won't be able to keep this many people out for more than a few minutes."

"We probably won't need more than that." Naruto said, prompting them to look at him. "Just give us an opening, and we can take a quick look."

The female teacher frowned at him. "And who are you? You weren't at the meeting yesterday, so you shouldn't be authorized to be here."

Takahata smiled and raised a hand in a placating manner. "Now, now. I can promise you that Naruto-kun is supposed to be here. In fact, it's important that he is. I'm sure the headmaster will brief at least the rest of the magical staff later on." Takahata glanced over the group. "Ah, I see you found your missing companion."

"Aye! I'm Happy!"

The smile on Takahata's face grew at the greeting. "Hello there, I'm Takamichi Takahata. Next to me are Seruhiko-sensei and Kuzunoha-sensei. The three of us are some of the magically aware teachers in the city." He turned to his colleagues. "These kids are guests in the city that arrived today. They're magically aware, so don't worry about that." The woman, Kuzunoha, frowned but nodded.

"Back to the matter at hand, you need a barrier? We can do that. Just give us a minute." The other teacher, Seruhiko, said.

The three teachers spread out to different parts of the plaza. Naruto watched the three of them for a moment before he felt it. Slowly, the same feeling he got when they were confronted by Negi's group while searching for Happy crept up on them. Skimming the plaza, Naruto noticed that it was quickly voiding itself of people as the crowd left. Soon, they were the only ones remaining.

Once that was done, the teachers rejoined them. "Whatever you need to do, better get it done now." Kuzunoha advised. Nodding in understanding, Naruto walked up to center of the plaza, where a large obelisk stood.

Frowning, Naruto glanced around. "That letter said it was here…" He said quietly. When nothing happened, Naruto sighed and prepared to go back to the others, but he suddenly got the reaction he was waiting for.

A bright light lit up above the obelisk, forming into the shape of a keyhole. Naruto's frown deepened at the sight. While the keyhole was expected, the magic circle above it _wasn't_. To top it off, going from the keyhole to the circle was a single thread of what _felt_ like light.

Hearing multiple footsteps approach him, Naruto spoke. "Well, the letter was right. The keyhole is here…But judging by the fact that there's a magic circle attached to it, I'm guessing that whoever sent it wasn't bluffing about the other part." He sighed in frustration. "And I'm not familiar with your brand of magic, so I don't understand the magic circle."

Sporting a frown of his own, Negi took a step closer. "I can understand it…Or at least, I can understand _some_ of it at a glance…"

The crimson blond hummed. "And?"

"Whoever put this here is some kind of genius." Takahata said seriously, getting an agreeing nod from Negi. "This array is complex in ways that I can't even begin to describe. It's way above my level of understanding."

"One thing is for certain…" Negi began. "It is _definitely_ a spell that will have a wide area impact, and it is designed to imprint something upon the minds of everyone within range. If the rest of the letter is to be believed -and I think it is- then it really will forcefully make the entire country acknowledge the existence of magic."

Seruhiko's face was grave. "I think I'm starting to see what the all the urgency from the headmaster's message was about." He said. "I don't get what that keyhole is, but a spell that will reveal the existence to the country? I understand that much." He scanned the area again. "The barrier won't last much longer. Can you make them disappear?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, I think so. I just need to give it a little space." He took several steps back, and in response, the keyhole faded away, taking the magic circle with it. Once they were gone, his eyes went to Negi and Takahata. "Can you do something about the magic circle? Or do we really need to wait for the festival to end?"

Takahata took a long drag of his cigarette as he thought. "Sorry, but like I said, that was beyond me…Which says a lot for the expertise of whoever did this."

Instead of answering right away, Negi took a moment to think. Naruto felt his hopes rise, but they died when the young teacher shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I can't do anything about it, either. I could decipher some parts of it, but much of it was still a mystery to me. Perhaps I could do something given enough time to research it, but by that point, the festival would have already ended anyways."

"You also don't have the time for that, Aniki!" Chamo added. "You have a busy schedule as it is. Adding in deciphering that magic circle? It'll never happen!"

Kuzunoha cleared her throat. "While none of us are able to do anything, perhaps the headmaster can? I took a picture of the circle, so we can give it to him." She suggested.

"That's probably the best course of action for us right now." Takahata agreed.

"Hey, Naruto…" Said keyblade wielder quirked an eyebrow at Natsu to show that he was listening. "Couldn't you use your keyblade? Isn't that supposed to be able to undo any lock?"

Naruto titled his head as he considered it. "…Not this time. While it can be used to undo any lock or seal, we aren't dealing with one. That was a magic circle, and on top of that, it was one that is from a branch of magic that's different from mine. There isn't anything for a key to work with, whether it be unlocking or locking, so I can't do anything." What really worried him was the fact that whoever did it was able to connect it to the keyhole. That showed that they had enough knowledge of how the hearts of worlds worked to do such a thing.

"Oh…"

Sighing, Naruto noticed that the plaza was slowly starting to fill up with people again. "Anyways, there is no point to sticking around here if we can't lock the keyhole or undo the magic circle, so we should leave." The others nodded.

"If you can't complete your task of locking the keyhole until the end of the festival, what do you plan on doing?" Negi asked curiously, bringing about another frown from Naruto.

It was then that the smile returned to Takahata's face. "If I may make a suggestion?" He began. "As long as you're here, you might as well enjoy the festival. I'm sure that you can find more than enough things to do."

"Really?!"

"That sounds great!"

A reluctant smile broke across Naruto's face at the excitement in Natsu and Happy's voices. Glancing back, he noticed that even Gray had a smirk on his face while Kairi was smiling at the idea. Shrugging, Naruto nodded. "It's not like we have anything else to do, so sure."

"Great. Then enjoy your time here…Oh, and please take these." Naruto blinked when Takahata handed him a cell phone. "I was asked by the headmaster to pass these along to you when I got the chance. It will be helpful if you need to contact someone in a hurry. My number, Negi-kun's, the headmaster's, along with several magically aware staff and students are already in the contacts."

"Um…Sure, thanks." Naruto hesitantly took the device, suddenly very grateful for the fact that some of Urahara's inventions were designed like this. Otherwise, he wouldn't have a clue how to work it. The Elemental Nations didn't have anything like it. Naruto watched as Takahata gave one to the rest of the group as well.

"And these." He handed out five cards. "These cards are passes from the headmaster to have full access to the entire festival. Whether it be food, rides, attractions, or anything else, just show this pass and it will be free." Takahata instructed.

Natsu grinned widely as he accepted his. "Thanks!"

Nodding one last time, Takahata and the other teachers began to walk away. "If that's all, we'll be on our way now."

After a few moments, Negi checked the time and let out a startled yelp. "Sorry, but I need to get going too!" He said. "I'm supposed to meet up with Setsuna-san soon!"

Naruto smiled at him. "No problem. Thanks again for all the help you've given us."

Blushing lightly, Negi scratched the back of his head. "It wasn't a problem, really. I was happy to help…" He said quietly before bowing. "I'll be on my way as wel-"

"Wait!" Negi jumped when Natsu abruptly shot an arm out and latched onto his collar with a grin. "Before you go, tell me if there is somewhere in this city where I can fight some strong people!"

Hearing this, Naruto glared and opened his mouth to reprimand Natsu, but Negi spoke first. "F-Fight people?" Negi repeated. A second later, his face lit up. "Well, yes! There is a martial arts tournament that is holding its preliminaries tonight. I'll send the location to the phones Takamichi gave you all."

Throwing his arms up in glee, Natsu whooped. "Yes, I am _so_ there! I'm all fired up!"

Hearing this, Naruto groaned and tiredly rubbed his face. "Another tournament?" He asked.

"Yes! I didn't get enough in the last one because _you_ decided to hog all the fun for yourself!" Natsu accused. "So I'm getting in on this one!"

Negi paled at this declaration, but he still smiled. "I look forward to it, Natsu-san. Now, I'm sorry but really do need to get going." With that, he left.

Now left on their own, the off-worlders traded glances. "So…What now?" Gray asked.

"Now we have fun!" Happy exclaimed, but he suddenly froze and sent a cautious look at Naruto. "…Right?"

Smirking, Naruto spoke. "Glad to see that you're learning." Maybe now the stupid cat won't fly off on his own anymore. "To answer your question, yes. Now we have fun. You can go do whatever, but be sure to not draw attention to yourselves, _okay_?" Natsu and Happy gave him twin salutes.

"Aye sir!" They answered.

Rolling his eyes, Naruto continued. "Make sure to pick up the phone if someone calls. Besides that, have fun." The next second, the exceed and dragon slayer were running off." Shaking his head in exasperation, Naruto turned to Gray. "And you?"

"I'm gonna take a look around myself, if you don't mind." Gray said. "See if I can find something interesting, you know?"

Nodding in understanding, Naruto waved. "Sure thing. See you later." Once he was gone, Naruto smiled at Kairi. "Well, seeing as we're stuck together for obvious reasons, I guess we'll be touring the place together then."

Kairi smiled back. "Looks like it."

Naruto took a quick look around. "I don't mind one way or another, so is there anything you want to do?" He paused when he spotted the glint in Kairi's eye.

The next thing Naruto knew, he was being pulled down the street by his excited companion.

"Come on, I saw this _awesome_ looking ride on the way here! I want to check it out!"

Grinning, Naruto allowed himself to be pulled along.

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 46!**

 **I feel like working on this in the manner I did before I went AWOL (That manner being sitting my ass down and having one big writing session) helped me start to get back in the swing of things a bit…**

 **Negima is known to have…** _ **suggestive**_ **themes and situations. I'm hesitant to put them in.**

 **Let's think for a moment, alright? Where the** _ **hell**_ **could I have put the keyhole of this world? Of** _ **course**_ **it would be the world tree. And because it was so freakin' obvious, and it was the obvious place to check first, I needed a way to put off locking it. I think what I have is a pretty good idea. If you know Negima, then I would like to think that you also agree with how I did it.**

 **If I can actually manage to keep my word this time, then the next chapter will be up tomorrow (It was meant to be one big chapter).**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	48. Meet The Vampire

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 47!**

 **I managed to stick to my promise for once! Hell yeah!**

 **Or at least, I was close enough...Being off by an hour still counts!**

* * *

 **The Sith'ari: Shh…You speak of things that have yet to pass…**

 **Kairitrion Cerulean: Hey, once upon a time, I uploaded a new chapter for this thing every day. Granted, I stopped doing that after the tenth chapter or so, but the point still stands that I can work fast. It is one of the longer worlds, but that is because I'm putting more into it. That spacing thing is an interesting new glitch that pops up occasionally when uploading a Word Doc. I proofread the chapters while they are still in Microsoft Word, so when things like that happen during the upload, I don't really notice them. Thanks for pointing them out!**

 **shadowmwape: Do they though? Every time they get involved with something, it's only because heartless or something similar have already started making a mess of things in that world. That isn't the case here, and I would think that causing worldwide chaos is bit bigger than helping out a person they weren't supposed to or exposing the existence of other worlds to a person or two.**

 **ChronoMitsurugi: Meh, I can't exactly fault you for personal preference, can I? You don't like Fairy Tail, and that's fine with me. What I** _ **will**_ **agree with you on is the tempo of the story. I did notice a little while back that the tempo of things did change a bit, and I wasn't even aware of it until then. I still like what I have, but you're right…It's one of the things I would like to fix at some point if I go back to do revisions.**

 **Eaglezaruma: Perhaps they will. :P**

 **Draxien Oblivion: Sorry, but everything you just said went right over my head!**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts, or anything else. I'm just a broke college student…**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Bijū/Deity Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Bijū/Deity Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **Streets of Mahora (A Few Hours Later)**

Naruto grimaced and shook his head in an attempt of ridding himself of the sudden feeling of vertigo he was hit with. Bracing himself against a wall, he took a deep breath. "…Okay…What the hell was that?" He asked.

Next to him, Kairi placed a hand on his shoulder with a worried expression on her face. "I don't know…Out of nowhere, the amount of light in the area skyrocketed until it felt like it was trying to drown us…Are you alright?"

The two of them had spent the last few hours touring the festival and having a good time together. They were just talking about maybe meeting up with the others soon when both of their senses were assaulted by light. While Kairi simply shivered from the feeling, Naruto's entire world was knocked off balance.

After a few minutes, Naruto pushed away from the wall and nodded at Kairi. "I'm fine, don't worry." Noticing that she was didn't seem sure, he smiled in an attempt to convince her. "Really, I am. I was just not expecting it, that's all." After she slowly retracted her hand, Naruto turned his attention to the world tree. "Whatever that was, I'm sure it had something to do with the world tree." He narrowed his eyes as he observed it from where they were. "…Hey, does it look like it's glowing slightly to you?"

Kairi blinked and followed his line of sight to the tree. Once she saw it, her eyes widened. "Yeah…It does." She agreed. "Do you think something happened to the keyhole?"

Naruto closed his eyes for a moment and reached out with his senses to get a better feel of the light from the tree. "I don't know how to check for that, but I don't think so. Whatever that was, it only lasted for a moment. The energy from that power spike is already fading back to normal levels. I bet that the tree's glow will also go away in a minute." Not even a full minute later, the residual glow surrounding the tree faded away completely. "It's lucky that it wasn't noticeable unless you were watching closely. I can't imagine that Negi-san and the others enjoyed whatever happened…"

"I wonder what happened." Kairi pondered curiously.

Shrugging, Naruto took out the phone Takahata gave him. "No clue. But I bet someone does." He was about to open the contacts to find Negi's number, but he never got the chance when the phone started to vibrate as a message popped up on the screen. At the same time, Kairi took out her phone to see that she also received a message. "Oh, this might tell us something…" He opened the message. Reading through it, he quirked an eyebrow. "Hm…I guess it's nothing to worry about, after all."

His companion nodded thoughtfully, reading through the identical message she got. "Takahata-san says that whatever caused it is already being resolved by some of the magically aware students."

"Yep. So there's no point to us getting involved. If it had something to do with the keyhole, then he would have told us." Naruto commented. He was going to put the phone away, but was distracted when it vibrated when it received another message. "Now what?" He muttered. Reading this new message, he sighed. "Well, it looks like it's time for us to meet up for the tournament."

Kairi smiled slightly. "Looks like it…Are you going to enter this one?"

He shook his head. "I wasn't even planning on getting into the last one. It was something that only happened because Cloud asked me to. I'm _definitely_ not doing anything this time." Naruto grinned. "I'll leave it to Natsu."

This answer received a hum of understanding. "I get it." Checking the location Negi sent them, Kairi continued. "According to this, sign ups are soon, so Natsu is probably running there now."

"Probably." They both smiled, knowing that the dragon slayer would never pass up a fight. If he had to cross the city in less than ten minutes to get there in time, he probably would by sheer determination. "Come on, let's get going."

* * *

 **Tournament Venue (A Little Later)**

Kairi perked up when she spotted a head of red hair ahead of them. Smiling, she called out to the person and waved. "Negi-san!"

Said child teacher blinked and turned around to the source, prompting his two companions to do the same. Upon seeing them, he smiled as well. "Naruto-san, Kairi-san! I'm glad that you were able to make it here so quickly."

Naruto tilted his head. "Why? Would it have been bad to get here later?"

In response, Negi gestured to the sign that he was standing next to. "The tournament has been moved to a shrine in another part of the city. There's enough time to get there and sign up, but only if we leave now."

"Oh, I get you." Naruto replied before shrugging. "Neither of us are entering though. We're only here to watch."

From his spot next to Negi, Kotaro spoke up. "Eh, you're not? That sucks, you guys are pretty strong…" He glanced around. "But what about Natsu? I thought for sure that he would be entering."

"Excuse me…" All eyes went to the girl with Negi and Kotaro. "Sorry to interrupt, but we should really be leaving now if you want to sign up in time." She paused. "And by the way, I'm Yue Ayase. Nice to meet you." She took another sip from the box of juice she was holding.

Negi smiled. "Ah, forgive me. Naruto-san, Kairi-san, I should have done introductions. Yue-san is another one of my students." Both off-worlders returned the greeting. "But she is correct, it would be wise to leave now." Seeing agreement all around, he made to walk away, but stopped when they heard a shout from nearby.

"Are we too late?!" Skidding to a stop, Natsu frantically looked around while panting. "Negi, you should have sent that message earlier!"

Kotaro smirked at him. "Relax. We still have some time. On top of that, this isn't even the right place anymore. The tournament has been moved."

Hearing this, Natsu's shoulders slumped. "Seriously? Then what was I running for?"

"Because you're stupid!" Happy swooped down and gently landed on Natsu's head. "I told you that you shouldn't worry!" He said cheerfully.

"No you didn't! You're the one that told me that I wouldn't get here on time!"

"Are you sure that's what happened?"

"Yes!"

Rolling his eyes at the byplay, Naruto spoke up. "Come on. You really will be late if we don't leave now." This served as enough incentive for Natsu to stop bickering with Happy.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" And just like that, all signs of fatigue disappeared, only to be replaced by boundless energy.

Giggling at his antics, Kairi took out her phone. "I'll send a message to Gray for him to meet us there."

"That's a good idea." Negi smiled. Spotting his student's confusion, Negi introduced the newcomers. "These are Natsu-san and Happy-san. They came with Naruto-san and Kairi-san as guests to the city."

Yue eyed Happy blankly. "Are they…?"

Understanding the question, Negi nodded. "Yes, they are aware." Turning to the others, he continued. "Now then, shall we be off?"

* * *

 **New Tournament Venue**

Naruto whistled appreciatively as he looked around. "Wow, this is some turnout." The entire area was filled with people of all shapes and sizes. But while many people were here, most of them sported some type of athletic attire, the most common of which being a gi. As Negi said, they were now at a shrine, but Naruto wasn't expecting an extravagant pagoda to be the location of the tournament. There were multiple stages set up in the large courtyard, which Naruto assumed were for the fights.

Kotaro was practically bouncing as they walked. "This is _way_ better than what I was expecting."

"No doubt because of the prize money." Naruto could practically _see_ Chamo's eyes turn to gold coins as the ermine spoke. "Ten million? Hell yeah! Go for it, Aniki!"

Natsu punched a fist into his palm. "Who cares about the money? I just want a good fight!"

"Aye!"

"Hey, you guys!" The group turned to see Asuna, Setsuna, and a third girl in a witch costume approaching them. "You're here for the tournament?"

Negi nodded. "Yes. We only just got here a minute ago. Are you here for that as well?"

Asuna shrugged. "Meh. I don't really see the point."

"You don't see the point?!" Chamo exclaimed. "Lady, have you not _seen_ the prize they're dishing out?!" He demanded.

"Eh?" Asuna titled her head. "What're you talking about?"

Leaping onto her shoulder, Chamo pointed her over to a nearby poster. "Check it out!"

The bell wearing girl gaped at the number she was seeing for a moment before a line of drool slipped from the corner of her mouth. "T-Ten million?" She could finally pay off her fees with that much!

While this was happening, the girl dressed as a witch skipped over to Naruto with a wide smile. "Hi~ You're Naruto-kun, right? I'm so happy to finally meet you! I heard about you from Negi-kun and Asuna!" She chirped. "I'm Konoka Konoe~!"

Naruto smiled at the girl's cheerful personality. "Nice to meet you as well, Konoka-san." He paused. "…Are you related to the headmaster?"

She nodded happily. "That's my grandpa!" She confirmed. Turning to the others, she spoke again. "And you guys are Kairi-chan, Natsu-san, and Happy-kun, right?"

"That's us." Kairi smiled. Their attention was then grabbed by an announcement over the speakers set up throughout the area.

" _Attention, please. Spectators and those who wish to compete, you may now enter."_

Natsu immediately spun around and ran over to Negi and Kotaro. "Come on! Where do we go to sign up?!"

Kotaro grinned at him and motioned for the pink haired teen to follow. "We sign up over there! Follow me!" With that, the two rushed off.

Negi allowed a smile to cross his face. "They certainly are excited."

"I told you that the flame brain couldn't resist a fight."

Glancing behind them, Naruto nodded in greeting to Gray. "Hey, there you are." Naruto paused. "Are you getting in on this?"

Scoffing, Gray shook his head. "Not this time. I had enough in the last place we were at. I'll just sit back and enjoy the show." He said.

"Sounds good." It was then that the crowd of started to file into the courtyard, allowing the group to enter. "So how does this work? There are multiple stages, but with this many people, it will probably take forever if all fights are one on one."

Negi opened his mouth to say that he wasn't sure, but the chance was taken by the loudspeakers blaring to life again.

" _Ladies and gentlemen! Students of Mahora and visitors alike! Welcome!"_ All eyes went to the entrance of the pagoda, where a teen with red hair holding a mic stood. _"Welcome to the return of the Mahora Martial Arts Tournament! Thank you for gathering here on such short notice. I know it was sudden for the venue to change like that!"_

Asuna sweat dropped at the sight. "Why is Kazumi hosting this?" Negi guessed by the fact that Negi's group knew her, she was another student of their class.

' _Are all of his students teenage girls…?'_ Naruto thought incredulously. Who the hell would put a ten-year-old in charge of that?

"Chamo-kun!" Negi glanced over as a slightly panicked looking Setsuna hurried over to the ermine, who was now on top of Yue's head. "We have a problem!"

Chamo frowned. "What's the matter?"

Setsuna held a paper out to him. "The reason the tournament was suddenly moved is because it was bought by someone else. And look who the person who bought it was!"

" _Now let's give a hand for the sponsor of the tournament, Chao Lingshen!"_ Kazumi walked to the side as the pagoda's entrance opened, allowing another girl to step up.

This new girl black hair done into two buns with small pigtails that were braided and dark eyes. She was wearing a red Chinese qipao with white flowers on it.

Upon her introduction, Negi, Setsuna, and Chamo all tensed, catching Naruto's attention. _'Okay, so she's an enemy?'_ He observed.

" _I…"_ Chao began. _"I'm here for one reason. No matter if it is something from the inner world or outer world, I want to see the strongest person is capable of."_ The magically aware group twitched at the mention.

Hearing this, Naruto frowned. _'Yeah, she's definitely has some kind of agenda going…"_ For those in the know, that was a blatant reference to the magical community.

" _But more than that,"_ Chao smiled, eyes roving the crowd. _"I would also like to see what people from_ other _worlds can do."_ Her eyes landed on Naruto, and her smile grew as the crimson blond tensed.

' _She's-!'_

" _Years ago, this event allowed people from any world to compete against one another. But because of small video cameras being developed and the variety of styles being used, this event has drastically shrunk from what it once was."_ She paused as confused whispers rushed through the crowd. _"With this, I intend to revive the Mahora Martial Arts Tournament! It is forbidden to use projectiles and blades! Curses are also forbidden! But besides that, anything goes!"_ The crowd roared in approval.

"Hey, what the hell is she saying in front of all these people?!" Asuna demanded.

Chao's smile shrunk until it was nothing more than a small smirk. " _No matter if you win or lose, I want everyone to put their entire heart into it. Only the strongest heart will be able to prevail."_ Her eyes never left Naruto's. _"While that is something that a few people already know, many are still unaware of this."_ She paused for a moment before finally breaking eye contact to smile at the crowd. _"There is no need to worry! Nowadays, no one will believe anything that is recorded. During this event, the Tatsumiya shrine will completely jam all recording equipment, including camera phones."_

"This is getting _really_ dangerous…" Chamo said to the group.

" _So go all out! People from the inner world can use their full power! People from other worlds can put their all into the fights! People from the outer world will be able to see this real power with their own eyes and learn what it is!"_ She waited for the cheers to die down. _"I will now let Kazumi explain some of the details."_

Naruto tuned her out and turned to his companions, seeing that they had frowns similar to his own. "I'm not the only one who heard those hidden meanings, right?" Gray asked.

Kairi nodded. "She definitely knows about other worlds. And on top of that, she at least knows about the power of the heart too…"

"But who the heck is she?" Naruto wondered. "She knows who I am, if the way she kept eye contact with me while she talked about other worlds and hearts." He stilled and glanced back at Chao. "You think she's the one who sent that letter?"

Gray considered it. "It's a definite possibility." He nodded towards Negi, who was now speaking to several other people with a nervous expression. "Negi probably knows more about her. Hell, she's probably another one of his students."

It was then that Chao spoke once more. _"There are two things I forgot to mention…The first is that before this tournament lost popularity, the winner of last tournament twenty-five years ago was a ten-year-old boy named Nagi Springfield."_ Naruto noticed that Negi's eyes went wide at the mention. _"If you have heard of him, then be sure to work hard to live up to his name~"_

' _Well, now she at least is sure that Negi is going to compete…'_

" _The other thing is an annoying technical detail that can't be worked around…"_ She smiled sheepishly. _"This is a little embarrassing to admit after that grand speech, but if you can't provide some sort of identification, then you can't enter the tournament…Sorry-ne."_

Immediately, a depressed expression appeared on Natsu's face. In contrast to this, Naruto sighed in relief. Now that this entire tournament was turning into what looked like a big mess, he wasn't as relaxed with the idea of Natsu getting in on it. Not to mention that if it got out of hand and he used fire, it would be insane to try and explain that away. On the other hand, Naruto couldn't help but feel as if she specifically meant Natsu just then.

" _Now if that's all, I wish you all good luck!"_ With that final announcement, Chao reentered the pagoda. Once she was gone, Kazumi retook center stage and began instructing the participants to the designated spots to draw lots. Seeing that Negi and Setsuna both left to enter, Naruto walked over to Chamo, who was still hitching a ride on Yue.

"Chamo-san…" He said quietly, getting them to turn to him. "You mind if we ask you something?" He glanced around. "In a preferably less crowded spot?" Nodding, the ermine leapt off of Yue and onto his shoulder.

"Sure thing."

Naruto smiled at Yue. "We'll be back in a bit." Turning around, he went over to Natsu and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I know you're sad about the tournament, but something more important has come up."

"But I wanted to fight!" Natsu whined. "I've been looking forward to it ever since Negi told us about it!"

Sighing in annoyance, Naruto offered a compromise. "How about this? I promise that we will head back to Olympus Coliseum at some point to enter another tournament there. At least _there_ we don't run the risk of playing along to a possible enemy's plan."

Natsu grinned widely. "Really?! You promise?"

The crimson blond rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Yes, I promise. Now come on, there's something I need to ask Chamo-san." Natsu nodded and followed Naruto as he walked over to a more secluded spot, Kairi and Gray joining them. Once he was sure that there wasn't anyone in the immediate vicinity, Naruto turned to Chamo. "You mind telling me who heck that girl was? She knows about me and other worlds, even going so far as blatantly saying so."

Chamo gasped. "That's right, you weren't there!" He frantically pointed back at the pagoda. "It was her! She's the one who sent it!"

Naruto's mind connected the dots in a second. "She sent the letter? You're sure?"

"Well, she didn't say it out loud, but she pretty much did!" Chamo told him. "Here, let me tell you about the day _we_ had…"

* * *

 **One Explanation Later**

Naruto had an expression of disbelief on as he stared at the ermine, Gray mirroring his expression perfectly. While it was clear that neither of them believed it, Kairi's eyes were wide with amazement and Natsu was gaping in awe with Happy. Once he processed what he just heard, Naruto hesitantly spoke.

"…A time machine…? Seriously?" Naruto repeated.

"I'm not joking, bro! Chao gave Aniki a time machine designed a little like a pocket watch! It's some weird mix of technology and magic!" Chamo insisted. "The Aniki entering the tournament right now has lived through today nearly three times now!"

"That's _awesome_!" Natsu said excitedly. "I want to try that!"

Taking a deep breath, Naruto rubbed his temples. "Okay, but why does that mean she was the one who sent the letter?"

"I was getting to that." Chamo said. "Once Aniki, Setsuna-neechan, I went back in time the first time, we went looking for Chao. We eventually found her on a blimp ride. When we questioned who she really was and what she was up to, she said her real identity was a Martian! We didn't think of it at the time, but that's what the sender of the letter signed their name as!"

The off-worlders traded glances. "Yeah, that's pretty incriminating…" Kairi agreed. "Do you know what she wants?"

Chamo sighed dejectedly. "Sorry, but we don't have a clue. She wouldn't answer that question, and we couldn't exactly do much in the middle of a crowded area…"

Naruto was quiet for a few minutes. "…The time travel could explain how she knew I would be at the haunted house, I guess. She would only need to see where I went before travelling back in time to get a letter there…" He frowned. "But how does she know about me in the first place? Or about other worlds? That secret shouldn't have been revealed at any point, no matter what."

Natsu shrugged. "Dunno, but maybe it's because of time travel too?"

"I suppose…" Naruto admitted. But if he went with that, then that meant that Chao had traveled back from further in the future than just an hour or two. Naruto's frown slowly deepened. _'There's something wrong here…I'm missing something.'_

"…Hey, you guys?" All eyes turned to Kairi as she slowly spoke up. "If Chao-san was the one who sent the letter, then that means she's also the one who tied that spell to the keyhole, right?"

Gray nodded. "Seems like it."

Kairi gained a confused expression. "Okay…But if she was the one to do that, then that means she was of course able to access it. She could have known where it was from future knowledge, but…"

Naruto's eyes widened as the implications set in. "The heartless aren't able to access the city because of the barrier, and I only got to this world today. So how did she get to the keyhole if she needed a keyblade or something similar to get it to show up?" Naruto asked quietly. Unless Chao herself had more abilities than he was comfortable with, she shouldn't have been able to do that. Once he realized this, Naruto scowled. "We aren't the only people here who are from another world." Naruto said. "She's getting help from someone."

"F-From who?" Chamo asked fearfully, not liking how this conversation was going. The crimson blond's hands slowly balled into fists at the possibilities. Out of the people he knew were working for the other side, there was only one person he _knew_ had the ability to make the keyhole appear.

" _Sorry, Naruto. It looks like that promise is going to be unfulfilled after all…"_

Shaking himself from his thoughts, Naruto took out his phone and began composing a message. "I'm going to tell the headmaster that things might be worse than we thought. If you guys confront Chao-san, then I want to be there."

Swallowing nervously, Chamo nodded. "Sure thing, I understand."

"What do we do now?" Gray asked.

Sending the message, Naruto put the phone away and sighed. "Nothing much we can do now." He nodded back towards the shrine. "We might as well go watch the preliminaries."

* * *

 **Outskirts of Mahora (Early Morning of the Next Day)**

Kairi yawned as she followed Naruto down a path that led into a wooded area on the outskirts of the city. "So remind me again why we're up this early?"

Naruto smiled apologetically. "Sorry about this. Negi requested last night that I come out here at this time."

"But why this early…?" She asked. "The sun isn't even out yet…"

"I'm as clueless as you are." Naruto admitted. "But based on the way he was acting when he brought it up, I'm guessing it was important." Or at least, Negi had a slightly terrified and shaken expression on his face when he requested it. "Sorry that you couldn't stay in the ship to get some more sleep like the others."

She shook her head. "Not your fault. I'm just a bit tired still." She smiled slightly. "That was a fun party last night."

The crimson blond laughed a bit. "More like insane. All of Negi's students are crazy."

Following the end of the preliminaries, Negi guided the off-worlders back to his class, where they were introduced to the rest of his students. At first, Naruto attempted to stick with the honorifics, but quickly realized that had the result getting them to gush over how cute he was for being so polite...And those girl's weren't shy in showing their feelings with hugs or something similar. This pushed Naruto into discarding honorifics when it came to 3-A. After getting many enthusiastic greetings, the class then stayed up late into the night simply having fun. Naturally, their lively personalities meant that Natsu and Happy had a blast with them. It got to the point that they were having a competition to see who could win the most prizes from booths that were hosting carnival games. The only reason the majority of them called it quits was because the booth operators finally called it a night and closed. Once everyone began heading to the dorms, Negi pulled Naruto aside and stuttered out a request to meet him early in the morning.

The result of the request being the current trek into the woods.

Sighing, Naruto pulled out his phone and double checked the location. "We're close. We should be able to spot wherever we're going any moment now." He said. And just as he said, the trees thinned until they came upon a clearing. All that stood in the clearing was a wooden cabin in the center. "That must be it."

The two of them walked up to the cabin and knocked on the door. Once that was done, Kairi glanced around curiously. "I wonder who lives here. It can't be a student, right? They live in the dorms."

Naruto shrugged. "Maybe a teacher? This could be where Negi lives." He guessed.

"No, boya doesn't live here. I do." Kairi and Naruto blinked in surprise when the door opened to reveal Evangeline, who was smirking at the both of them. "You're here. Good." Without any chance for them to say anything, she turned and walked into the cabin. "Follow me. Now."

Quirking an eyebrow, Naruto did as he was instructed and trailed after the girl, Kairi a step behind him. "So you asked Negi to get me here?"

"Obviously."

The crimson blond twitched. "…Can I get the reason?"

Evangeline glanced back for a moment before looking back to where she was going. "You'll find out once we get to our destination."

Naruto frowned. "…This cabin isn't it?"

The smirk on the blond's face widened. "Like I said…You'll find out." As she said this, the three of them entered a room that was empty except for a pedestal with a large sphere resting on top. As they drew closer, Naruto noted that sphere contained what appeared to be some kind of model tower inside it.

"This is…"

"Don't be afraid. Step up to it." Evangeline told them. Trading wary glances, Kairi and Naruto stepped up to the sphere, standing next to Evangeline. "Now then, give it a moment to do its magic…"

A frown crept onto Naruto's face. "What magi-?"

He never got the chance to answer when a magic circle formed under each of them, cutting him off. Then next thing Naruto knew, he had the distinct feeling of the ground disappearing from under him. But as soon as he registered this, it was back.

Nearly stumbling on nothing, Naruto glared at Evangeline. "Alright, so what just happened?"

A full blown grin was now on Evangeline's face. Instead of answering directly, she gestured around them. "Take a look. I'm sure you can figure it out."

Taking another second to glare, Naruto reluctantly did so. The glare fell off his face as his eyes widened in shock. Instead of the small room they were in a moment ago, the three of them were now standing on the tower that had been inside the sphere.

"What…?" Scanning the area, Naruto saw that everything was exactly as he saw a minute ago, only life-sized.

"Do you comprehend what's going on, boy?" Evangeline's question pulled him from his thoughts.

Naruto frowned. "We're inside the sphere. That magic circle transported us here. I'm guessing you use this place as a getaway or something?"

"Bingo~" Evangeline started walking again, not even bothering to make sure they were following. "This is my personal villa. It even has its own spa and beach."

"Okay…" Kairi was amazed that this world's magic was capable of such things. "But why have you brought us here?"

Evangeline threw an annoyed look back at her. "I didn't ask for you to come, girl, but you came anyways. I only wanted the boy." She shrugged. "But whatever. It doesn't really matter." She pointed off to the side, where a platform with a large magic circle was. "It isn't set up right now, but that circle serves as transportation between the different environments here. From icy mountains to barren deserts, this place has it all. Do you see what such things could be used for?"

While Kairi didn't grasp the uses of such places, Naruto did, having used similar places while in his Station of Awakening. "Training. You can learn to fight in different environments with them."

"Right again, boy."

"But that _still_ doesn't explain why we're here." Naruto insisted. "Why did you get Negi to ask me to come here?"

"The reason is simple." Evangeline said, finally coming to a stop in the center of the courtyard. Now that they were here, Naruto noted that there was the closest building to them was a good distance away. Turning to face them, Evangeline shot Kairi a dismissive wave. "Go enjoy the beach or something, girl. You're in the way here."

Kairi simply stared blankly. "…Huh?"

"I said leave us." Evangeline said. "If you head over to that building, you'll find bedrooms. The third room on the right has clothes that should fit you. Pick out a bathing suit and go relax. Or sleep. Or eat. I don't care, just go away."

"Uh…"

Seeing that Kairi still wasn't leaving, Evangeline glared at her. "What part of 'go away' are you unable to comprehend? Is it the 'go' or the 'away'?"

"Wait, hold on a second." Naruto interrupted. "What's going on?" He was starting to understand what Evangeline wanted, but he didn't want to believe it.

"Ugh, must I explain the simplest of things to you?" Evangeline huffed. "You and I are going to fight, boy." She crossed her arms. "So naturally, the girl needs to get out of the way."

Naruto slumped his shoulders, wishing his guess hadn't been correct. "I see a couple of problems with this."

Evangeline quirked an eyebrow. "And they are? I certainly don't see any problems."

"The first is that your powers are sealed, aren't they? You can't fight me in your condition."

A smirk that just _screamed_ malice formed on the blond's face. "Oh, you seem to be misunderstanding something, boy."

Suddenly, the sclerae of Evangeline's eyes turned black as darkness _poured_ from her body. Naruto broke into a cold sweat at the feeling as Kairi fell to her knees. A purplish-black aura covered Evangeline's body as she watched their reactions with sadistic pleasure.

' _T-This is-!'_ If the sudden surge of power from the tree yesterday was the equivalent of drowning in light, then this was what drowning in darkness felt like. All of Naruto's instincts were telling him to grab Kairi and get the _hell_ out of there, but he was frozen in place. _'Wait-Kairi!'_ Naruto's eyes snapped to the girl who was gasping for breath with glazed over eyes. Seeing this, Naruto gritted his teeth and summoned as much light as he could.

At first, nothing happened. But ever so slowly, warmth spread from Naruto's chest, allowing himself to breath more easily. A moment later, he took a deep breath and pushed the darkness _back_. A pulse of light shot out of Naruto's body and towards Evangeline, impacting her darkness. Smirking even more, Evangeline let up on the darkness, allowing the aura coating her body to fade and her eyes return to normal.

The moment it was gone, Naruto used his knees to brace himself as he panted for breath. "…That…Y-You…"

"Make no mistake, _boy_. I may be weakened, but I have centuries of experience with darkness. I am powerful no matter _what_. On top of that, I regain some power at this time of year due to the world tree. And that is amplified even more while we are here in my resort. I am _more_ than a match for you, understand?"

Naruto shakily nodded. "Message received, loud and clear." Steadying his breathing, he walked over to Kairi and knelt down next to her. "Kairi?" No response. "Hey, Kairi, come on." Still nothing. Sighing, Naruto placed a hand on her shoulder. Slowly, he began to push some light into her. This served as enough to jump start her mind back into awareness. Naruto watched as her eyes lost the glazed look and focused on him. "Can you hear me?"

Slowly, Kairi nodded. "Y-Yeah, I can." She shivered. "I'm sorry about that."

He shook his head. "It wasn't your fault. Don't worry about it." He stood up and helped her to her feet. Once he was sure that Kairi was steady, Naruto glared at Evangeline. "Don't do that again. At least not with Kairi nearby."

The blond girl scoffed. He was actually ordering _her_ around? Ha! "I'll do what I please, boy." She eyed Kairi for a moment. "But I will admit that that was an extreme reaction. For someone who is travelling with a keyblade wielder, you sure do have a low tolerance for darkness."

"Kairi hasn't been travelling with us for too long." Naruto responded. "On top of that, this world was the first time she was directly exposed to it…To be exact, _you_ were the first time yesterday."

Evangeline frowned. "But even then, she shouldn't be that weak to it. Her heart should defend her for at least a bit. What I just saw implied her heart is extremely weak." Kairi and Naruto traded glances. Seeing this, Evangeline's eyes narrowed. "What do those looks mean? Care to share?"

Naruto grimaced internally before looking to Kairi again. "This is your call."

Kairi bit her lip for a moment and glanced between Evangeline and Naruto. After some thought, she spoke up. "Before we say anything more, can you tell us why you wanted Naruto to come here? Why do you want to fight him?"

Although visibly displeased that she didn't immediately get the information she wanted, Evangeline answered the question. "I want to see for myself exactly where the boy stands in terms of strength. And after that, I may even want to test his aptitude for darkness."

Hearing this, Naruto frowned. "My aptitude for darkness?" He repeated.

"Yes. I don't know who your keyblade master is, but I wouldn't be surprised if they warned you of the dangers of darkness. Following this line of thought, it is easy to conclude that you don't know many -if any- darkness techniques. I find this to be a waste because I can tell at a quick glance that you at least have _some_ measure of resistance to darkness. So why not use that to your advantage?"

Finally fully understanding the reason he was called here, Naruto's eyes widened. "You want to teach me." He said. "You want to teach me how to use darkness in combat."

Evangeline smirked. "Exactly."

Naruto sighed. Couldn't she have said this from the beginning? "Well, it would be appreciated, but you're only partially right in your assessment of me." Evangeline blinked in surprise.

"Oh? How so?"

"I'm already aware of my resistance to darkness. And my master isn't opposed to me using it. In fact, I was taught to use it just as much as light." He explained.

"Truly? Well, I'm impressed." Evangeline admitted. "How good are you, then?" She asked.

He shrugged. "I'm not terrible. But it wasn't until not too long ago that I stopped preventing myself from using it freely. As it is, I am more advanced with light than with darkness, despite being taught both."

The immortal vampire nodded in understanding. "I see." Her smirk returned. "Well in that case, I'll help you refine your darkness." She declared. "Be grateful, boy. It's not every day that I so graciously accept a student." Her eyes went back to Kairi. "Now then, why exactly are you so weak to darkness? I've explained my intentions, so now you keep your end of the deal."

Kairi gained a nervous expression on her face at the return of the question. "I…" Sighing, she decided to just get it over with. "I don't have my heart. I'm only functioning right now by siphoning off some of Naruto's light."

Evangeline stared at the redhead in silence for a full minute before saying a single word.

"Explain."

"Um, I'm not sure what exactly it means for me, but I'm apparently one of the seven pr-"

" _You're_ one of the Princesses of Heart?" Evangeline demanded incredulously. " _You_?" Slightly offended by the obvious disbelief, Kairi nodded with a frown. Seeing this, Evangeline's eyes went back to Naruto. "You're sure?"

Naruto grimaced. "As sure as we can be under the circumstances. Do you know another way for her to still have a body, despite losing her heart?"

"No…I don't…" Evangeline reluctantly admitted. "One more time…How are you functioning?"

"She's using some of my light." Naruto said. "A small stream is constantly leaving my heart and going to her. Because she's one of the princesses, that's all she needs. But if she gets too far away, then she goes into a state similar to a coma. The only way for her to wake back up is through physical contact with me."

"Impossible." Evangeline said instantly.

Blinking in surprise at the certainty in her tone, Naruto and Kairi glanced at one another. "But…That's what happening." Kairi hesitantly pointed out. "Because I'm one of the princesses, it works for me-"

"No, you don't understand." Evangeline's firm voice cut her off. "What you are saying is _impossible_. I don't care _who_ you are. Whether you are one of the princesses or not, you _can't_ just accept another person's light into your body and use it as a replacement for your heart, even if the other person is a keyblade wielder. It doesn't work like that."

Naruto frowned. "Of course it does. That's how she's awake right now."

Sighing in frustration, Evangeline rubbed her temples. "Which is why I'm so shocked right now." Shaking her head, she continued. "Listen to me, when one person injects another with light or darkness, it _can't_ be used as a heart. Do you know why that is?"

After a moment of thought, Naruto hesitantly spoke up. "…Because every heart is unique to the person." He said.

"Correct. And because every heart is unique, so is the light and darkness generated by each heart. In normal circumstances, people need both to function."

Already knowing this, Naruto nodded. "Yes, and one of the few exceptions are the princesses, who only have light in their hearts."

"But that isn't simply _any_ light!" Evangeline said. "The hearts of the seven princesses generate some of the purest light in existence, which means the light a princess uses to function is even rarer. You're up against two impossibilities to do what you're doing…The first impossibility is possessing light that's as pure as a princess's despite having darkness in your heart as well, and the other is injecting it into another person in replacement of a heart. Like I said, what you're doing is _impossible_."

Thinking hard on what was being said, Naruto slowly began to frown harder and harder. Knowing about his connection to Kingdom Hearts and the χ-blade, he was prepared to silently disagree with her, but something Evangeline said caught his attention. Now that he thought about it more, it didn't make complete sense that he was able to keep Kairi awake simply because he had a special connection to Kingdom Hearts. Sure, he had the potential to wield the χ-blade, but he wasn't at that point yet. Naruto _knew_ that his light wasn't as pure as the light created by a Princess of Heart. If it was, then that would mean that he was able to perfectly control and separate the light and darkness in his heart. And if he could control it to such an extent, then he would be able to summon the χ-blade at will…Which he couldn't.

So _why_ was he able to use his light as a pseudo-heart for Kairi? Was it really as simple as having the potential to use the χ-blade? Was that all that was needed for it to work? What was he missing?

Once again, Naruto wished that he hadn't lost contact with Hikari and Yami for whatever reason.

Pulling himself from his thoughts, he looked at Evangeline. "I don't know what to tell you. You're right, it shouldn't be possible, and yet it is still happening."

"Tch. It's frustrating that I'm aware of this and yet I can't figure out the reason…" Evangeline admitted. Sighing, she shook her head. "Well, I suppose we can dwell on it another time." She shifted her attention to Kairi once more. "So you can't move away from him without going into some type of trance?"

Kairi nodded. "Yes, that's right." She shifted uneasily. "Sorry about that."

Naruto tensed when Evangeline regained her usual smirk. "No matter." Suddenly, Naruto was blasted back through the air, away from the two of them.

"Gah!"

"Naruto!" Kairi yelled in surprise before rounding on Evangeline. "What was that…for…huh…?" Kairi's eyes grew distant as her body collapsed.

Naruto rolled for several seconds before finally regaining his bearings. Hastily pushing himself to his feet, Naruto glared at the blond. His glare turned glacial when he saw the limp form of Kairi on the ground next to her. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!" He shouted across the new distance between them.

This only served to amuse Evangeline. "What does it look like I'm doing, boy? I'm getting her out of the way." Evangeline picked Kairi up with one hand and slung the redhead over a shoulder. "What, did you think that just because she would collapse that I wouldn't make her leave? You clearly aren't thinking." Naruto took a step towards them, but Evangeline quickly dismissed the idea. "Stay there." She ordered. "She's perfectly fine, as you already know. You'll wake her up when we're done. I'm simply going to leave her on the bed in the room I told her to go to."

"And when are we going to be done?" Naruto growled, displeasure with the situation obvious.

"I'll explain the training exercise in a minute." Evangeline disappeared into the villa, only to come back out shortly after without Kairi. Once she was standing across from Naruto she spoke up. "Here's what's going to happen. For the next forty-eight hours, you and I will be fighting nonstop."

Naruto looked at her as if she was crazy. "What about the things going on outside of here? Aren't people going to wonder where we are? And you're also in the tournament later today."

"Heh, I suppose you wouldn't know about my villa's other feature." Evangeline said with obvious amusement. "Time moves faster in here than on the outside. One day in here is the equivalent of one hour outside. Understand?"

Blinking in surprise, Naruto's anger slowly left him, only to be replaced by disbelief. "You're serious?"

"Of course. Rather impressive, isn't it?" Evangeline asked haughtily.

Reluctantly, Naruto found himself agreeing with her. It _was_ impressive. "Okay…And what exactly will my goal in this fight be?"

Naruto did _not_ like the expression that Evangeline gained. "Oh, your goal? That's rather simple…" And suddenly the darkness was back…

"All you need to do is _**survive**_."

* * *

 **Streets of Mahora (Later That Day)**

"I _really_ don't like her." Kairi muttered. "Who the heck knocks one person away just to knock another person out?"

Grimacing, Naruto nodded. "I'm right there with you. That entire thing was _brutal_ …" He's had some sadistic teachers, but Evangeline was something else…

The two of them were now walking through the city, only having just gotten away from the villa. Evangeline had left several hours -or was it days?- before them, but Naruto needed some time to recover. Despite it being a form of training, Evangeline wasn't above drawing blood and inflicting other forms of injury. Which only made it worse because even on the occasional attack from Naruto that landed, _she_ would instantly heal from it and return the favor.

Groaning, Naruto moved his arm around in an attempt to alleviate some of the discomfort. "Using magic to heal or not, that still sucked." He said quietly.

Kairi shot him a worried glance. "Are you sure you're alright? I didn't see the fight because the little witch went and knocked me out, but you looked really beat up after it."

Naruto offered a small smile in return. "I won't lie, I don't feel great, but I'll be fine by tomorrow. I'm an Uzumaki, after all. I don't have any physical injuries anymore, it's just fatigue."

"If you say so…" Shaking her head, Kairi took out her phone. Man, was she loving the thing. "Gray says that Natsu and Happy went to check out the tournament first thing in the morning while he decided to sleep in. He only went to watch the semi-finals and finals, which just ended. According to him, it got pretty chaotic. He also is curious as to where we've been and why we haven't been answering any calls or messages." She typed something on the phone. "I told him that we will explain in person later."

"Sounds good." Naruto said. Updating them on the situation with Kairi would be too annoying over the phone, so it would be better to wait until they all met up. Glancing at the sky, he spoke up. "It's about noon right now. What do you want to do?"

This question got a grin in response. "We only saw a bit of the festival yesterday. You up for more today?" She paused and gave him a concerned look. "On second thought, maybe we should head back to the ship…"

Naruto smiled at her and shook his head. "No, it's fine. If that's what you want to do, then let's do it. It isn't fair to you to keep you bound to the ship because I'm stiff." His smile widened. "So let's go-ttebayo!" He was about to lead her off towards a different street, but a vibration from his pocket stopped him. Blinking, he took out his phone, noting that Kairi's didn't go off. "Hold on…I've got a message from Takahata-san." Kairi watched as his eyes widened before narrowing.

"What's it say?" She asked. Instead of answering, Naruto grabbed her hand and pulled her down a more deserted street. "What's with the hurry?!" Turning another corner, Naruto led them into a backstreet with no one on it. Spinning around, he scooped her off her feet and picked her up bridal style. "W-What are you doing?!"

"Sorry, but we need to hurry!" Naruto said, leaping up onto the nearest rooftop. "Takahata-san sent me a message saying that they're confronting Chao-san now. I wanted to be there, remember?" Picking up the pace, the two sped across the buildings.

* * *

 **Area Behind Tournament Venue**

"To expose the existence of magic…That's an outrageous thing to do!" A dark skinned teacher exclaimed as he glared at a smiling Chao. "That's something that can never be allowed to happen!"

Coming upon the location indicated in the message, Naruto and Kairi were greeted with the sight of six teachers surrounding Chao from all sides. Among them, Naruto was able to spot Takahata and Seruhiko. Despite being outnumbered by so many, Chao's calm smile never wavered. Landing silently, Naruto put Kairi down and listened to the conversation.

Facing the teacher who spoke, Chao responded. "Throughout history and the world, the imaginations of people have created numerous stories that talk about the existence of a hidden magical world…All of them were unaware that such a thing was actually reality. Isn't that humorous-ne?" She watched as the teacher shifted uneasily. "Allow me to ask you a question instead." Chao continued. " _Why_ are you hiding the existence of mages from the world? What purpose does it serve? You saw the kinds of power displayed in the tournament today. Isn't keeping such a secret dangerous?" Suddenly, her eyes left the teacher and landed on Naruto and Kairi. "And for that matter, why hide the existence of other worlds?" She asked. "The reasons for both are the same…It's to 'prevent needless misunderstanding and problems' or something, right? You want to keep the communities hidden in order to prevent merging."

Naruto frowned at her. "I can't speak for the magical community of this world, but the existence of other worlds is kept secret in order to preserve the balance. If the worlds openly interacted with one another, problems would arise and endanger them all." He explained. Narrowing his eyes, he continued. "In fact, such a problem is happening right now. Do you even know what you're messing with? Do you actually understand?"

Chao hummed in thought. "Well, at least you have a better argument and evidence than the magical community in this world…And I'm not arrogant enough to say that I'm the foremost expert when it comes to the heart of a world, but I would like to think I know enough." She smiled at him. "Anyways, I must say that I am happy to finally meet you in person, Naruto-kun. I've been looking forward to getting the chance to speak with you."

The crimson blond stared at her silently for a moment. "You knew where the keyhole was." Most of the teachers were confused by the conversation, but a signal from Takahata had them remain quiet.

"…I did." Chao confirmed. "Although I'm sure that's not what's bothering you."

"It isn't." Naruto agreed. "That could be explained by some time travelling. But what _can't_ be explained by time travel is how you made it appear in the first place. _Or_ how you came across all the needed knowledge to tamper with it the way you did…I've spent a lot of time second guessing myself, but there are only two possible situations I can think of."

The smile on Chao's face slowly widened. "And? What are they?"

Naruto took a deep breath. "The first is that you either have a keyblade, which would in turn mean that you have someone who taught you how to use it…" He grew quiet. "And the second possibility is that you had help from someone from another world…Someone who _does_ have a keyblade."

The two of them stared at one another in silence for a minute before Chao suddenly broke out into quiet laughter. "Well, I'm impressed Naruto-kun. You managed to figure it out just from what information you had."

The crimson blond tensed. "…So? Which is it?" He asked. "Which conclusion was the right one?"

The smile Chao had was nearly face splitting at this point. "Hm…I guess I don't really need to keep it a secret anymore, do I-ne~" Ever so slowly, she raised a hand, making everyone tense. Naruto watched as she leveled the hand perfectly horizontal.

Taking another moment to stare into Naruto's eyes, Chao _pointed_.

Immediately, Naruto's gaze snapped to the side, where a construct of darkness suddenly appeared. Violet and cerulean eyes widened when the corridor gave way to a person.

Misa smiled at him.

"Hey there, Naruto…It's been a while."

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 47!**

 **Do you know how much of a pain in the ass it is to make sure that I have my order of events correct in this world? There is** _ **way**_ **too much time travel and time distortion going on!**

 **Yes, I'm fully aware of how many chapters have gone into this world. Sorry about that, but there's a lot going on. And I'm not just talking about the Negima canon stuff. If I knew that every one of you were knowledgeable with Negima's story, then I wouldn't need to. But alas, many of you have never read this manga, so I need to do all this to make sure you understand what's happening…That, and I don't like skimming over things too much.**

 **So, a couple of people wanted to see a date kind of thing between Naruto and Kairi?**

… **I** _ **guess**_ **I could do that…In fact, I probably should…I'll put it in next chapter…Probably.**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review! (I just realized that I was so out of it the last couple of chapters that I didn't even put this)**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	49. Bitter Reunions

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 48!**

 **Longer chapter than normal this time. You're welcome. The preliminary version of this chapter was actually finished on Monday night, but I'm reluctant to post too many chapters at too fast of a rate. But on the other hand, this can be me trying to make up for the previous lack of chapters.**

 **Keep an eye out for spacing errors, would you? I already proofread the thing more than I normally do (Basically a single time) while it was still in Microsoft Word, so I don't want to do it again to look for a glitch made by the site's upload system. I already caught a few while I was doing the quick scan to make sure that the upload didn't mess with any format stuff. If you spot any, quote the words so I don't need to go looking for it based off of approximate location.**

 **I'm trying something new, so review responses are at the bottom.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts, or anything else. I'm just a broke college student…**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Bijū/Deity Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Bijū/Deity Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **Play Kingdom Hearts 2.5 ReMIX OST: Organization XIII Extended**

"Hey there, Naruto…It's been a while." Misa greeted with a small smile.

"Misa…" Naruto said quietly, somewhat caught off guard by her abrupt appearance. He stared at her for a few moments, unsure what to do. The people observing this interaction made no move to interrupt, but even if they had, Naruto wasn't sure if he would have noticed.

Blinking, he took in her appearance. Gone were the clothes she wore around Konoha, to be replaced by a new outfit.

She now wore a shoulder-less purple shirt with sleeves that ended a little after the elbow, and over that Misa had on an open black waistcoat with white trim. Complimenting this, she was also wearing black bike shorts under a green miniskirt. Finishing the outfit were black boots that went up to her mid-thigh and black fingerless gloves.

"You…" Naruto's mind flashed through several emotions upon seeing her, all within the span of a couple of seconds. Surprise, relief, worry, happiness, confusion, and excitement were all racing around in his head. But the chaotic state of his mind eventually ended, and the jumble of emotions faded, leaving only one behind.

 _Anger_.

Scowling, Naruto summoned his Keyblade and dropped into a battle stance, surprising most of the audience by the sudden act of hostility. Only Misa and Chao didn't seem fazed by Naruto's actions. If anything, Chao's smile somehow widened even further at the sight.

"Naruto…?" Kairi asked hesitantly, glancing between the two Keyblade Wielders. Steeling herself, she got ready to support Naruto the second he needed her to.

"What are you trying to accomplish here, Misa?" Naruto asked. While he still wanted to get some answers out of her regarding her betrayal, Naruto would rather do that when there weren't so many people watching. On top of that, her working with Chao meant that Orochimaru was most likely up to something.

And that definitely took priority.

Misa's smile grew slightly at the question. "What, no questions? No demanding to know why I why I did what I did? Or if all of our time spent together was merely an act? A trick to get closer to you?" She asked him. And to Naruto's irritation, he could hear exasperation in her tone. "That's not how you treat a friend."

"Neither is stabbing a friend in the back and disrupting the balance of Light and Darkness in their heart." Naruto bit out. "And even if I asked you those questions, would you answer them?" The only response he got was a grin. "Thought so." He tightened the grip on his Keyblade. "So let's focus on a different topic…Why. Are. You. _Here_?" He hissed.

Shrugging, Misa nodded in the direction of the world tree. "Orochimaru-sama sent me to investigate the abnormally high readings of Light in this world. A sacred tree that can gather such power? Of course he would be interested in that. He would have come himself, but he has… _other_ things going on that need his personal attention."

Chao hummed in agreement, bringing the attention back to her, although Naruto made sure to keep Misa within his line of sight. "When Misa-san got here, my systems were able to pick it up. Because she was actively making an effort not to be noticed, no one else realized she had arrived. I confronted her and offered my assistance in return for her services." She shook her head. "Naturally, she refused and told me to go away, but once I told her that I already compiled a great deal of research on the tree, she was more willing to listen." A soft laugh escaped her. "And when I informed her that you would be arriving soon, she became even _more_ agreeable." Chao glanced between Naruto and Misa. "Although while I figured you two knew each other at least somewhat, I'm not aware of all the details…I'm _really_ curious now~"

Naruto frowned. "So that's it? You're helping her for some research and because I'm here?" He clarified before scoffing. "What, is the snake freak _still_ obsessing over me?"

Misa tilted her head. "Well, I won't deny that Orochimaru-sama's interest in you has only grown after you managed to overcome your rampaging Darkness…But that's not the biggest reason I'm still here. And to be fair, I didn't even know you would be coming here until she told me…No, I'm still here because Lingshen was kind enough to tell me some _other_ interesting details about your impending arrival." Ever so slowly, her eyes slid over to the spot beside Naruto. "More specifically, she told me _who_ would arrive with you." Naruto's stilled at that.

' _Kairi.'_

Instantly, Naruto put himself between Misa and a wide eyed Kairi. "So Orochimaru really is behind the Princesses of Heart going missing?"

"Hm, that depends on how you look at it." Misa admitted. "He only got involved in the plan to kidnap them recently. He wasn't in on the other kidnappings."

"You're _not_ getting Kairi." Naruto declared. "Try and I _will_ cut you down." Kairi felt reassured by Naruto's threat, allowing her to calm herself. Giving a glare of her own, she spoke up.

"And I'm not going to just sit around and let myself be kidnapped." Kairi added. "You want me? You're going to have to beat me, too." Naruto smirked at her words.

Chao giggled. "Relax, you two! We won't do anything just yet!" She gestured in the direction of the world tree. "It's only the second day of the festival. Its midpoint! Things like the big confrontation should be saved for the climax. Don't you agree~? This meeting was simply to put more of the cards on the table." Something devious entered her smile. "Save that fighting spirit for tomorrow!"

Misa smirked. "As she said, I won't do anything for now. Part of the agreement we made was to not act until tomorrow evening."

Deciding that now would be a good time to reenter the conversation, Takahata spoke up. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid that we can't simply allow you to leave now, Chao-kun." He looked over to Misa. "And although I'm not sure who you are, Naruto-kun's reaction and what has been said tells me enough. You'll be coming with us as well." Taking the hint, the other teachers prepared themselves for a fight.

Letting out a soft hum, Chao took stock of the present group. "Hm, this does look bad, doesn't it?"

Rolling her eyes as she stepped closer to the self-proclaimed Martian, Misa sent back a dry retort. "Don't act like you didn't expect this."

"Ah, you've got me there-ne~" Chao smiled at the others. "If this conversation is over, then we'll just be on our way."

Naruto began pulling on a small amount of Twilight. "No, you won't be." In a blur, he rocketed towards the pair, the teachers doing the same. The moment they did so, Naruto caught sight of something in Chao's hand. Seeing what it was, his eyes widened in recognition and alarm.

Knowing that Naruto realized what she was planning to do, Chao smirked at him. "Let's all meet at the grand finale, okay?" Misa waved with a grin.

"See you then, Naruto."

' _No-!'_

A flash, and Chao and Misa were gone.

Halting his momentum, Naruto immediately scanned the vicinity for any sign of them. Getting the expected results, Naruto swore under his breath and dismissed his Keyblade. _'Damn it, they got away…'_

 **End Music**

"They disappeared? Teleportation?" One of the teachers said in surprise.

"I couldn't even track them." Seruhiko muttered.

Taking a moment to think as he took out a cigarette, Takahata turned to Naruto. "Naruto-kun, you apparently know more of the situation than we do. Can you please tell us if you know how they got away?"

The dark skinned teacher frowned. "And for that matter, who are you? What is your relation to that girl, Misa?"

Naruto frowned right back, not intimidated in the least. "Did you guys notice the thing Lingshen had in her hand when they disappeared?" He asked, ignoring the other questions.

While the other teachers shook their heads, Takahata nodded lightly. "It seemed to be similar to a pocket watch, but it was designed in an odd way."

Sighing, Naruto explained. "According to Negi and Chamo, Lingshen developed some sort of time machine. Their description of it matched what Lingshen was holding." He shook his head. "They didn't teleport anywhere; they went to a different period in time."

The dark skinned teacher scoffed in disbelief. "A time machine? Yeah, right. Such a thing is impossible, even with magic."

"I don't care if you believe me or not." Naruto shot back. "You wanted to know what I know, and that's it." He was extremely irritated that they managed to get away, and this teacher wasn't making his mood any better.

Takahata smiled. "Thanks for the information, Naruto-kun." He turned to the other teachers. "Can you please go without me and prepare to report what has happened here to the headmaster? I'll catch up in a bit." The others hesitated for only a moment before nodding and disappearing. Takahata took a drag of his cigarette. "Now then, about your conversation with that other girl…" Seeing the look on Naruto's face, he shook his head. "I won't ask the details, but if she's an enemy, then we need to know what her motives are. Fortunately for us, she outright said what she wanted…" His eyes moved to Kairi, who had walked to Naruto's side. "A Princess of Heart, eh?" He smiled kindly. "It's an honor to meet one."

Flushing slightly, Kairi smiled back. "There's no need for that attitude. I haven't done anything special…" This response only served to make Takahata's smile widen.

"Don't worry about Misa." Naruto interjected, tone and expression carefully blank. Despite this, Kairi was able to detect hints of anger there. "She's my problem. I'll be the one to confront her tomorrow."

For a full minute, Takahata and Naruto stared at one another in silence, Takahata's normal smile nowhere in sight. Finally, Takahata nodded. "Very well. By the sound of it, she'll be seeking you out anyways." He glanced at Kairi. "Although if you are her target _and_ a Princess of Heart, then I would prefer if you stay somewhere safe tomorrow, Kairi-kun."

"No!" Kairi's instantaneous reply caught Takahata off guard. Blinking, he opened his mouth, but Kairi cut him off. "I'm not going to hide somewhere safe while my friends are out there fighting!" She wasn't even referring to her inability to move too far away from Naruto without falling into a coma. If anything, that only served to make her more determined. "I meant what I said before. If they want me, then they'll have to fight me!"

She was _sick_ of the repeated reminders of how weak she was compared to the others. From the time she woke up in «Aincrad» to now, it's been nothing but amazement of what they could do. The entire reason she asked Naruto to teach her some magic was so she would be able to fight too! So that's _exactly_ what she was going to do.

Naruto stared at Kairi for several seconds, stunned by the amount of conviction present in her voice. Eventually, a smirk formed on his face. Shrugging at Takahata, he spoke up. "You heard her. Hiding somewhere safe is out of the question. She fights with the rest of us."

Hearing this, Takahata smiled. "Apparently so. Forgive me, Kairi-kun. I shouldn't have requested such a thing of you." Kairi crossed her arms and nodded. "Although may I make a suggestion? I know of a way that will no doubt improve your abilities in battle."

Not expecting such a thing, Kairi stared at him for a few seconds. Once she processed what he said, her face brightened. "Really? What is it?"

"In this world, there is a ritual that can be performed between two people called a provisional contract, or 'pactio'." Takahata said. "Negi-kun himself has formed pactios with a few of his students. I think it would be a good idea for you and Naruto-kun to form one."

Naruto frowned slightly. "What does a pactio do? And are you sure they would work for us?" Their magic was different, so would a ritual like that work the same way?

"I'm fairly certain it would work, despite the…differences." Takahata reassured. "A pactio serves as a means of forming a bond between a 'Magister Magi' and a 'Minister Magi', or 'Ministra Magi' as in the case for a girl, like now. In other words, they become partners. Traditionally, it is the ministra's duty to support and protect the magister, but it is not uncommon for the two to fight side by side. This works by allowing the ministra to tap into the magister's power, therefore becoming stronger in the process. You've actually seen it at work." Takahata said with amusement. "Yesterday, during the fight caused by the misunderstanding, did you notice any change in Asuna-kun's abilities?"

' _Yesterday?'_ There hadn't been a fight yesterday. They had spent the entire day in Evangeline's resort…The crimson blond's eyes widened in remembrance. _'Oh, wait. Time moves faster there. He's talking about when we first arrived in the world.'_ "Yeah, I did. A bit before you got there, Negi used some incantation that created a light around Asuna. She didn't get the chance to do much with it, but I definitely noticed an increase in her speed and a small one in her reaction time."

"That was the result of the pactio." Takahata informed. "It varies from person to person, and the power of the magister is also important, but a pactio has the ability to potentially multiply a person's natural ability. Speed, strength, reaction time, it does it all."

Kairi looked ecstatic at the chance of such a thing. "Seriously? There's a way to do that?"

"Yes, really." Takahata confirmed. "And to make it even better, there is a small chance to have some sort of magical artifact be synthesized from the pactio. Each artifact reflects the ministra summoning it, so if you do get one, then its use would seem almost second nature." He paused. "But again, not everyone gets an artifact. And even then, not all artifacts are combat oriented." The more he said, the more excited Kairi became.

Naruto tilted his head in thought. "Is that what that fan Asuna used against us was? Was that her artifact?" Another detail came to him. "And for that matter, were those cards she and Negi had part of the pactio?"

"That's exactly right. Asuna-kun's artifact does manifest as a fan…But that isn't normally the case. She isn't able to freely use her artifact's full potential yet due to unique circumstances." Naruto picked up small amounts of sadness in his tone, but didn't bring it up. "Those cards you saw are proof of the pactio and serve as a medium with which to activate it."

By now, Kairi was bouncing in place. "Okay, so how do we form a pactio? Can we do it right now?"

Takahata's face clearly showed his amusement with her words. "Unfortunately, a magic circle is needed to form a pactio, one which I am not able to create off of memory." Before Kairi could deflate completely, he continued. "However, Chamo-kun is very adept in forming the circle. In fact, he is the one who normally does it for Negi-kun."

"That's perfect!" Kairi declared happily. "We'll just go ask him!"

The teacher nodded. "Well, that's all I wished to say. If you do form a pactio, be sure to at least get some practice with it. This is even more important if you get an artifact out of it."

The two of them nodded in understanding. "Sure thing. Thanks for telling us about this." Naruto said. "Evangeline asked us to return to her resort later today, so we can get the practice in there." Well, saying she 'asked' would be stretching it, but the point remained.

"Ah, that's a good idea." Takahata said. Before anything more could be said, a chime went off in his pocket. Blinking, he took out his phone and checked the message. "It seems that the others have already reached the headmaster's office and are waiting for me. I'll see you two later." And with that, he left in a burst of speed.

Once he was gone, Naruto and Kairi were left standing there in silence. With the conversation finally over, Naruto allowed his mind to drift back to the encounter he just had.

'… _So…Misa really is in this world…'_ He wasn't sure how he felt about that. Angry, yes. But besides that…? He sighed silently, but then quickly shook his head. _'Forget about it, idiot. She's an enemy now. She admitted she is working for the people who are kidnapping the princesses. If they get their way, more and more worlds will be consumed by Darkness. She and the snake freak need to go down.'_ But still, even knowing that…

It didn't stop him from being angry over the entire situation, just as much as he was angry at her.

Naruto blinked when a hand was suddenly waving in front of his face. Turning to the owner, Naruto saw that Kairi was giving him a look that was a mixture of irritation and concern.

"Did you hear what I said?" She asked.

Smiling apologetically, Naruto shook his head. "Not a word, sorry. I was lost in thought."

She huffed. "I saw." Abandoning the topic, she grinned. "Anyways, how about we get back to what we were doing before? I still want to go and explore more of the festival."

Hearing this, Naruto plastered a smile onto his face. "Yeah, sure. We've got nothing to do, so might as well." He began walking in the direction of the city. "Let's get going!"

Kairi remained where she was for a few moments, staring after Naruto. Shaking her thoughts off, she moved to catch up with him.

* * *

 **In the City (An Hour Later)**

"That was a fun ride." Kairi said with a smile. "I _really_ didn't see the part where it stops and then goes in reverse coming. It was cool of them to put it in a spot you couldn't see from the line." She giggled. "And I definitely see why it's called Full Throttle. That thing was fast."

"Yeah…" The distracted reply prompted a small frown to form on Kairi's face. Glancing over to her companion, she noted that he seemed to be distracted.

The two of them had gone back into the city to tour the festival for the second time. The problem was that Naruto was much more subdued than he was the previous excursion, and he kept on getting distracted. Kairi was doing her best to keep his thoughts on having a good time, but she was met with little success. But it wasn't like Kairi was completely clueless as to why Naruto was acting the way he was. In fact, Kairi _knew_ what was on his mind.

That girl, Misa, was.

Thanks to the memory sharing, she somewhat knew about Naruto's past friendship with Misa. Based on what she saw, they had been friends for a long time, but it all ended when Misa apparently betrayed Naruto. The details of the betrayal were vague to Kairi, but she was able to put enough of the pieces together to understand that Misa joined someone really bad and hurt Naruto when she left, both physically and maybe even mentally.

' _And they had been friends for_ years _…Who knows how long she was working for that Orochimaru guy…'_ The frown on Kairi's face deepened at that thought. She couldn't even _imagine_ what it would be like if she found out that Sora or Riku betrayed her in such a way. Kairi could practically feel herself breaking at the thought. Her eyes became saddened and she stole another peek at him. Kairi bit her lip slightly. But how could she help…?

Momentarily ignoring the sick feeling at the idea of the theoretical situation, she tried to put herself in his shoes. If she was betrayed by Riku or Sora and had just come out of a confrontation where they _told_ her that they would be fighting her, then what would she do? What would she want? What would be the best way for a friend to help her?

…She had no clue.

How does someone deal with that? How can someone _else_ help with that? If it wasn't for the fact that they couldn't separate, Kairi was sure that Naruto would have instead gone off to be alone for a while.

Kairi glanced around, hoping to find some sort of inspiration on how to approach the issue.

"Hey, which one are you going to get?" Suddenly, a childish voice pulled Kairi's attention to a nearby store. "I want to try the bubblegum one!"

"But it doesn't taste like bubblegum! The rocky road flavor is way better!" A small group of children were crowded around a window, looking at something inside the store.

Tilting her head, Kairi read the name of the store. Once she did so, her eyes lit up as a smile formed on her face. Turning to Naruto, she reached over and tapped his shoulder.

Naruto stopped walking at the sudden contact and looked to her, obviously curious about what she wanted. "Wha-"

"Wait here! I'll be right back!" Not giving him a chance to say anything, Kairi ran off. Naruto quirked an eyebrow, but didn't question it. If she wanted to go somewhere far, then she would have told him. But she asked him to stay there, so she must be going to one of the shops. Finishing this line of thought, Naruto let his mind return to its previous thinking.

What felt like a couple of minutes passed by before Naruto was pulled from his thoughts once more by something getting held out in front of his face. Blinking in surprise, Naruto glanced between the object and a grinning Kairi, and saw that she was holding a second one in her other hand. "…Ice cream?" He asked as he took it.

Kairi nodded happily. "Yep!" She quickly scanned their surroundings before noticing a secluded bench. "Come on, follow me!" Bemused, Naruto did as was instructed. Once they reached the bench, Kairi pointed her free hand to the bench. "Sit." Growing even more confused, Naruto did so. Seeing that he was listening to her, Kairi nodded approvingly before sitting down next to him.

The two sat there in silence for a minute, neither starting a conversation. But while Naruto was content with the silence because it let him think, Kairi was brainstorming what to say. Eventually, she sighed quietly and decided to simply dive right into the subject. "So…You've been thinking hard ever since we separated from Takahata-san…"

Naruto nodded absently. "…Yeah…"

The redhead stared at the ice cream in her hands for a few moments. "…It's because you saw Misa, isn't it?" Naruto's eyes became wider and snapped to her. Noticing this, Kairi smiled slightly. "We shared memories, remember?" Naruto's expression gained an understanding look to it. He leaned forward, using his knees as support for his elbows as he stared at the ground.

"I almost forgot about that…" He said quietly before sighing and closing his eyes. "…So you know, then?"

"…That you were friends with her?" Naruto nodded. "…Yeah…" She _really_ wished she knew what to say here.

The two of them were thrown into another lapse of silence, but unlike the previous one, this one was broken with Naruto releasing a bitter chuckle. Not expecting this, Kairi stared at him with wide eyes. "You must think it's stupid, right?"

Kairi's eyes widened even further when he asked that. "What?"

Shrugging halfheartedly, Naruto elaborated. "Here I am, fixating on the motives and reasoning of an enemy. One whom betrayed me and nearly got me killed. I should be furious at her, and I _am_ angry, but…" He shook his head. "…I'm still thinking about the 'what ifs'…The possibilities of what could have happened if I saw it coming. If I could have had the chance to _convince_ her to not do it." His free hand balled into a fist. "…I shouldn't be worried about those. Misa made her choice, and it was to help the bad guys. Now we're standing on opposite sides of what might be the prelude to another war…" His voice grew quieter. "End of story." A somber mood encompassed the two.

"…I do think you're being stupid." Naruto allowed a humorless smirk to show. "But not for the reason you think." Frowning, Naruto opened his eyes and turned to look at Kairi. And what he saw in _her_ eyes was sorrow.

 **Play Kingdom Hearts 1.5 ReMIX OST: Treasured Memories Extended**

"…It only makes sense for you to think about what could have happened if things were different." Kairi continued quietly. "If it were me, I would do the same." Naruto hummed at that and began to turn away again. "But I would _also_ do my best to fix things." And just like that, Naruto's full attention snapped back to her.

Frowning somewhat at what she was hinting at, Naruto spoke. "Kairi…Whether I like it or not, Misa is an enemy." He's definitely reminded himself of that enough times to never forget it. "There's nothing to fix."

Hearing this, Kairi slumped her shoulders. "…I won't pretend that I understand what you're feeling…" She whispered. "…But I know it must hurt."

' _Ain't that the truth…'_

"I just think that you deserve the chance to learn the truth." Kairi said. "…To hear it from her." Naruto rolled the thought around in his head as he stared at the ice cream he was holding. That wasn't anything he wasn't already planning on doing, but he didn't bother getting his hopes up. There was a good chance that there was no reason further than because she wanted to.

"I'm definitely going to find out why she's helping Orochimaru." Naruto replied. "…But after that? We'll have nothing left to discuss. I _will_ treat her like any other enemy." He took a deep breath, and strangely enough, he felt better after saying that out loud. Blinking, he realized that a weight he didn't know he had was lifted from his shoulders. Acknowledging out loud that he shouldn't get his hopes up about Misa and that they will have to fight allowed his newly resurfaced doubts and turmoil to fade.

Spotting his expression, Kairi let a small smile form. "It feels better to talk about it, doesn't it? Even if you don't like what you're saying."

Glancing at her from the corner of his eye, Naruto nodded minutely. "…Yeah, it does." He admitted. Now that he thought about it, he has always had someone whom he was able to talk to. Whether it be Hikari, Yami, Urahara, or even Yoruichi when she was only a cat to him, there has always been someone that he could talk to about his problems and whatever was bothering him…No matter if it had to be pried out of him or if he spoke willingly.

But here in a new world, Naruto didn't have the ability to walk over to Urahara's store to talk to him or Yoruichi. And he still wasn't in contact with Hikari and Yami, so that was out. And while he could call Urahara or Yoruichi with the computer on the ship, Naruto didn't think it would be the same when not in person.

Realizing this, Naruto gave Kairi a small smile. "Thanks…"

She quickly returned the smile. "You're welcome. You seriously looked like you needed it."

Huffing in amusement, Naruto sat back and fully relaxed into the bench. "…How did you know I needed that?" He asked curiously.

Tilting her head, Kairi hummed. "Because that's what I would have wanted if I was bothered by something." She revealed. Her smile softened as a memory came to mind. "…You know how I don't remember most of my life before winding up on Destiny Islands?" They had never spoken about it, but she guessed that he would know from her memories.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah…"

"Well, it hasn't happened in a while, but I used to get really depressed about that." She confided. "It was the obvious questions like, 'Who am I?' 'How did I get here?'" Her expression became sadder. "'Do I have any family…or am I alone?' 'Did they abandon me?'" Naruto's eyes widened at that last one.

"You thought that…"

Kairi nodded. "Yeah…I did. It really got to me sometimes, you know? I would think about it constantly, both wanting to know the truth and scared of what it would be. I didn't start getting flashes of my memories until not too long ago."

"I see…"

Shaking her head, Kairi continued. "On the island, there was this cave that no one really ever went to. It was the perfect place for me to just be alone for a while. I would sit there and think for hours at a time…And when it really got to me, I would start crying." Her voice wavered at the memories. Noticing this, Naruto hesitantly reached an arm out and pulled her into a one-armed hug from the side. Kairi's eyes widened in surprise, but she didn't pull away, instead smiling softly at him in thanks. After a moment, she continued. "It was during one of those times I was hiding there that I heard two voices calling my name."

Naruto smirked, having a feeling that he knew who those voices probably belonged to. "Riku and Sora?"

A small hint of exasperation entered Kairi's face as she nodded. "I wanted to ignore them until they went away, but they came into cave and found me." Her smile became even warmer. "They had apparently been searching for me for a while. The moment they found me, Riku sighed in relief while Sora cheered ran over to me."

"But you wanted to be alone?"

Kairi released an agreeing hum. "Yeah…But they wouldn't let me…" She lifted up the ice cream in her hand. "Instead they handed me some ice cream they brought and sat down with me. Not leaving when I told them to, and not letting me go anywhere. They kept trying to get me to talk to them." She shook her head. "I was so… _annoyed_ with them that I got angry." She actually seemed to be slightly embarrassed by that. "Before I knew what had happened, I was panting after shouting and screaming at them about how I wanted to be alone, and that it was only when I was alone that I could think about how much it _hurts_ being alone." Naruto understood that perfectly, despite the somewhat confusing wording.

After all, he's gone through something similar.

"When I finally calmed down, I was given a grinning Sora -even though he was shaking in fear- and a smirking Riku." She told him. "Seeing that I wasn't shouting anymore, Riku's smirk widened and he only asked me if I was _done_." She giggled at the memory. "When I didn't reply, he nodded to himself and said, 'Good, because the ice cream is melting.'"

Naruto snickered quietly at that. "Sounds like a smartass."

"He can be." Kairi laughed. "But it was after he said that when I realized that I felt _better_. From then on, it sort of became a thing. I would occasionally get depressed, and then they would come find me with ice cream so we could talk. Eventually, I stopped having those thoughts." She smiled at Naruto. "So when I saw that you were depressed about what was going on, it reminded me a bit of those times, so I decided to do the same to you." She grinned proudly. "And I think it worked beautifully, if I do say so myself."

The crimson blond nodded. He couldn't deny the results. Suddenly, he was startled when he realized that he still had his arm around Kairi. Blushing lightly, he retracted his arm. "…Thanks." He said quietly, trying to convey just how grateful he was.

Understanding the appreciation, Kairi grinned again. "No problem. I couldn't _not_ do something. I was able to help you, so I did."

Naruto smirked at this, but then his attention was pulled away when something cold touching his finger. Looking down, his smirk widened. "There's another part of your story that mirrors right now."

Kairi became curious at this. "Really? What?"

Holding up his hand, Naruto showed her the ice cream. "Both then and now, the ice cream began melting before we started eating it." Naruto grinned as Kairi giggled.

Despite her obvious amusement, Kairi put a mock angry expression on her face. "Then you better hurry up and eat it! I paid for that, so don't let it go to waste!"

A chuckle escaped Naruto upon hearing this. "What do you mean you paid for it? Everything in this festival is free for us."

Kairi's response was to stick her tongue out at him. "It's the thought that counts!"

Even more amused, Naruto didn't bother to argue about it, instead opting to taste the ice cream. He blinked when the flavor hit him. "Salty…?" He frowned a second later. "No…Sweet?" He glanced at Kairi in question, and got a smile.

"I wasn't sure what to pick, so I asked for the cashier's favorite." She said. "He gave me this." She licked her own ice cream. "I've never had it before, but it's good!"

Naruto nodded in agreement. "What's the flavor called?" He would definitely remember it. Kairi tilted her head and thought back to what the cashier called it. Noticing her hesitation, Naruto smirked. "You weren't paying attention?"

Kairi glared playfully at him. "No, I was! I know the flavor! It's called, um…" She thought hard back to what it was. After a moment, she grinned in triumph.

"It's called Sea-Salt Ice Cream!"

 **End Music**

* * *

 **Rooftop of Mahora Student Dorms (That Evening)**

Naruto had a thoughtful frown on his face as he and Kairi watched the party going on a few dozen feet away. The party itself wasn't a problem. But the people participating confused Naruto somewhat.

"…Um…" Naruto glanced over to Kairi, noticing that she had a nervous smile on her face. "…Are we sure that's okay?" She asked while pointing at the party.

Looking back to the noisy group, Naruto sighed. "Negi said not to worry about it…And she _did_ say that she wouldn't do anything until tomorrow." He stared at the students of 3-A. "To most of them, this is a farewell party for a friend, so I'm also hesitant to interfere…" Around half an hour ago, Naruto and Kairi had received a message from Negi saying that his class was going to throw a farewell party. Normally, that wouldn't have had anything to do with them.

But the fact that the party was for Chao caught their attention.

It was only thanks to Negi's assurance that everything would be fine that they didn't do anything about it. Naruto was reluctant to come at all, but he also wouldn't mind the chance to speak with Chao when it was improbable of a fight breaking out. It also helped that he noticed at least three of Negi's students on guard and ready for a fight if Chao pulled something.

So here they were. Watching what had to be the noisiest students in any of the worlds party the night away.

The students of 3-A had attempted to pull them into the fun, but both had declined, saying that they were content where they were and were tired from the day. Naruto said this because he didn't want to risk letting his guard down around Chao, and Kairi because she felt slightly nervous being around someone she _knew_ worked with people who wanted to kidnap her.

Eventually, the party shifted gears as most of the well-wishes for Chao were given and attention shifted elsewhere. Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto noticed Negi use this chance to speak to Chao privately. Deciding to do the same, Naruto waited for their conversation to end.

To his surprise, instead of having to go to Chao, Naruto found himself being approached by the self-proclaimed Martian once she was done talking with Negi. Frowning slightly, Naruto stepped between her and Kairi. But this only served to serve to amuse Chao to the point of laughter.

"Relax-ne! I already told you that I won't do anything until tomorrow." She said with a grin. Shaking her head in mock exasperation, she continued. "You shinobi sure are paranoid, aren't you?"

Naruto didn't even allow himself to twitch at the casual mention. "…I guess Misa told you that?"

Chao hummed. "Who knows? She might have, or maybe she didn't~!" The more she spoke, the more confused Naruto became. Something must have shown on her face, because Chao's grin widened. "What's wrong? You seem to be troubled."

"…I don't understand you." Naruto said after a moment. Whatever Chao was expecting, that wasn't it.

"Eh? What's hard to understand?" She asked.

"You acknowledge us as people fighting against you, but you still act like that. You're either confident or arrogant."

A pleased laugh escaped Chao. "Well, what does that say about you then? As you said, I'm an enemy, and I'm allied with people who threaten the balance of the worlds. People who you have a personal history with. And yet here you are, talking with me-ne!"

Naruto couldn't refute that point. Even now, he wasn't sure what his opinion of Chao was. "Do you _really_ know what you're messing with?" He asked her. "This is bigger than just this world. You're working with people who might plunge _all_ the worlds into Darkness. Do you know how many lives they have already ruined? How many friends and families have been torn apart?" _That_ definitely got a reaction out of her. The crimson blond watched as for the first time, Chao's composure slipped. And what he saw behind her mask made his eyes widen.

 _Anguish. Nothing but pure anguish._

He was about to speak up, but Chao beat him to it. "…I do." She whispered with an agonized tone. Her head tilted down, making it so her bangs blocked her eyes. "Trust me…I _know_ what will happen if they get their way."

When he heard this, Naruto froze. Swallowing, he glanced to Kairi and saw that she definitely heard the tone as well. Returning his chance to Chao, he spoke up. "Lingshen…How far into the future are you from…?" He asked slowly. Up until now, he had never put much thought into it. But now…

Instead of answering, Chao shook her head. "If there is anyone that knows what's at stake here, it's me…"

Uncomfortable with his current line of thought, Naruto turned his head away and watched the world tree glow softly for a minute. "…If you know what's going to happen if they win, then why are you on their side?" The next thing Naruto knew, he was on the receiving end of a _livid_ glare.

"I am _not_ on their side." She hissed. Naruto tensed while Kairi gasped, but they didn't react any further than that, instead choosing to stay silent as Chao got control of her anger. "…I would never do that…"

"…Then why did you ally yourself with Misa?" Naruto asked quietly. "Do you know who she works for?" She nodded. "Then _why_?"

Chao looked away. "…While I would never willingly approach Orochimaru himself for something like this, his subordinates are another matter. I have the situation under control." She said. "Misa-san agreed to my terms, so I'm prepared to push aside my disgust for her master to complete my goal in this world."

Naruto grew frustrated when she told him that. "But by helping her, you're helping _him_!" He growled. "And on top of that, she wants to kidnap Kairi! That's going to happen if you win!" Chao spent several long seconds not saying anything.

"…You may not trust me, but I _do_ have a plan." Chao said quietly before giving Kairi an apologetic look. "Necessary evil." She explained. "I really am sorry, Kairi-san, but it is needed."

 _That_ made Naruto even angrier. "Necessary evil?" He repeated. "You think it's _needed_ for Kairi to get kidnapped? For her to get captured? For the other princesses get captured as well?" When Chao didn't say anything, Naruto felt his anger rise. "What the _hell_ makes you think that?!"

Slowly, Chao shifted her sad eyes to meet Naruto's furious ones. "I _know_ that because of my knowledge from the future." She said. "It's unfortunate, but in the end, it's for the best if Kairi-san gets captured by them…I'm sorry, but I can't say any more than that."

"Don't screw with me!" Naruto barked, catching the attention of a few students. It was only thanks to Negi's quick interference that none of them came over to investigate. But even then, the child teacher couldn't help but throw some worried frowns their way. "Either tell us the reason, or don't even say that! I won't let some secret tell me how to act! _Especially_ when it puts a friend at risk! I _will_ protect the people I care about! Even if it kills me!"

Chao smiled sadly at his declaration. "…I admire that attitude, I truly do…But it was also what allowed Xehanort to defeat you."

Naruto felt as if all the blood in his body turned to ice. Reeling back in shock, all of his anger and frustration left him. "Wh… _What_?"

"You don't get how important you are, do you?" Chao questioned. "Beyond being a Keyblade wielder, there are other reasons why your survival is more important than that of other people…But that doesn't stop you from risking yourself for what you see as the right reason."

"…What are you saying?" Naruto asked, somewhat fearful of the answer.

"You've already figured out that I'm from far enough into the future that the forces of Darkness have gained power." Chao began. "…Don't you think that people would have tried to stop them before they became so powerful?" Her voice lowered. "That _you_ would have tried to stop them?"

A numbness was beginning to spread across Naruto's mind. "I…"

"If they were becoming so powerful in my time…If Xehanort did make his return…Then what do you think you would have done?" She asked.

"…I…I would have fought against them…Against him." Naruto realized. "I would have joined the fight immediately." That has always been the plan. When Xehanort returns, Naruto was going to help fight him. That's what he's been training for.

"But in my time, Darkness has nearly extinguished the Light completely." Chao's voice hitched. "One by one, the Keyblade wielders fell. The resistance is slowly losing momentum…It's only a matter of time before they win."

"That's why you came back." Naruto concluded. "You're back to change things." He shook his head. "But…How does revealing magic to this world help? How does working with Orochimaru's people benefit you?"

Chao sighed. "Revealing magic is only the first step. After that, I will reveal the existence of other worlds." She paused. "No single world can stand a chance against them. And this world has a large population of people who can fight, but are hidden due to the magical community remaining secret."

It all clicked in Naruto's mind. "You don't want to reveal the existence of other worlds just in this world…You want to do it in every world. You want them all to work together."

"But that's…The worlds are separated for a reason." Kairi said, speaking for the first time. "They were separated because there would be too much conflict otherwise. And to prevent people with bad intentions making things worse for other worlds. It nearly threw everything into Darkness in the past."

Something broken returned to Chao's smile. "But that's the thing…If things continue as they are, then that's what will happen anyways."

Not wanting to believe it, Naruto shook his head. "You can't be serious…"

"I have yet to tell a single lie." Chao replied. "Everything I have said to you has been the truth. I may not tell you the entire truth, but I won't give you false information. The things I _do_ keep from you, I keep because if I told you now, then they _will_ have negative long lasting results." She held out a hand. "…I know I haven't given you much reason to…But will you please trust me on this? Will you help me?"

Naruto stared at the hand for a full minute in silence, thinking about everything he was just told. Next to him, Kairi remained quiet, knowing that this was something he needed to decide for himself. Eventually, his expression hardened and he met Chao's gaze.

"I can't do that, Lingshen. What you are working toward may have good intentions, but you're going about it the wrong way."

"If it's Misa-san keeping you from doing so, I will sever all contact with her right here and now." Chao offered. "I promise. I would much rather work with you than with them."

Shaking his head, Naruto replied. "It isn't just that. It's the entire plan. You want to reveal the existence of other worlds to all the worlds, and I can't support that. Kairi was right when she said it will only lead to turmoil."

"But if we don't, then things will only get worse! Them staying separated will lead to Darkness consuming everything!" She pleaded.

"One case can't counter the war that waged _ever since Light and Darkness were born_!" Naruto countered. "When the worlds interacted freely with one another, Darkness nearly consumed everything, you know that. The _only_ reason that the worlds were saved was because some Light survived in the hearts of children. We _can't_ risk that happening again."

"It _will_ though! What you fear and what I fear are the same thing! Only _I'm_ working to prevent it!"

Naruto scowled. "And I'm not? What do you think I'm here for? Why do you think I'm traveling from world to world? It's to stop them!"

"But you'll fail! You'll be defeated, and so will the other Keyblade wielders! You _need_ the support of all the worlds!" Chao insisted.

A thought came to Naruto then, making his scowl darken. "And how does Kairi getting captured play into that?" Chao flinched. "How does allowing them gather the seven princesses help prevent their victory?!"

Kairi and Naruto watched as Chao silently waged a war with herself. "It's…It's because…" She swallowed. "…Because that's how Kairi-san will regain her heart." She finally said, shocking them both. "If Kairi-san gets captured, then it will be the set up needed for her regaining her heart." Her attention moved over to the wide eyed redhead. "…I'm sorry, but it's true."

"…You know about that?" Naruto asked, getting a nod. Regaining his composure, Naruto's eyes narrowed. "How does that work? How will her capture end up with her regaining her heart?"

Chao had another silent debate with herself before hesitantly speaking again. "I can't tell you that." Seeing their expressions, she hastily continued. "I can't because if I do so, then it runs the risk of altering the course of events so that she _doesn't_ regain her heart! And she absolutely _has_ to!"

Naruto crossed his arms and stared at her for a few moments. "…Sorry, but that's not good enough. I'm not going to agree to a plan with that amount of danger without being told the entire thing." He glanced at Kairi. "Especially not when it is a friend at risk. And I don't think that Kairi would agree to it, either."

"Y-Yeah…" Kairi agreed shakily. "I would rather not do that…"

Disheartened, Chao looked between them. "I understand…" A reluctant smile made its way onto her face. "Well, I suppose you wouldn't be you otherwise…" She conceded. "It's unfortunate, but I guess we'll be on opposite sides in the final battle tomorrow."

"Seems like it." Naruto said. And despite everything, he was somewhat sad about it. He knew that Chao was fighting for the right reasons, but he couldn't agree with how she was doing it.

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry it has to be this way." Kairi added with a small smile. She also felt slightly sad to see that Chao -who was obviously a nice person, despite everything- was an enemy.

The self-proclaimed Martian took another moment to look between the two of them again. Eventually, her gaze settled on Naruto. "But you know…I keep things from you because if I don't, then things will get out of control. I even tell you how and why they will get out of control…"

Naruto frowned slightly. "…Where are you going with this?"

Chao bit her lip as she thought about something. Opening her mouth, she made to speak, but stopped herself at the last second. After taking another minute to think, she tried again. "…I'm talking about Hikari-sama and Yami-sama." Naruto and Kairi tensed, prompting Chao to quickly raise her hands in a placating manner. "Don't worry! I haven't told anyone! I would _never_ tell anyone working for the other side about you and your connection to them!"

Scowl returning, Naruto prepared himself to summon his Keyblade. "How much do you know?"

"I…I know who they really are and that they chose you as a guardian…" Chao began. "I also know that you will eventually be able to wield _that_ blade…Along with some other stuff…"

"And? How do you know about all that? I _really_ doubt it's common knowledge in the future." Naruto hissed. He's always been careful about who he said that around. Saying as much as he did in front of Erza was pushing it for him, but he was still startled at the time from Kairi's passing out and learning about her condition at the time.

"I wouldn't say it's common knowledge, but it isn't as much of a secret as it is now." Chao explained.

Naruto took a deep breath to calm himself. "Why did you bring them up?" His eyes widened before narrowing. "…You know why I can't contact them, don't you?"

Hesitantly, Chao nodded. "I do." Seeing that he was about to speak, she cut him off. "I am _really_ sorry, but I can't tell you the details. Doing so will also run the risk of changing things for the worse."

"You've already said a lot, how much can a little more hurt?" Kairi asked her.

"It can hurt more than you'd expect, Kairi-san." Chao said. "Everything I've done has been with careful planning. It would be risking too much to tell you specifics…And it wouldn't be good for you to find out from me."

Hands balling in anger, Naruto spoke. "So what _can_ you say, then? Why even bring it up if you can't tell me what's going on?"

Taking another second to think, Chao hesitantly responded. "They haven't been entirely forthcoming with you. And while I'm basically doing the same, _they_ are doing it for different reasons…I _can_ say that you should be careful with them."

Immediately, Naruto's scowl returned. "You're saying that they can't be trusted?! The two of them have been there for me since the beginning! They've done nothing but help me! Why should I take your word over theirs?!"

"Please, Naruto-kun… _Think_ about it." Chao pleaded. "Why would they help you? Why would they put so much effort into making you stronger?"

"Because they chose me as a guardian of Kingdom Hearts! Because they _care_!" Naruto couldn't believe what she was suggesting!

Something miserable entered Chao's eyes again, but this one was different than the previous time. With a start, Naruto realized it was sadness _for him_.

"Can you truly say that they care for you? That they have your best interests in mind?" Chao whispered. "Maybe they care for you to an extent, but think about what they _are_ keeping from you." Not giving either of them a chance to reply, she took a step back. "Sorry, but I think I've said enough…"

Noticing that Naruto wasn't going to say anything, Kairi spoke. "You're leaving? Even though we're still arguing?"

Chao smiled at them, but it seemed to be somewhat hollow. "Shall we agree to disagree-ne? Let's leave any further fighting for tomorrow!" And with that, she took out the strange pocket watch again, but she paused before activating it. "…You know…I _really_ wish that it didn't have to be this way…But some things _can't_ be changed." As she said this, her eyes locked with Naruto's again. "…No matter how far into the past you go…See you tomorrow."

Naruto and Kairi watched silently as Chao disappeared. Thinking over what she said, Naruto's scowl shifted into a frown.

He hated to admit it, but her words were alarmingly possible. _Was_ there something that Hikari and Yami weren't telling him? His frowned deepened when he recalled the conversation they had immediately after his fight with Kuro.

* * *

 **Flashback (Chapter 35)**

 _Raising a hand, Naruto summoned his Keyblade, making it appear in a flash of Twilight. "Do the two of you know what happened to my Keyblade during my fight with Sephiroth? And at the end of my fight with Kuro?" He asked._

 _Like before, Hikari and Yami traded looks. "…You already have a good idea what happened." Yami eventually said. "Do you really need us to say it?"_

 _"…It turned into the χ-blade…" He breathed, getting two nods in confirmation. "But…how? Why?"_

 _"You've always had the power to form it, it's only been a matter of doing it." Hikari told him. "During your fight with Sephiroth, you momentarily achieved it, but not completely. That happened because you stopped thinking. All that you had in mind was staying alive and keeping your promise. No worrying about your Darkness corrupting you, no holding back, only that. At the end of your fight with Kuro, you accepted your Darkness and merged it together with your Light. And Light mixing harmoniously with Darkness is the very core of the χ-blade, so it happened again."_

 _"So I can form it at will now?" Naruto didn't even bother attempting to hold back the excitement creeping into his voice and face._

 _"Not a chance." Yami shot him down immediately and with a grin._

 _Naruto deflated. "But…why not?" They said he needed to accept his Darkness, and he has! So why couldn't he wield it?!_

 _Once again, Hikari and Yami traded a look, but unlike the others, they held this one for several long moments, as if debating something. When they finally turned back to him, Yami spoke up. "You can't form the χ-blade yet because you are still missing a vital piece of information." Naruto opened his mouth. "No, we won't tell you what, so don't ask. That's something that will come later. You don't need the χ-blade now, so please don't ask."_

 _The denial brought a frown to his face. "You're sure?" They nodded. "…Fine. I'll trust you on this."_

 _"Thank you." Hikari said._

* * *

 **Flashback End**

Yes, there were things they weren't telling him. He already knew that. But while he wanted to trust them on this, something about the way Chao looked at him unnerved him. And her words only made it worse.

" _Can you truly say that they care for you? That they have your best interests in mind? Maybe they care for you to an extent, but think about what they_ are _keeping from you."_

Did the information they were keeping from him have something to do with why he was able to use his Light as a pseudo-heart for Kairi? Was it the reason they had shared some memories when they first met? Did Chao know what the secret was?

Naruto shook his head. Chao was an enemy, plain and simple. He shouldn't heed her words over Hikari and Yami's. She didn't know him, unlike them. And he didn't know her, unlike them. Hikari and Yami have been with him since he was six. They have been constant companions, just like Yoruichi and Urahara.

' _Then where are they now? Why haven't I been able to contact them?'_ Naruto growled quietly in frustration and rubbed his temples upon thinking that. There must be some reason he couldn't contact them. He would eventually work around it, so getting mad about it was stupid.

A gentle hand on his shoulder shifted his attention. Glancing over, Naruto wasn't surprised to see that Kairi was giving him a look of concern. "You okay?" She asked quietly.

Sighing, Naruto shrugged. "I'm not going to lie…Lingshen's words are bothering me. You saw Hikari and Yami, right? In my memories?"

Kairi bit her lip slightly and removed her hand, but nodded. "You know I didn't see all of your memories of them, but I did see enough to know who they are…And a small glimpse of what they taught you, but not much besides that…"

Naruto began walking over to the railing of the roof and away from the party, Kairi a step behind him. Coming to a stop, he rested his hands on the railing and stared at the world tree. "Then you at least know that they're the ones who helped me manifest my Keyblade and taught me about Light and Darkness." She gave an agreeing hum. "It's annoying, but what Lingshen said is a real possibility."

A frown made its way onto Kairi's face. "You shouldn't think like that." She said softly. "They're your friends and they care about you. You should trust them."

"But do they?" Naruto muttered. "Are they my friends? How do I know that they _haven't_ been using me this entire time? That they won't eventually prove that they have hidden motives for helping me?" His gaze turned downcast. "…That they won't eventually show that I'm only a pawn in some bigger game?" He whispered. _'It's happened before…'_ The two of them stood in silence for several long moments, Naruto unwilling to look at her.

Suddenly, he was pulled from his thoughts when a pair of arms pulled him into a hug from behind. Eyes widening in surprise, Naruto looked over his shoulder at the redhead, and he was greeted with an expression that clearly conveyed her sadness over his thoughts. "You're thinking of what happened with Misa again, aren't you?" This quiet question made Naruto's eyes widen even more. That reaction was all Kairi needed to confirm her suspicions. "Naruto, listen to me…You _can't_ keep everyone at a distance because of one person's actions. Hikari and Yami have been there for you the longest out of everyone…Well, besides Yoruichi, I think, but you know what I mean. You should trust them more."

Naruto took a deep breath, but didn't move away. "…And if it turns out that Lingshen was telling the truth? That they're only using me?"

Kairi's expression became even sadder, knowing that he wouldn't let that possibility go, but then she immediately gained the determined glint in her eyes that Naruto had spotted when she was especially passionate about something. "Then _if_ that happens, know that _I'm_ never going to betray you." Naruto blinked several times at that, making her grin. "And _that's_ a promise. One that I won't _ever_ break. I'll always be there for you." Despite the small pang he felt upon the word 'promise', Naruto still felt himself smiling.

"…You know, this almost seems like a love confession." And just like that, the moment ended by the sudden comment from the side. Both Kairi and Naruto's heads snapped around to see who had spoken, and they were met with the sight of Chamo sitting on a nearby rail with a cigarette in his paw and a _disturbing_ grin. "So…I've been meaning to ask, but are you two…?" He giggled.

Faces burning, Naruto and Kairi leapt apart. Naruto glared at the ermine while Kairi did her best to not let her face be seen. "How much of that did you hear?" He hissed.

Chamo waved lazily. "Oh, nothing much. I only heard the last bit or so. I don't know what you were talking about to warrant that promise, but I definitely heard the promise itself." His grin widened. "Now don't avoid the question~"

"No!"

"Is that so~" Chamo giggled again. "Well, from the bystander's point of view, that isn't very convincing! Ehehehe…"

"Shut up, you stupid rat." Naruto muttered. Closing his eyes for a moment, he changed the subject. "Moving on…I'm glad you're here. We've been meaning to ask you something. Well, we were actually hoping you be able to help us with something."

This served as enough to catch Chamo's attention. "Oh, and what's that?"

Naruto gestured to Kairi. "Kairi wants to help fight tomorrow, but her capture is one of the enemy's goals. She knows a couple of spells, and she will be with me the entire time, but any advantage would be welcome. Takahata-san gave us a suggestion and said that you would be able to help us with it."

Having a feeling that he knew where this was going, Chamo's disturbing grin returned. The fact that it did bothered Naruto slightly, but he wasn't deterred. "You want to form a pactio, don't you?" The ermine asked. "You want me to draw up the magic circle." He giggled.

Kari nodded. "Yes, we do. It would really be appreciated if you did."

Chamo laughed gleefully. "Don't worry about it! It'll be my pleasure! I actually get paid for forming pactios." He took out a piece of chalk -from where, Naruto didn't have a clue- and leapt onto the floor. "Give me a second, I'll have the circle done in no time!"

"Ah, wait a second." Naruto interrupted. Blinking, Chamo halted his movement and looked up at him. "You mind if we do this in Evangeline's resort? We were planning on going there now anyways. And that way, we will be better equipped to handle anything that may go wrong. You have to remember that we're not from this world, so we don't know what will happen if we try to use your magic."

Frowning slightly, Chamo slowly nodded. "Hm, I guess you're right…Alright, at the resort it is. I'll just tell Aniki I'm going with you guys and he'll meet me there later. He and a few of the others are planning on heading there early in the morning." And with that, he scampered off to talk to Negi.

* * *

 **Evangeline's Resort (A Little Later)**

"A pactio?" Evangeline repeated. "There's an interesting thought…" She glanced between Naruto and Kairi, but her gaze lingered on Kairi. "Although I am curious if your condition will have any impact on the outcome."

A worried expression formed on Kairi's face. "Do you think it will prevent it from working?" Chamo looked from Kairi to Evangeline in curiosity, but didn't say anything.

Shrugging, Evangeline turned and began to walk away to give them some space. "No clue. It might, or it might not. Only one way to find out." Deciding that she was far enough away, she stopped and gave them an expectant look. "Well? What are you waiting for? Get on with it, rodent."

Muttering under his breath, Chamo jumped off of Naruto's shoulder and faced him and Kairi. "Hold on a second. If we're gonna do this, then we're gonna do it right. I'm going to explain what a pactio grants them." Evangeline rolled her eyes, but didn't argue. "Now then, do you know what happens as a result of a pactio? Beyond getting a cool card?"

Kairi's brow scrunched up in thought. "Takahata-san told us that this will let me tap into Naruto's power a bit. When Naruto activates the contract, I'll have increased speed, strength, and even reaction time." Her eyes lit up. "And if I'm lucky, then I'll get some kind of magic artifact that reflects me and will be somewhat instinctual for me to use…right?"

Grinning, Chamo nodded. "Except for one small detail, you're one hundred percent correct! You don't _need_ bro to activate the contract for the boost, but it's recommended. You can do it yourself with a different incantation, but that one requires practice on your part. Get it?"

"I think so…What else?"

"There are other uses that a pactio has. The ones we've covered are only the combat oriented ones." He told them. "Besides those, there are two things you should know. The first is that by holding the cards to your heads, you can communicate telepathically." _That_ caught their interest. "You both need to hold them to your heads to have a conversation like that, but if only one person does it, then the other can still hear. They just won't be able to communicate back. Also, the cards need to at least be on the person for the one-way communication to work. With me so far?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah…What's the last thing?" These pactios were starting to sound better and better.

"The last ability given by a pactio is for the magister to summon the ministra to their location." Both Naruto and Kairi blinked at this. "Only the magister can do it though, not the ministra. The limit is around ten kilometers, same with the telepathy. Also, keep in mind that both the summoning and the telepathy are fairly easy to block. It doesn't take that strong of a barrier to do so. And unlike the telepathy, the cards _do_ need to be held to the heads of both partners for the summoning to work." Chamo said.

The crimson blond grinned. "Still, that sounds perfect. Having those abilities might come in handy in the future." Or at least, they might when he and Kairi could be in two different places to actually have need of them. "That it?"

"That's it! Now that the impromptu lesson is over, onto the pactio!" Chamo materialized his chalk again and -in a surprising display of speed- darted around the floor, drawing lines as he went. Within a minute, a magic circle was glowing on the ground and Chamo was smirking with pride. "Here you go! One pactio circle, ready to go! Just step on in and finish the contract! In a second, you two are gonna officially be partners!" He ran over to Evangeline's side, grinning all the while.

Only hesitating long enough to make eye contact and nod, Naruto and Kairi stepped into the circle. Once they reached the center, they stood facing one another…But became confused when nothing happened.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Chamo called out. "Finalize the contract!" He said gleefully.

Tilting his head in confusion, Naruto spoke up. "Uh…How do we do that?" He asked. "Takahata-san never told us." Immediately, Evangeline's bored expression morphed into a grin that she only ever got when other people were suffering. Perhaps even more worrying than that, Chamo's grin widened and he released the same giggle Naruto heard right before Urahara said something that would either piss him off or embarrass him.

"Whaaaat~? You don't know~?" He sang, sending chills down Naruto and Kairi's spines. "You were all set and ready to form a pactio, and yet you _don't_ know how to do it~?"

Naruto scowled. He was getting an increasingly bad feeling about this by the second. It was nearly to the point that he was considering this to be a mistake. "Would you just tell us what to do already?"

"Sure, no problem! To finalize a pactio, you only need to do one thing!" He whipped out a pair of fans, both of them decorated with designs of hearts and lips. "It's a smooch! A snog! A peck! A buss! You know, a _kiss_!" He waved his fans enthusiastically, either not noticing or not caring about the way that Naruto and Kairi froze in place. "So pucker up and lock those lips!"

Kairi and Naruto _stared_ at the ermine. Both of their brains attempting to process what they were just told to do.

"Come on, get to it! Where did all that enthusiasm for the pactio go?!" And then at the same time, a shade of red that made Kushina's hair seem dull bloomed on their faces.

"W-What the _hell_ are you saying, you damn rat?!"

"We need to w-w- _WHAT_?!"

"What's with the hold up?! You were all for it a second ago!" Chamo shouted back.

"THAT WAS _BEFORE_ WE WERE TOLD WE HAD TO KISS-TTEBAYO!"

"Y-Yeah!"

Chamo's grin only grew at their protests. "So? It's just a kiss! I don't see a problem with it~"

"You're not the one doing it!" Naruto snarled, face still crimson.

"Eh, what's the big deal?" Chamo asked. "I mean, it's obvious that you two have the hots for each other anyways! Just see this as helping to speed up the process!"

Kairi buried her face in her hands, unable to believe this was happening. On the other hand, Naruto didn't let himself be back down due to embarrassment. Instead, the crimson blond summoned his Keyblade and practically _teleported_ to Chamo. The ermine stilled and broke out into a cold sweat when the Keyblade was suddenly pressing against his throat.

Swallowing nervously and trembling like crazy, Chamo shakily spoke up. "H-Hold on…Let's not do anything d-drastic, bro…Okay…?"

Naruto applied more pressure with the Keyblade. "You had _better_ be joking about the kiss." He said dangerously.

Trembling even more, Chamo shook his head. "W-Wait! I'm sorry, okay! I didn't tell you the entire truth!" Relief flooded his small body when the pressure lessened.

"Talk. _Quickly._ "

"A kiss _is_ how people finalize the contract-!" The Keyblade was suddenly pressing against him even harder than before. "B-But that's only because of how easy it is! There are other methods! I swear!"

"And they are?"

"We don't have the resources for most of them, b-but we _can_ complete the contract with a blood oath!" Naruto grimaced. While _he_ didn't have a problem with this method, he wasn't sure that Kairi was the same way. "We would only need a bit! And then we could heal the cut right after! So please don't hurt me!" Chamo pleaded.

Evangeline hadn't felt this amused in _ages_.

After staring at the little rat for several long seconds, Naruto turned his head around to look at Kairi, not moving his Keyblade away even as he did so. "That sound okay to you?"

Doing her best to fight her blush back, Kairi removed her face from her hands and nodded. "Yeah…I'm fine with that." Hearing this, Naruto dismissed his Keyblade and walked back to the circle, much to Chamo's relief. He had experience with negative reactions to the kissing thing, but thatwas the closest he has ever been to actually getting _turned into a_ _pelt_.

 **Play Negima OST: Pactio!**

When the two of them were standing in their original positions, Chamo called out to them. "All you need to do is create a slice on the inside of your hands and then shake hands. After that, the contract will be complete."

Humming in understanding, Naruto took off one of his gloves, took out a kunai, and then quickly made a cut deep enough to draw blood. Once that was done, he looked up from his hand to see Kairi with a slightly unsettled expression. Smiling apologetically, Naruto spoke. "I guess that you aren't used to willingly drawing blood, huh?" She shook her head. "Do you want me to do it for you…?"

Steeling herself, Kairi held her hand out. "I'll do it myself." Naruto nodded and handed her the kunai. Kairi pressed it against her palm and held it there for a few seconds. Right when Naruto was about to say something, she glared at her hands and did the job. Wincing, Kairi watched for a moment as blood flowed from her hand. She then shook her head and returned her attention to Naruto. "Alright…Here we go." She held her hand out and grinned. "Let's do this." Returning the grin, Naruto reached out and grabbed her hand.

Immediately, the magic circle lit up, forcing their eyes shut from the brightness.

" **Pactio**!" Chamo declared. "The provisional contract is complete!" After a few seconds, the light died down again, allowing Naruto and Kairi to hesitantly open their eyes back up. Both of their vision problems were forgotten when they caught sight of the object that was floating in front of their faces. Kairi stared at it in disbelief, having a little trouble believing that the process was already over.

" **Cure**." She was snapped out of the trance by a warm feeling flooding her hand. Looking down, she saw that her and Naruto's hands were now covered in a green light. Turning her eyes to meet Naruto's, she saw that he was smiling at her. "Well…I guess we're partners now."

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 48!**

 **A big thank you to Krystal Lily Potter for letting me use her outfit design! Misa's outfit was something she made. You wanna check it out? (You should. I suck at descriptions) Here's a link! (Replace "dot" with "." and remove spaces)**

 **krystal - lily - potter "dot" deviantart "dot" com / art / Xion - 170842873**

 **She** _ **also**_ **has other cool designs! Check out her profile to see them! There are a couple that I'm thinking of asking for permission to use in the future.**

 **krystal - lily - potter "dot" deviantart "dot" com /**

 **I am** _ **not**_ **saying that I will have Naruto forgive Misa (Or basically act like canon Naruto when it comes to Sasuke), but it also makes sense for me to make him angry about the need to fight someone that used to be a friend. They were friends for a long time, so it hurts. That's all I was trying to convey in this chapter. Don't get mad and say that I'm dumbing him down or making him too willing to forgive.**

 **Ah, plot development here. Relationship development there. Some suspicions and revelations right there. Oh, and a power up right after! Wow, this chapter lacked action, but it had a** _ **lot**_ **of progression anyways! I told you a lot would be going on in this world…And holy crap, I can't even imagine what would have happened if I incorporated as much Negima plot as I was planning to at first. For example, the tournament would have taken two chapters or something.**

 **I said there would** _ **probably**_ **be a date. Not that there would** _ **definitely**_ **be one.**

 **Full Throttle is one of my favorite rides over at Magic Mountain. Props to the people who were actually able to recognize the ride.**

 **Think about it. I can have Naruto teach Kairi spells as much as I want, but it wouldn't be enough. To keep it logical, I wouldn't be able to make her suddenly become a master at a wide range of spells,** _ **especially**_ **not since I had Naruto start learning from the age of six. A pactio was my solution to get her up to the level of fighting on relative par with the others. Or at least, to allow her (As someone with** _ **no**_ **training, whether it be physical or magical) to keep up. That Sora progression level is bullshit when not in a video game. And remember, Naruto is** _ **definitely**_ **stronger than Sora.**

* * *

 **Review Responses!**

 **redlox2: Due to chapter length and the desire to** _ **not**_ **prolong things any further, I didn't do the date…Sorry. If I had, then this chapter would have definitely been cut in two. I'm thinking of maybe putting it as a one-shot or even an omake, but for now, nope. And a big part of the reason that this world is still going is because I need to explain things to people who never read it, so I'm glad it's making sense! As for Misa's resistance to Darkness, that's pretty much it…Among other things that I haven't set in stone yet.**

 **Guest: I already know how I will make Naruto meet Kurama, it's just a matter of when. I have a tentative point in time, but it's not for a while.**

 **rinsegaku: They are usually OP, aren't they? Wait and see! And I'm tying in Negima as much as I am because I plan on using a lot of things from it, as you read in this chapter.**

 **animecollector: I was eager to continue.**

 **Kairitrion Cerulean: Meh. It's justified, so no worries. While the Kingdom Hearts story is pushed by bonds and friendship, I wanted to at least try to do this. If it works, it works, if it doesn't…Then I need to rethink things. And shuddap! You didn't know squat!**

 **NatNicole: In the manga, there were a few participants that couldn't have possibly possessed any legitimate identification. Also, I'm not spoiling anything, and agreeing or disagreeing about the possibility of canon happening would do that.**

 **Prototype Gear: An old challenger appears! Welcome! Wendy/Naruto has its merits, but it isn't as easy to do here.**

 **Drakon45: Did the chapter answer your question?**

 **keyblade master cole: Pretty much.**

 **Draxien Oblivion: Ah, I basically knew what you were saying, I just meant that I didn't get the reference because I never played the game.**

 **Gamingswordsman: I dunno.**

* * *

 **I recently read a bio where the person mentioned that it was annoying when writers put responses to reviews before a chapter. I could see the merit in her argument, so I decided to try putting them here. What do you think? Is it better this way, or does it not matter?**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	50. Dawn Of War

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 49!**

 **Enjoy this fast chapter production rate while it lasts. I** _ **really**_ **doubt that I will keep it up for an extended period. I've just been in the mood to write this story lately. It also helps that I like writing this world. Negima is one of my favorites…Not so big on the sequel, though.**

 **I do so enjoy reading your guys' opinions on Hikari and Yami's motives, along with what you think about Misa.**

 **I love how only one person answered my question about whether or not the review responses were better at the bottom…Thanks to that person!**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts, or anything else. I'm just a broke college student…**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Bijū/Deity Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Bijū/Deity Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **Gummi Ship (8:25 am - Morning of the Festival's 3** **rd** **Day)**

Gray whistled in appreciation at the amount of information he was given by Naruto and Kairi. "All of _that_ happened in just the last day? Seriously?" The off-worlders were together again in the kitchen of the gummi ship, eating breakfast. Now that they were all finally present, Naruto and Kairi took the chance to catch Natsu, Gray, and Happy up on what's been happening.

Kairi giggled at the question. "It may have only been one day to you guys, but to us it's been a while!"

"This time travel stuff is confusing…" Natsu complained. "So it's been a day, but it's also been longer? That doesn't make any sense!"

"Aye!" Happy agreed around a mouthful of fish. "Are you sure you guys didn't dream of all that?"

Naruto rolled his eyes at the question. "Yes, we're sure. Trust me, I _wish_ some of that didn't really happen."

A thought came to Gray. "Wait, then from your point of view, how long has it been?"

Both Kairi and Naruto blinked and glanced to one another in thought. "Um…I think it's been…How long?" Kairi lost track a while ago…

A small thoughtful frown formed on Naruto's face. "To the two of us, we haven't seen you guys in about two weeks." He said, much to the shock of the others. "That's how long it's been."

"Damn…" Gray slowly shook his head. "The magic in this world is _weird_ …" He didn't think that even Ultear was capable of manipulating time in such a way. Well, the **Fairy Sphere** came to mind, but it was also different.

"Tell me about it." Naruto agreed. "There are so many different ways to use it, and while that isn't so hard to believe, it's applied so differently than the magic I've been taught. It holds more similarities to the magic from your world in terms of variety and use, but it still isn't the same." He paused. "And then there's the pactio…"

Natsu's eyes lit up at the reminder. "That's right!" Looking to Kairi, he grinned widely. "So you got some sort of power up? That's awesome!"

Kairi returned the grin and gave him a peace sign. "Yep! I can definitely fight with you guys now!"

"Then I challenge you to a fight!"

Immediately, Kairi's smile falter and she stared at the fire dragon slayer with wide eyes. "What…?" She must have misheard him, right? But judging by the hand that Gray just slapped to his own face, she hadn't.

"I said fight me!" Natsu repeated eagerly. "If you're strong now, then I want to see!"

Swallowing nervously, Kairi glanced away. "Uh, no…That's okay…" Strong as she may now be, she had seen the things that Natsu was capable of. Not to mention how into a fight he sometimes got…

Groaning, Naruto interjected. "Natsu, Kairi isn't going to fight you." Kairi sent him a thankful look at the help.

"But why not?!" Natsu whined.

"Because we have more important things to do than fight amongst ourselves. Don't waste your energy on something like that." He explained tiredly.

Hearing this, Gray's eyes sharpened. "So that Chao girl…You really think she won't try anything until this evening? You're not worried she wasn't telling the truth?"

Taking a moment to think, Naruto slowly shook his head. "Despite everything, I feel like we can believe her about that." He admitted. "I really don't think she will do anything until this evening. I'm not saying let your guard down completely, but I think it will be fine." Shrugging, he continued. "As for when specifically she'll make her move, I haven't got a clue."

Gray appeared to be slightly unsatisfied by that, but he knew there was little choice besides that. "Do we at least know what to expect? How she will be working?"

A frown made its way onto Naruto's face. "No…We don't know that, either." That would be a problem. If they didn't know what to expect, then they wouldn't be able to counter it. "We can get in touch with Negi and Takahata-san later to see if they know anything." He said. "According to Chamo, Negi is most likely in Evangeline's resort right about no-" Suddenly, Naruto cut himself off and snapped his head around to stare at the wall, Kairi doing the same only a second after him.

Seeing this, the Fairy Tail members grew confused. "What's wrong?" Gray asked, but his question was answered in the next moment. "The hell-?!"

Out of nowhere, the intercoms began blaring an alarm throughout the ship and the lighting turned into a dim red.

"What's happening?!" Happy shouted.

"No clue! Come on!" Naruto dashed out of the kitchen and towards the cockpit, knowing that they would follow. Reaching the control room, the off-worlders were greeted with the sight of the screen flashing warning signs. Running up to it, Naruto began to quickly type on the console.

"So what was all that about?" Gray asked. "I thought you said that Lingshen wouldn't try anything until tonight."

Naruto shook his head. "That wasn't Lingshen." He said. Growing tired of the alarms, he reached over and pressed a button that had been flashing. Once he did, the alarms finally deactivated and the lights went back to normal. "I'm pretty sure of that much, at least."

"You and Kairi looked like you saw it coming." Happy commented. "Did you?"

"Sort of. We definitely felt _something_." Naruto responded. "A second before it happened, there was this _huge_ pulse of light. Whatever it was caused the alarms." He typed something else and a grid map of the world popped up on the screen. Naruto watched intently as what seemed to be a ripple spread out from somewhere in the city and quickly encompassed the entire world. "Something big happened." Naruto assessed quietly. "Whatever it was managed to create a pulse that expanded throughout the whole freakin' _world_." He whispered in awe.

"Can you tell what it was?" Kairi asked worriedly.

The crimson blond slowly shook his head. "No…I can't. And the pulse of light died down, so I can't track where it came from beyond telling an unspecific location in the city."

Gray crossed his arms. "And you can't tell what it did, either?"

"…No." Naruto admitted. "Based on what I'm seeing now, nothing has changed. _Something_ definitely happened, but I don't know what. I don't even think anyone realized it happened. The gummi ship's computer picked it up and interpreted it as a possible attack, so the alarms went off."

Natsu tilted his head. "But it was nothing bad?"

"Tentatively, no. Nothing bad happened." Naruto agreed, still obviously confused. "We can add that to the list of things we can ask about later. But like I said, I don't think anyone noticed it."

"So what do we do?" Happy asked.

Naruto considered the question. "…For now, nothing." He said, much to their surprise. "I mean, I'll send a message to Takahata-san and the headmaster to ask if they noticed anything, but I don't think they did. Beyond that…" He sighed. "There isn't much we _can_ do. The situation hasn't changed. I'll leave the computer running to see if it can pick up anything more, and I'll also send a copy of the data to Urahara, but there's nothing else to work with. And I'm not too hopeful that Urahara will be able to find anything conclusive in time. What's more, I don't think that Negi will exit the resort until around noon." Hearing this, the others didn't have anything to add.

* * *

 **In the City (9:30 am)**

"Find anything?" Naruto asked, only to get a negative shake of the head from Kairi. "Yeah, same here…" As he had said he would, Naruto forwarded the data to Urahara. He had expected that the man would be interested in it.

But what Naruto _hadn't_ been expecting was to soon be instructed to go to the approximate origin of the pulse and use one of the devices on in the ship to record more accurate readings.

When asked for the reason, a worryingly serious Urahara responded that parts of the situation reminded him of something similar that had happened a while ago in his world, but he wouldn't be able to tell for sure until he had more information.

So here he and Kairi were, walking around the city and trying to find anything odd while Naruto held a tablet with a bunch of numbers and graphs on it. The device was sending the live data back to the gummi ship's computer, which in turn would forward it to Urahara.

Naruto may not know what was going on or what Urahara was looking for, but knew the man well enough to be able to tell that it was important to get as much data as he could. The hardest part was getting close to people to get a reading of their auras as Urahara requested.

Suddenly, a vibration from Naruto's pocket pulled his attention away from the tablet. Reaching into it, he pulled out his phone and checked it. Blinking at the sender, he spoke to a curious Kairi. "It's from Negi…He's asking me to meet him at the location in the message right away."

"Do you think it has something to do with the pulse of light?" Kairi asked.

"It might…" Naruto murmured before putting the phone away and deactivating the tablet. "Come on, let's go."

* * *

 **Main Plaza (1:00 pm)**

From his spot at a rooftop café, Naruto looked down at the plaza with an expression that was a mixture of awe, nervousness, and amusement. "I have to admit…When Chamo first told us the plan, I was more than a bit skeptical…" He confessed, watching the crowd steadily grow. "But now, I really think that this will work." Naruto allowed a smirk on his face as Kairi nodded with visible amazement.

* * *

 **Flashback (Empty Library Lounge - 10:10 am)**

 _Naruto felt as if his stomach wanted to empty itself while he listened to Chamo conclude a short summary of what had been happening on Negi's side of things. "So you're saying…we lost?" He asked. "Lingshen managed to succeed in revealing magic to the rest of the world and…" He glanced over to a visibly distressed Kairi. "…and they managed to take Kairi?"_

 _Sighing sadly, the ermine nodded. "Yeah, that's what happened."_

 _Hearing this confirmation, Naruto took a deep breath and tried to stave off the crushing guilt and despair._ 'So in the end…I couldn't protect her…' _Pushing these thoughts back, he locked eyes with Chamo. "One more time. What happened and how do you know?"_

" _It was nothing that was your fault, bro." Chamo consoled. "None of us could have expected what Chao plans on pulling…Here's what_ we've _been up to…"_

 _The two off-worlders listened as Chamo launched into a retelling of how Chao rigged Evangeline's resort so that the magic would malfunction. According to Chamo, she worked it so that instead of one hour on the outside equaling a day on the inside, a day on the outside meant a day on the inside. But Negi's group -who didn't know this- spent a week inside the resort._

 _The end result was that Negi's group came out a week after the festival, only to learn that Chao had managed to accomplish her goal. It was only thanks to some quick thinking and a bit of luck that they were able to use the time machine Chao gave Negi to travel back in time, despite its power source getting deactivated. But the result was Negi overexerting himself to the point of collapse, so the child teacher was now resting in the other room._

 _It was then that Naruto mentally put the pieces together and realized that the pulse of light from earlier was actually the result of Negi's group making a time jump that was much bigger than all the other ones. From the sound of it, the jump was made in a haphazard way, so the result was that pulse._

" _And us?" Kairi asked hesitantly. "What…What happened to us in the battle?"_

 _Unable to look her in the eye, Chamo spoke quietly. "Based on what we could learn, you guys put up a heck of a fight…But were eventually overtaken by sheer numbers. Chao had her own forces to use, and the teachers couldn't fight against them all. On top of that, there was this other girl that no one knew working with Chao…"_

 _Naruto closed his eyes._ 'Misa…'

" _This other girl was the one who fought you, bro." Chamo told Naruto. "It was looking good for a while, and you were about to beat her for good, but then…" The ermine shrugged. "It's unclear, but according to some witnesses, she pulled something that caught you off guard. A power-up or something…It gave her a boost and enough of an opening to beat you while you were caught off-guard." The crimson blond frowned at that, unsure of what he meant by power-up. "Once you were defeated, the girl took sis and left, but no one knew where they went."_

 _A cold feeling squeezed Naruto's heart at the reminder that he hadn't been able to protect Kairi._

" _Natsu and Gray tried to step in, but they couldn't do it in time." Chamo continued. "After that, Chao cast the spell to make everyone in the world realize magic was real and then she disappeared." He cast Naruto a small frown. "She stuck around long enough to say something to you, but whatever it was only made you even angrier than you already were." He sighed. "We were told that you guys locked the keyhole and left the world soon after."_

 _The room was sent into a depressed silence, none of them sure what to say._ 'I failed…' _Naruto thought to himself._ 'I actually failed…I wasn't strong enough.'

 _Eventually, it was Kairi who broke the quiet. "But…But now we can do something about it." Naruto's eyes snapped to her, and he was met with a small smile. "Now that we know what will happen, we can prepare." Naruto blinked at her._

 _Knowing what she was doing, Chamo immediately spoke up. "Yeah! Don't sweat it, bro! Things may have gotten bad when we weren't ready, but now we have a chance to counter Chao!"_

 _Nodding, Kairi took a step closer to Naruto and her smile became warmer. "Don't focus on what_ could _happen. Focus on what you_ won't let _happen." She said quietly, causing Naruto's mind to think back to when he first unlocked his Keyblade._

"You're too scared. You have too much fear."

"When you block you think 'I'm afraid to get cut.'"

"When you attack, you think 'I'm afraid of hurting someone.' And when you protect someone, you're thinking 'I'm afraid to let them die.' You're thinking with too much fear."

"That kind of thinking will never cut it. When you dodge, think 'I won't let them hit me!' When you protect someone, think 'I won't let them die!' And when you attack…'I will cut them!'"

 _Naruto smirked minutely. If he doubted himself, then that would be the same as if he already admitted defeat. That had been one of the first lessons Hikari and Yami taught him, and it was one that Urahara frequently reinforced._

 _He shook his head. "You're right, you're right. I shouldn't think like that." He smiled softly at her. "Thanks for reminding me of that."_

 _Kairi giggled. "Well if I didn't, then you would think about it until you defeated yourself." He rolled his eyes at this._

" _Do you two need some privacy, or…?" In a flash, a Keyblade was pointing at Chamo's face, wiping the smirk clean off. "Alright! Alright! I was just joking!" He yelped._

 _Taking another moment to glare, Naruto dismissed his Keyblade. "Back to the matter at hand…You said that Lingshen had forces of her own? And enough so that the numbers were overwhelming?"_

 _Regaining a serious countenance, Chamo nodded. "Yeah, here's how it is." He brought a paper out and jumped onto a table. "At 7:00 pm this evening, Chao is planning on taking over the six points in the city where the magic of the world tree gathers. You remember that part of the explanation of the world tree's power?" Naruto nodded. Negi had mentioned that on the way to the keyhole, with the plaza containing the keyhole being one of them. "Chao plans on using approximately twenty-five hundred robots to do this." Naruto and Kairi couldn't help but gape at this._

"… _What…?" Kairi whispered._

" _I'm serious. She has two and half_ thousand _freakin' robots." Chamo said. "And those are just the humanoid ones. She_ also _has hundreds of other ones that vaguely resemble a crab in shape, but are a couple of times bigger than a person. On top of_ that, _there are smaller ones that are capable of flight, but aren't much bigger than your torso. Rounding_ that _up are six giant demons that have been modified for Chao's use. This army will march on the six points and use them to access the world tree's power. And from there, there will be enough power to cast the forced recognition spell on the entire world using a_ huge _magic circle."_

 _Naruto wanted to believe that this entire thing was one huge prank. "…How the hell are we supposed to fight that?" Even with all of the magically aware teachers and students helping, Naruto didn't think that their side had more than fifty people,_ at most _. Maybe Naruto would be able to make a couple hundred clones, but nothing of that size. And even then, the clones wouldn't be as durable as the robots. To make things worse, even if they did fight back -which they would, no matter what- there wouldn't be a way to hide an army of that size, let alone a_ battle.

 _Impossibly, Chamo_ smirked. _"Ah, and that's where Aniki proves just how much of a_ genius _he is!" The ermine snickered. "As soon as we're done here, I'm on my way to go talk to the headmaster. I'm planning on getting him to provide some special magical equipment. If they hurry and use the right magic, then the goods will get here before this afternoon!"_

 _Somewhat skeptical that they could get something that would allow them to fight an entire army, Naruto quirked an eyebrow. "And this will even the odds to the point that around fifty people will fight off what sounds like an army that numbers more than three thousand?"_

 _Chamo cackled gleefully at the question. "Fifty? What the hell are you talking about?" He asked, adding to Naruto and Kairi's confusion. "If we're gonna fight an army, then we're gonna_ need _an army!" The two off-worlders traded a confused glance._

" _And where do we get an army?"_

* * *

 **End Flashback (1:00 pm)**

Naruto's eyes moved to the flyer he was holding in his hand. On the front of the flyer were a bunch of pictures of magic wands and people casting spells, but it was the words going across the top of the flyer that made his smirk widen.

 _ **Mars Attack vs. Mahora Mage Order**_

"Clearly _, you haven't been paying attention to the type of people that make up this city!"_ Chamo's laughing voice echoed.

Shifting his gaze down into the plaza, Naruto watched as some of Negi's students worked on passing out identical flyers and directing people. Unable to help himself, Naruto shook his head and laughed quietly. "I can't deny that this is as brilliant as it is insane."

Kairi giggled. "With Negi's plan, we're turning what was going to be a war into a war _game_." She added. "But this _does_ sound like a lot of fun!" Natsu and Happy definitely agreed if the way they began running around in excitement upon being told meant anything. Even Gray had a grin on when he heard.

The two of them observed as the occupants of the plaza crowded around a stage that had been set up for their needs. Soon, one of Negi's students stepped up, dressed completely in an outfit that looked like it came straight out of a fantasy game.

" _Welcome!_ " She called through the speakers set up throughout the area. _"As I'm sure you all know, there has been a change in the final day's ending event! As the flyers say, we have recently learned of an impending attack on the city! And we need_ your _help to fight back!"_ The crowd cheered. _"The flyers and pamphlets give you details, but if you have any questions, please refer to one of the designated mages!"_ She gestured to some of the other people in costume, all of whom were in Negi's class. _"Now then, please allow us to demonstrate what you will be using to combat the enemy army!"_

It was then that another person stepped up unto the stage. Naruto vaguely remembered the girl to be Makie, Negi's pink haired student with a perpetually cheerful attitude. Like the others, she was wearing a costume, but hers was a robe with a witch's hat. In her hand was a small wand with a star on the end.

"So that small thing is the equipment that Chamo was talking about?" Kairi asked curiously.

"Guess so." Naruto said. "I don't want to doubt him, but I wonder how much that thing can really help…"

As if hearing him, the speaker on stage continued. _"Don't underestimate it just because it's cute! With a single incantation, you'll cast a powerful spell!"_ She nodded to Makie, who took that as the signal to step to the front of the stage.

Taking a moment to clear her throat, Makie grinned and pointed the wand up into the air. " **Strike the Enemy**!" Naruto's eyes widened and Kairi gasped quietly as bright light shot out of the wand and blasted into the air, only to explode, much to the awe of everyone watching.

" _This light does_ not _affect the human body! Furthermore…"_ Yuna joined Makie, but instead of wearing a mage robe, she had on an outfit that was better suited for mobility. Naruto sweat dropped at the sight of the schoolgirl holding up a _bazooka_. _"There are other types of weapons!"_ With that, Yuna grinned wickedly and pulled the trigger, resulting in a much larger blast. _"Each weapon has its own advantage and disadvantage, so choose wisely!"_

Naruto laughed incredulously at the sheer _enthusiasm_ the crowd was showing. "You know…If I wasn't in on the real situation, I would definitely agree that this sounded like a lot of fun." He commented. Although he didn't know what to think about the fact that no one was questioning how these 'magical weapons' worked.

Kairi nodded in agreement. "Absolutely." She looked over the people already lined up to get some equipment. "To all of them, this just sounds like a huge game. And to make things better, if Chamo was right, then no one will get hurt." According to what they learned, Chao made it a point to be sure that no one was ever harmed. And to prevent accidental injury, the mage outfits that were being handed out were enchanted to prevent common injuries. "I'm actually a little jealous of how relaxed they can be about it…We have the truth hanging over our heads…"

The crimson blond glanced over to her. "Hey, where did all of that confidence go?" He asked, gaining a surprised look from Kairi. "Things will be fine. You said it yourself. We know what's going to happen now and we are ready for it. So relax, would you? You may even have fun with this." His smirked at her. "I thought the depressing thinking was my thing? Don't steal my thunder."

After blinking several times, Kairi smiled back at him. Huffing playfully, she turned her head away. "It shouldn't be a thing for anyone! So don't act like it's okay for you to do it!"

"Yeah, yeah…"

"Don't 'yeah, yeah' me!"

* * *

 **Park in the City (5:20 pm)**

"So you guys understand the plan?" Naruto asked. The off-worlders regrouped in a park in the city. They chose that spot because it was located between three of the target locations, which would in turn let them go to whichever one needed the most help.

Grinning widely, Natsu punched a fist into his other hand. "Of course! All we have to do is destroy the robots, right?"

Sighing, Gray shook his head. " _And_ make sure to not to hurt other people." He reminded.

Natsu gained a sheepish look. "Oh, right…That too…" Seeing their faces, he hastily continued. "I just didn't think I needed to say anything! It was obvious!" He defended himself.

Plopping down on Kairi's head, Happy shrugged. "Yeah, of _course_ you remembered."

"Hey! What's with that tone?!"

"Nothing…"

"Don't say that while rolling your eyes!"

' _I don't care who, but_ someone _please give me strength…'_ Naruto lamented silently.

" _The enemy's target is the symbol of the city, the world tree!"_ They heard over the intercom. _"Participants are asked to split into six groups and select one of the six defense points indicated!"_

Gray smirked. "This is pretty elaborate, isn't it? They even managed to work in a way to get people to defend the right spots."

"Man, if only the others were here. They would have a blast with this…" Natsu said.

Naruto scoffed. "I'm not so sure about that idea. Based on the things I've heard, things would _end_ with a blast if your entire guild got involved." All three of the Fairy Tail members swiftly averted their eyes. "Yeah, that's what I thought…" It was then Naruto noticed how quiet Kairi was being. Glancing over, he tilted his head upon spotting the small frown she had. "Kairi." He said, gaining her attention. "Is something wrong?" Was she getting nervous about her first big battle?

"Hm…" Kairi glanced towards the clock tower. "It's just…Our side hasn't exactly been discreet on how we plan to counter Chao-san…Is that a good idea?" Naruto and Gray's eyes widened, seeing her point right away.

"Eh? What's the problem?" Natsu asked. "We know what she is going to do because of what Negi said, right? So it doesn't matter if we're out in the open!"

Gray scowled and took another scan of their surroundings. "No, flame brain, that isn't how it works. We had information on what she was going to do, yes, but there isn't anything saying she can't _change_ plans when she sees that we somehow figured out the first one!"

Quickly taking out his phone, Naruto pulled up Takahata's contact and pressed the call button, but he was met with nothing but a dial tone. Cursing under his breath, he spoke up. "My phone isn't working." Hearing this, his companions tried their own phones, but none of them worked.

"Same here."

"I can't call anyone."

"My phone isn't working, either."

"I'm a cat, I don't have a phone."

Coming to the obvious conclusion, Naruto frowned. "It looks like things are going to get started sooner than we thought…" The moment he said this, there was the sound of an explosion in the distance.

Happy looked at Naruto in amazement. "Are you psychic?!"

"No! Don't ask stupid questions!" Turning towards the exit of the park, Naruto saw that people were running around.

It was then that a voice that Naruto recognized as the girl who worked as the tournament announcer blared to life. _"It seems that the enemy's Martian robot army has decided to launch a surprise attack! The battle is already underway at the Mahora lakeside! With that, it's time for the game to officially…"_ The clock tower's bell rung. _"Start!"_

Nodding, Naruto looked back to his companions and smirked. "It's almost time for us to step in."

Natsu grinned and ignited a fist, but then immediately put it out with wide eyes, much to the confusion of the others. "Wait! If we can't use our magic in this world, then how are we gonna fight?!" He asked worriedly, getting four sighs in return. "…What?"

Sighing, Naruto spoke up. "So you really weren't listening…" He concluded. "Listen, as long as you don't hurt anyone, you can fight however you want. With the way things are, the normal people will think it's all part of the game. In fact, they were _told_ that people with 'special powers' will be moving in to help them a little while into the game." Naruto grimaced. "…If anyone asks, we're members of the «Hero Unit». Get it?"

Grin returning at full force, Natsu's _entire body_ burst into flames. "Hell yeah! That sounds awesome!"

"Aye!"

Naruto rolled his eyes, but smiled. "Now then, if we all understand…" Raising his hand, he summoned Two Become One. "This is the perfect chance to test this out…" Ignoring the questioning looks the others were giving him, he reached into his pouch. A moment later, he retracted his hand to show that he was holding the keychain Happy said he found back in «Aincrad». "Well…Here goes." He lifted it up to his Keyblade to the spot where his current keychain was attached. The moment it made contact, there was a flash of Twilight and his Keyblade took on a new form.

"Whoa…" Happy said in awe. "It transformed!"

Gray hummed in thought as Naruto held it up to get a better look at it. "You said that each keychain enhances a Keyblade and the wielder in different ways…But how are you supposed to know what this one can do?"

"This is Midnight Roar…" All eyes went to Naruto upon hearing the distracted words. "…It grants me quicker recovery time after finishing an attack and a smaller boost in my normal reaction time…"

The Keyblade in his hands had a silver handle and a black, circular guard with rough edges. The shaft was a smooth, white rod that ended in a black spike. The teeth of the Keyblade formed a black, sideways fleur-de-lis.

"Okay…" Happy said slowly. "…Are you sure you're not psychic?"

That served as enough to snap Naruto out of his daze. Glaring at the exceed, he responded. " _Yes_ , Happy…I'm sure."

"Then how did you know all that?" Kairi asked curiously, getting a shrug in return.

"I just knew it." He scratched the back of his head with his free hand. "I mean…I didn't know it before, but the moment I held this Keyblade, it was like the information was already there…You know?"

"Nope."

"I think you're just crazy."

' _Bastards!'_ Naruto thought while scowling at Natsu and Happy. But Gray and Kairi appeared to understand it was a Keyblade wielder thing.

" _The enemy forces are making their way into the city! Hold your ground and defend those checkpoints!"_

"Hm, it's getting close to our entrance." Grinning, Naruto turned to Kairi. "Aren't _you_ going to get ready?" He asked lightly.

Blinking for a moment, Kairi grinned back with a nod. "You know it! You think you're so cool with your new Keyblade, but you've got nothing on me!" Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a card. The Fairy Tail members had just enough time to see a picture of what appeared to be Kairi on the front. "Here goes nothing." She held the card up. " **Adeat**!" There was a flash of light and the next second, the Fairy Tail members were all gaping at the object in Kairi's hand. Twirling it around in her hand, Kairi beamed at them. "So? What do you think?"

"Kairi…" Natsu began. "That's…"

"You're…" Happy continued.

* * *

 **Flashback (Evangeline's Resort - Directly After the Pactio)**

 _Naruto stared at the object in Kairi's hand, unable to process what he was seeing. Kairi and Chamo were doing the same from their positions. "…You're joking…" He eventually said._

" _Now_ there's _something I wasn't expecting…" Evangeline commented, tone revealing nothing of her thoughts._

" _But…But that's a…" Naruto began, unsure where he was going with it._

" _What? Did the picture on the card not tip you off?"_

" _I thought it was because of who_ I _am-ttebayo!"_

 _Evangeline simply waved him off. "Oh, relax. I doubt it holds the power of the real thing. Maybe it can do_ some _of the things a real one can, but everything?" She scoffed. "That can't be replicated."_

 _Gathering her thoughts, Kairi hesitantly held the object up. "Do does this mean I'm not a-"_

" _Of course you're not, girl." Evangeline interrupted in irritation. Not seeing anything worth sticking around for, she began walking towards the building. "Now that you have that, be sure to at least be somewhat useful with it. I'm sure the boy can teach you something…"_

* * *

 **Flashback End (5:35 pm)**

"When the hell did you become a Keyblade wielder?!" Gray finished, making Kairi and Naruto burst into laughter.

In Kairi's hand was a Keyblade with a hilt that formed a breaking ocean wave on one side, and formed vines of sand that wrapped around the shaft on the other. The shaft itself was colored in a way that resembled a sunset, and the vines ended in a bouquet of flowers, which in turn made up the teeth of the blade. The keychain was a strange star shaped object that Kairi happily called a Paopu Fruit.

Getting control of her laughter, Kairi shook her head. "I'm not a Keyblade wielder!"

"But you have a Keyblade!" Happy protested.

Understanding came to Gray. "…So your artifact takes the form of a Keyblade?"

"Exactly!" Kairi chirped. "According to Evangeline, my Keyblade isn't a true Keyblade, so it isn't as powerful as one. We even tested it a bit. I can use it to cast spells like Naruto's and it can lock and unlock most things, but it can't undo a lock done by Naruto's Keyblade. I also doubt that it can lock the keyhole of a world." Her grin widened. "But who cares? It's still cool~!"

Natsu crossed his arms and looked over the Keyblade again. After a minute, he shrugged. "It's cool, but I still like my magic better than a Keyblade."

"Hmph. Don't ruin this for me!" Kairi shot back. Grinning again, Kairi twirled the Keyblade again. "Its name is Destiny's Embrace. Naruto used the chance in Evangeline's resort to give me some pointers on using it. We even sparred a bit."

" _Oh, the enemy is getting closer to the shrine defensive point!"_ This announcement reminded them all of what was going on. _"You guys are supposed to be the_ heroes _! What's wrong?!"_

Naruto hummed. "That's our cue. It's time for us to get involved." The others grinned back at him. Turning his eyes to Kairi, Naruto spoke up. "I'll activate the contract now. I'll be able to keep it going for now, but I will need to cut it off if I start getting too tired or Misa shows up. From there, you'll be fighting without the boost, but you should still be able to do well enough."

It was fortunate that Kairi had the effect of amplifying the power of his light. That way, he could feed her the absolute minimum, but it would still end up being turned into a decent amount.

Seeing her nod, Naruto reached into the holster for his dream eater cards and pulled out the one at the top of the deck. Holding it up, he recited the command he had been taught. " **I invoke the contract**!" Kairi twitched as light covered her body, but didn't react any further. Replacing the card, Naruto smirked. "Well then…" He turned to face the direction with the most noise.

"…Let's move!"

* * *

 **Battle in the City (5:50 pm)**

Class 3-A's Ako squeaked when another one of the human looking robots suddenly jumped in front of her. Looking around, she was terrified to see that there were a few more surrounding her. "Uh, you guys? A little help here!" She called to her classmates.

Yuna yelped and leapt to the side, narrowly avoiding another robot that shot a laser at her. "Sorry! Kinda busy right now!" She shouted back. The other students were all occupied by similar situations.

"B-But-!" She was cut off by the robot in front of her suddenly opening its mouth, showing a bright light. Ako's eyes widened in panic at the sight. She's heard what those lasers do to people! And while they wouldn't physically harm her, she did _not_ want to get hit by one! Ducking down just as it fired, Ako hurriedly pointed her gun at it and shot. To her joy, it was a direct hit and the robot went down.

It was only the sound of movement behind her that reminded Ako that there were more nearby. Whirling around, Ako fired off another shot, but the second robot didn't go down right away. Throwing herself to the side to dodge another laser, Ako fired some more, but saw that they were steadily getting closer. Then at the time, they opened their mouths and charged their shots.

Growing more alarmed, Ako looked to see something to use as a shield but was met with no results. _'No!'_

" **Sonic Blade**!" Ako was momentarily blinded by a flash of light. "They're gone now." When she cracked an eye open, the shock of the scene before her made both of her eyes snap open.

"Whoa…" Ako whispered. Standing in the center of a group of destroyed robots was Naruto, who was now scanning his surroundings for the next target. Before she could say anything, a shout made her snap her attention back to her classmates. Gasping, she saw that Akira was about to be overwhelmed, but before she could do anything, Naruto stopped her.

"Relax." He smiled at her when she looked his way. "She'll be fine."

Confused, Ako turned back to Akira just in time to see something red speed in. Ako's jaw dropped as she watched Kairi dash between the robots and not waste any time on destroying them.

"Hmph." An amused huff from Naruto snapped her out of her stupor. "She can't get enough of the boost she got…" She heard him say quietly. Not sure what he meant, Ako was about to ask, but never got the chance when another robot suddenly decided to swoop down at Naruto. "Whoops!" Jumping back, Naruto raised his weapon -"A giant key?"- and sliced at the robot.

"Don't let your guard down!" Kairi called over teasingly.

"I know what I'm doing!" Naruto threw back. " _You're_ the newbie here!"

"Says the guy who nearly got hit!"

Rolling his eyes, Naruto ran over to Ako and offered her a hand. "You okay?" He asked with a smile.

Because she still wasn't sure what was happening, Ako could do little more than stare at the hand. With a start, she realized that she was still on the ground from her imperfect dodge. Smiling back hesitantly, she nodded and accepted the hand. "Y-Yeah, I'm fine…"

"Great." The crimson blond glanced around again. "You guys are holding this position fairly well." He commented. A loud crash from nearby drew their attention. "But that could be a problem…" An even larger group of robots had just appeared, but this one included a few of the big crab ones. "Here we go…" He tightened the grip on his Keyblade in preparation.

"I call dibs!" A gleeful voice shouted from above. The next second, something _flaming_ dropped from the sky. While Ako gaped, Naruto simply sighed.

"Idiot…"

Natsu laughed as he tore through the enemies. "I am _so_ glad we came here! This place is awesome!" A citywide party and a citywide fight? Hell yeah! " **Fire Dragon's Iron Fist**!" He shouted, followed by another small explosion.

The crimson blond shook his head and turned away. "Forget about him." He advised. "Focus on the enemies around us."

"Enemies around us…?" Ako repeated, only to jump when _another_ group of humanoid robots landed in formation around them.

Naruto smirked and dropped into a battle stance. "Ready?"

"No!" Ako shrieked.

"Relax! Just stick close and avoid any lasers!" Naruto instructed. "They're coming!" The robots lunged at them. Leaping to the side, Naruto slashed the first one clean apart before spinning around and kicking the next one in the stomach. The force of the blow served as enough to hurl it into one of the other robots. The temporary duo made quick work of the new robots, but Naruto had to intervene a couple of times when Ako was about to be hit. A minute later, only a grinning Naruto and a lightly panting Ako remained.

"You're pretty good." Naruto praised. "Most people would be way more fatigued than you are after all that jumping."

Blushing lightly as she wasn't used to praise, Ako hesitantly smiled back. "Thanks. I'm actually the manager of the soccer team…" It was then that she finally processed the entire situation. Immediately, her eyes widened and she began to rapidly look between Naruto and Natsu, who was still on fire. "W-Wait! How did you do all that? And why do you have that weapon instead of the ones we have?"

"That's what I want to know, too…" The both of them turned to see a confused Yuna walking up to them, even as she double checked that there weren't any more robots in the immediate area. "Thanks for the help, Naruto-kun, but what was up with all of that?"

Naruto blinked at her. "You didn't read the pamphlet?"

Yuna tilted her head to the side. "Pamphlet?" She repeated.

"We're members of the «Hero Unit»!" A bright voice answered, and they all saw a widely grinning Kairi skip over to them with Akira. "We're here to help out!"

"Well, aren't you having fun?" Naruto remarked, getting happy nod in response. "To answer your question, the «Hero Units» are the special support in the game."

"It's true!" A childish voice piped up. Another student named Fuka was holding up a pamphlet. "'A short while into the game, powerful helper characters known as «Hero Units» will appear. Cooperate with them!'" She read.

Yuna gaped at this. "What? But that's so cheap! Why should you guys be that strong?! You'll hog all the prize money!"

"Don't worry, we're not going to get any of the reward." Setsuna assured as she and Asuna landed from a nearby rooftop. "As part of the performance that makes things more exciting, we don't get any part of the prize money." Naruto stared blankly at her maid-catgirl outfit, but didn't say anything.

At least Asuna was dressed as some kind of knight…

"I get it…" Akira murmured. "I guess it _would_ be somewhat difficult to defeat this many robots without some sort of help, even with the number of people participating in the game."

"Oh…" Yuna's previous outrage deflated completely.

"Hey! More are coming from the south side!" A shout from somewhere nearby prompted the group to return to the matter at hand. Three of the large robots were making steady progress down the street in their direction.

Smirking, Asuna hefted the large sword she was holding. "Leave this one to us! Setsuna!"

"Right behind you!" Blurring forward, the two of them sped at the robots.

Seeing the physical feats being performed, the normal members of 3-A could only gawk. "I get that you're supposed to be these super strong guys, but how is _that_ possible?!" Yuna demanded.

Smirking, Naruto shrugged. "Don't think too hard about it. Enjoy it for what it is."

"And what the hell is it?!"

"A lot of fun!" Natsu shouted back as he destroyed the third robot.

Giggling, Kairi spoke up. "What he said!" Naruto watched in amusement as the redhead actually bounced in place. "Now come on, Naruto! I want to keep moving!"

Huffing, Naruto glanced over to Natsu. "Natsu! You good here?!" The only reply he got was laughter and an explosion. "Yeah, he's good here." His gaze turned skyward and locked onto a floating cat. "Happy! If anything happens, come find me!"

Happy snapped a salute. "Aye sir!"

Taking one quick scan, Naruto didn't see Gray anywhere. "Gray must have already gone ahead." He nodded to Kairi. "Let's go." Waving to the students, the pair jumped onto a nearby café before leaping onto a higher rooftop.

"…That's so cool…"

* * *

 **Unknown Location (6:03 pm)**

Chao had a smile on her face as she watched the multiple screens in front of her. "Wow, even with time travel, I never saw this coming. Negi-kun really is a genius-ne!" Footsteps approaching from behind wiped the smile off her face as she looked over her shoulder at the person.

"Your plan is falling apart and you're amused by it?" Misa asked curiously. "At this rate, there is a good chance that you will fail."

Shrugging lightly, Chao shifted her attention back to the screen. "It wouldn't be any fun if my plan to send Negi-kun a week into the future had worked. And this adds even more excitement to things." The biggest screen changed to show Naruto and Kairi talking to some students of 3-A. "Not to mention that this way, you can move around more easily in the chaos."

Misa hummed thoughtfully. "You realize that while your army is making progress, it is also losing momentum, right? At this rate, the 'Knight Brigade' will destroy them before all the targeted locations have been acquired."

"I still have a couple of trump cards up my sleeve." Chao responded easily. She turned and pinned Misa with a frigid glare. "Do I have your word that you will keep them out of the city?"

Blinking for a moment, Misa smiled slightly. "You know that such precise control is impossible. And the current state of affairs will only make it that much more difficult." Seeing that Chao's eyes were narrowing, she raised her hands in defeat and continued. "But I'll do my best to keep them out, yes." The self-proclaimed Martian took another moment to stare at her before nodding. _'Unless otherwise needed.'_

"Hakase? Chachamaru?" Working at a pair of consoles nearby, the indicated girls spoke up.

"All readings are clear. Ready to activate."

"We await your command."

Smirking, Chao nodded. "Do it."

* * *

 **Rooftops of Mahora (6:05 pm)**

Landing on the rooftop, Naruto used the chance to take in the area on a wider scale. Hearing shouting and explosions from pretty much every direction, he smirked. "Chamo was right. The people in this city are insane."

Humming in thought, Kairi looked around. "If they're all like this, then doesn't that mean that Negi's class is actually normal?"

"…They're a _special_ kind of insane…"

" _Backup is here!"_ Kazumi's voice echoed. _"The «Hero Units» have arrived! Aim for a higher score by working in tandem with these powerful allies to protect the world tree!"_ A resounding shout seemed to echo from every direction.

"They're really getting into this." Naruto said. "And Asakura is playing the announcer role perfectly. Practically everything she says boosts their morale."

Kairi giggled. "I really like this world. Natsu was right about it being a lot of fun."

"It's crazy in almost every possible way…But I've had a good time, for the most part." Naruto allowed. Shaking his head, he continued. "We can't forget the real reason that this battle is happening. We should start looking for Lingshen and Misa."

"You really think it will be easy to find them?" Kairi asked. "Chao-san at the very least will try to avoid being found so she can focus on building the magic circle, and Misa…" She trailed off, but Naruto knew what she meant.

"Misa probably won't be found until she comes to us." Naruto concluded. Frowning, he thought over the situation. "At this point, there isn't much we can do but help keep back the robots. They aren't that tough, so we won't expend that much energy to do it, but there are a lot…"

Nodding in understanding, Kairi spoke up. "Then where do we head first?"

"I'm not sure…" Naruto muttered, but his and Kairi's eyes then snapped to the world tree as it began to glow.

"What's happening?" Kairi questioned worriedly. The two of them watched as the glow around the world tree faded, only for something else to change on their senses.

Paling, Naruto's head jerked up and he stared at the sky in horror. "The barrier…" He whispered, much to Kairi's confusion. "The city's barrier is failing."

And just as he said, a transparent dome came into existence over the city, but particles of light were coming off of it.

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 49!**

 **This part of the Negima plot has always been one of the parts I enjoyed the most.**

 **I dunno if anyone managed to figure out that the keychain Naruto equipped was the Midnight Roar Keyblade just from the description a few chapters ago, but props to you if you did.**

 **Kairi's Keyblade is the same one she got in Kingdom Hearts 2. Think of that as you wish.**

* * *

 **Review Responses!**

 **The Sith'ari: Do I think I could? Absolutely. Is that what's happening, though?**

 **Zero: Hm, if you're talking about the technique that I think you're talking about, then I will admit that such a thing has crossed my mind…But too soon. And would Undertale work?**

 **redlox2: Meh. I might've broken a rule or two there, but I don't mind. I don't think I will focus heavily on him, but I have been entertaining plans of having Riku in a couple of scenes.**

 **rinsegaku: Interesting thoughts…She knows of a version of the game timeline with Naruto in it.**

 **Dark Natsu Dragneel: Orochimaru and Ansem? …Maybe. And reading the chapter again (Along with other recent ones), I do feel like Naruto's personality shifted at some point, but I didn't notice until recently.**

 **Cormin12: Excellent points, in their own way.**

 **Mugetsu Yoru: There is truth in what you say, but what if the information was dangerous? What if they didn't think Naruto was ready for it?**

 **Exiled Soul Nomad: Hm, or maybe you're just reading into it too much? :P**

 **Kairitrion Cerulean: Oh,** _ **hell**_ **no. That was a mistake that I don't want to make again…Ever. I finish a chapter and then release it (The most I have ever waited to do so after finishing is a day). If I upload a chapter, more often than not it was finished in the last 24 hours. It was a lucky guess, that's it! It's closer to the Harry Potter thing. In the manga, there were like 4 or 5 copies of Negi running around at one point.**

 **rex4487: I never denied it. That's my favorite pairing choice.**

 **NatNicole: Do you now? If you really think you know what they're hiding, don't spoil it for others! And thanks for the input on the review location!**

 **prototype gear: Logical way to think, given the circumstances.**

 **shadowmwape: You think so? Riku was manipulated into doing what he did to the point that his body was controlled. You don't know what reasons Misa has for what she's been doing.**

 **Jebest4781: There's a reason I'm drilling that point repeatedly. I'll get to it eventually.**

 **Rio Skyron: I'll take the request into consideration, but no promises! As for Negima, I enjoyed reading it. Just a warning though: In my opinion, things don't really pick up until around chapter 60 or so. The early ones aren't** _ **bad**_ **, but I don't enjoy them as much.**

 **Bulba Fett: A newcomer! Welcome! Thanks for your praise, I really appreciate it. And don't blame** _ **me**_ **for your mistakes!**

 **Professor Mist: I wanted to get the Naruto canon stuff out of the way first. You happy now? :P**

 **Avalonforged: Welcome to the story! And you bring up a point that I've been thinking about more and more recently. While long stories are good, I have to agree that it is a little…off-putting to see such a long story that isn't broken up. If the story is bad, then I feel like I wasted a lot of time on it (Because I would want to get close to the end to make a final decision). But I'm glad to see you've enjoyed it!**

* * *

 **I plan to finally wrap up the world in the next chapter. This one has been going on for too long. I just hope my estimations aren't off again...**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	51. Do You Believe In Destiny?

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 50!**

 **This chapter was started back in late August, but I never got around to finishing it. Some of you probably can guess what I've been focusing on instead in that time.**

 **Longer chapter than normal!**

 **I've only been back in school for a week and a half and I already feel like I've been getting my ass kicked by the amount of work.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts, or anything else. I'm just a broke college student…**

* * *

 **Normal Talking:** "Insert witty remark here."

 **Normal Thinking:** _'Insert witty remark here.'_

 **Bijū/Deity Talking: "Insert witty remark here."**

 **Bijū/Deity Thinking:** _ **'Insert witty remark here.'**_

 **Scene Change: Insert Place Here**

 **Jutsu/Magic/Technique:** **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **Rooftops of Mahora (6:07 pm)**

"The city's barrier is failing."

A transparent dome became visible, encasing the entirety of the city within it. A moment later, small particles of what Naruto was able to identify as light began to leak from it. As Naruto and Kairi watched, more and more particles of light slipped from the barrier.

"…What do we do?" Kairi asked him.

Frowning in worry, Naruto slowly shook his head, much to her surprise. "There's nothing we _can_ do." He replied. "We don't know where the barrier's source is, so we can't go there to strengthen it. And we also don't know what's causing it to fail, so we can't put a stop to it." His frown deepened. "…This is really bad. The barrier was the only thing that was keeping the heartless out of the city."

Kairi looked to him with wide eyes. "So now they will start showing up?"

Naruto slowly nodded. "Maybe." He cursed under his breath. If they weren't being jammed, then he could get in touch with the headmaster to figure out what was going on. Suddenly, Naruto and Kairi stumbled in place as the tremors shook the area. "Whoa!" Acting quickly, Naruto braced himself against a rail while also reaching out to prevent Kairi from falling over.

"Now what?!" Kairi demanded.

"No idea!" Big movement from the corner of his eye caught Naruto's attention, prompting him to swivel his head around towards the lake. "The lake!"

Rising out of the water were three _huge_ robots, easily dwarfing all the others in size. Seeing them, Naruto couldn't help but compare the situation to the chūnin exam invasion, where three different one tailed bijū attacked.

"…I guess those must be some of the demons that Chao-san got a hold of…" Kairi said weakly. "You can't even tell that they aren't robots…"

"That explains why Lingshen weakened the barrier." Naruto muttered. "There's no way she could've activated those things while it was up…Or have them move into the city."

" _The Martian army's heavy hitters are here! Be careful of these large foes!"_ Kazumi announced.

It was at that point that the middle robot opened its mouth and showed a bright light shining in it. "What's it doing?!" Kairi asked. "Something like that will get someone killed!"

Grimacing, Naruto shook his head. "No. Remember that Lingshen is making it a point that no one is harmed. I don't know what these lasers do, but they're meant to incapacitate people, not hurt them." Before anything else could be said, a flash and a blinding beam signaled that the robot launched its attack at the lakefront. Kairi and Naruto shielded their eyes for a minute as they waited for the light to die down. Once it had done so, they looked back towards the lake. After watching for a moment, Naruto spoke again. "They're powerful and able to launch bigger attacks, but they're also slower."

"We should focus on taking those out first." Kairi said. "Didn't Chamo say that they are the ones that took over the world tree? So they're important."

Naruto was about to nod, but another development stopped him. "Look!" Several large magic circles came into existence around the three oversized robots, stopping them in their tracks.

" _What's this?! It looks like the «Hero Units» were ready for this!"_ Kazumi exclaimed. _"But they can't hold them back forever! Hit the giants while you can!"_ Not needing any further motivation, numerous blasts of light shot at the giant robots from different angles. _"Be mindful of the smaller enemies! It's going to take a lot to stop the giant ones, but the smaller ones haven't stopped yet! Coordinate your efforts!"_

Hearing this, Naruto frowned and glanced down to the street. After thinking for a bit, he sighed. "Leave the giant ones to the others." He instructed, much to Kairi's surprise. "While we can't let them get close to their targets, they're going to take a long time. The smaller ones are closing in much faster. Focus on them for now."

"If you say so…" Kairi agreed. Just as she finished speaking, sound from above made them snap their heads towards the sky. What they saw there made Naruto scowl and Kairi gape. "Since when can they fly?!"

A group of the humanoid robots landed on the roof, surrounding the pair of them. Tightening the grip on his Keyblade, Naruto scanned their enemies. "Since they got jetpacks, I'm guessing…" Noticing one of the robots take a small step, Naruto tensed.

Hearing footsteps behind him, Naruto whirled his body around while lashing out with his Keyblade as he did so. Smirking, Naruto watched as the two robots that attacked him fell to the ground in pieces.

At the same time, Kairi bisected the first robot to approach her, only to jump to the side and slash apart the one that came immediately after. Regaining her smile as the adrenaline set in, Kairi rushed the next robot. Behind her, Naruto cut off the leg of an enemy and then followed up with a swift slice to destroy it.

Jumping back, Naruto thrust his Keyblade behind him, stabbing it through another robot trying to catch him by surprise. Swinging the weapon, Naruto flung the robot off his Keyblade, all while using the same motion to cut the next one.

Finishing the motion for a slash, Kairi saw that another robot was in the process of leaping at her. Thinking fast, she cartwheeled in order to evade. As she came returned to her feet, she swept her Keyblade in a wide arc. " **Bubble Blaster**!" A volley of bubbles shot out of her Keyblade and impacted multiple robots. Aiming her Keyblade higher, Kairi shot down a couple of the smaller robots that were flying around.

"3 o'clock!" Hearing Naruto's warning shout, Kairi jerked her head around to see what he was talking about.

"Whoa!" Startled, Kairi jumped out of the way of two robots lunging at her together. Feeling something press against her back, Kairi stiffened, but relaxed a second later when she realized it was Naruto. At some point, the two of them were surrounded again, as if they didn't even destroy any of the robots. "Shouldn't we be almost done by now?!"

Taking a moment to shoot off a fireball, Naruto quickly counted the number of robots. "There are actually _more_ of them now than when we started." He answered. The sound of jetpacks from above provided the reason. "They're getting reinforcements _as_ we fight." He paused to slash at another one, but it evaded, only to get destroyed by the following ball of wind. "And is it just me, or are they getting tougher?"

"It's not just you!" Kairi impaled a robot, but had to kick it off her Keyblade when that didn't serve as enough to finish it. "They're getting stronger, faster, _and_ harder to kill!"

"I guess that the barrier going down also gave Lingshen a chance to power them up…"

"Then how do we finish this?!"

Smirking, Naruto crouched. "Get down!" As Kairi ducked, Naruto created a torrent of wind that whipped around his Keyblade. Seeing the robots moving in, Naruto jumped up and spun his body around. " **Windcutter**!" The wind surrounding his Keyblade spread to cover Naruto's entire body, and from there, it exploded out in the form of a powerful whirlwind. The high speed gale slammed into the enemies and flung them away, all while blades of wind sliced them apart. Landing back on the roof as Kairi stood up, Naruto nodded. "That should do it." He said with a satisfied grin. However, the grin was wiped off his face when another group of robots landed on the other side of the roof. "…Never mind…"

"You were saying?" Kairi giggled at him as she faced the new opponents.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Not my fault that they don't know when to quit." His playful mood ended abruptly and was replaced with alarm when he spotted the object in the leading robot's hands. "Get behind me!" Throwing himself in front of Kairi, Naruto brought his Keyblade up. " **Reflect**!" Naruto barely got his spell up in time to block the attack. "Where the hell did they get guns?! That's totally unfair-ttebayo!"

Kairi gasped at what happened when the bullets impacted Naruto's barrier. "That gun isn't normal!" Every time a bullet hit the barrier, a spiraling orb of darkness would form, with each of them being large enough to encompass a person. "What are these things?!"

"Something that either Lingshen or Misa made! Or maybe even they made them together!" Naruto grunted out. "There are a lot of them, but the only things attacking the barrier are the bullets, not the darkness. But I would still rather not find out what they do."

"Then what do we do? We can't just sit here forever!" Kairi responded.

He shook his head. "We don't have to. Only one of them has a gun, the other three are unarmed. When the one shooting finishes, then I'll drop the barrier. Right when I do, you attack. There are four of them."

Kairi nodded. "I got it." She crouched in preparation. The next few seconds were filled with nothing but the sounds of gunfire and bullets impacting the barrier.

Suddenly, the bullets stopped and the orbs of darkness stopped forming. "Now!" Naruto declared, taking down the barrier.

Jumping up, Kairi swung her Keyblade. " **Bubble Blaster**!" She showered the robots in exploding bubbles, destroying them easily. Landing next to Naruto, Kairi beamed. "Perfect!"

Naruto grinned back. "Nice shot." He complimented. Turning to the sparking pile of scrap, he quirked an eyebrow. "But seriously, what was up with that gun?"

Shrugging, Kairi followed him over to the robots. "No clue. I didn't think they would have anything like that…"

"Neither did I…" Naruto's eyes widened as a thought came to him. "Crap, how many of these things do you think are using guns like that?"

Running over to the edge of the roof, Kairi looked down into the street. "Enough so that each group has at least one gun!" She called over to him. "But other people can't block the bullets!"

Quickly moving next to her, Naruto followed her line of sight. Some of the robots indeed had guns, and they were using them freely. Each time a bullet hit someone, the person would be encased in an orb of darkness, only for the orb to then disappear, taking the person with them. "What the hell…?"

"What's happening to them?" Kairi asked worriedly.

Naruto slowly his head. "I don't know…" He crouched down. "We're going down there to help." He decided, but the sound of jetpacks behind them made him groan. "Again with this?" He muttered, turning to face the newest batch.

A robot holding a gun stepped forward. _"Priority targets confirmed. Commencing attack."_

"Well that explains why so many of them are coming after us." Kairi sighed, lifting her Keyblade up.

"That only makes it more annoying." Naruto shot back. Any further talk was interrupted by the gun taking aim at them. "Here we go again…" Pulling on some twilight, Naruto surged forward as Kairi jumped to the side. In the face of the hail of bullets, Naruto opted to slide across the roof, allowing the danger to fly over him.

The robot readjusted its aim, but Naruto was already in the process of carving it in half. Not stopping his momentum, Naruto sprung over the falling robot while swinging his Keyblade, slashing the robot behind the gunner diagonally. Landing with a roll, Naruto came to a stop while crouching in front of a third robot. Lashing out, his Keyblade sliced both of the legs of the robot clean off. Still not finished, Naruto jumped up and spun around so he could finish off the robots on either side of him.

Off to the side, Kairi destroyed a lunging robot, only to quickly cut apart the following one. Flipping over the falling robot, Kairi thrust her Keyblade up. " **Spark**!" A pair of crystals made of light formed on either side of her. "Go!" The crystals began to revolve around her at high speeds, barreling into the surrounding enemies.

Touching back down on the roof, Kairi took a glance around and was disheartened to see that there were still many more robots appearing. "It feels like it never ends…"

Jumping back so that they were standing back to back, Naruto frowned and scanned the rooftop. "I think this is the last group."

"But it's the biggest one so far!"

Naruto smirked. "I thought you were having fun?" Hearing the tease, Kairi playfully glared at him.

"I _was_ , but that was until they stopped giving us a chance to breathe!" She retorted.

Humming lightly, Naruto's smirk grew. "We can take a breather after this group is done. Let's just finish them all at once."

Kairi frowned at him. "How are we going to do that? I don't think that whirlwind spell from earlier can hit this many."

By this point, Naruto had a full blown grin on his face. "We're going to do this together." He raised his Keyblade above his head and pointed it towards the sky. "Help me out with this." Knowing what he meant, Kairi smiled and placed her hand over the one he was holding his Keyblade with. Once she did so, Naruto began calling on some light, and his grin widened when he felt Kairi's ability to amplify it kick in. Not knowing what they were doing, the robots crouched in preparation to attack, prompting Naruto to hurry up. "Ready?"

"You know it!"

"Good!" Naruto channeled the light into his Keyblade, and the two of them were levitated a few feet into the air. " **Ragnarok**!" A beam of light shot out of his Keyblade and into the air, but it exploded a moment later. What followed was a shower of numerous projectiles of light cascading down onto the roof, completely destroying all the remaining robots. Once the attack ended, Naruto lowered his Keyblade and Kairi removed her hand while gravity took hold of them again. "There. And I don't see any other ones approaching."

His partner sighed in relief. "Finally. I don't mind going out and seeking them myself, but it's annoying when they keep coming to us. Especially when it is never ending."

Naruto nodded. "I hear you. That was a pain."

" _Things are getting serious!"_ Kazumi's voice grabbed their attention. _"Because of a sudden and overwhelming shift in firepower, the world tree plaza is about to fall into the enemy's hands! How are you guys going to combat this?!"_

"The sudden use of guns must be too much for most people." Kairi said with obvious concern. "I doubt that there are that many people who are able to use barriers…"

" _Fufufu…"_ The sound of a new voice laughing made Naruto and Kairi's eyes snap to the source. What greeted them was the sight of a giant image of Chao standing over the lake. _"Looks like you're having a tough time, defenders of Mahora!"_ She said. _"I am the leader of this Martian robot army. The evil last boss is me! Chao Lingshen-ne!"_

"Now what's she doing?" Naruto frowned as he stared at the image.

Despite the situation, a small smile broke out on Kairi's face. "It looks like she's playing the part of the evil boss."

The crimson blond rolled his eyes. "She's just being dramatic…" He muttered.

" _Your swift attacks for the start of the invasion were impressive. I suppose it's to be expected of Mahora students-ne."_ Chao continued. _"It appears that the rule of being able to get back up after getting hit was too lenient for such capable individuals. Therefore, I am introducing a new rule."_

Naruto's eyes narrowed when Chao lifted up her hand, revealing that she was holding a bullet. "I think we're about to find out what those bullets do."

" _Getting hit by one of these means_ instant disqualification _. On top of that, through the latest of cutting-edge equipment, the moment the bullet hits you, you will be forcibly sent to the loser room and made to sleep until the game ends."_ Chao declared.

Both of their eyes widened. "We were almost hit by those…" Kairi whispered numbly.

" _Rather than simple disqualification, don't you think sleeping through the festival's climax is far more serious-ne?"_ Chao smirked. _"Are you starting to feel the thrill now? Feel free to forfeit at any time."_ They could hear angry shouts come from the streets below, but they were unable to make out any words.

"I don't want to know what will happen if _we_ get hit by one of those." Naruto said quietly, getting an agreeing nod from Kairi.

" _By the way, my forces have already finished off more than half of your «Hero Units»! How can you hope to stand a chance without them?"_ An answering roar of defiance made Chao's smirk widen. _"Such courage, even now…But while your last defenses crumble,_ I _still have my general, who is ready to fight at any time."_ The projection of a second person flared into existence next to Chao. Naruto scowled at the sight of a smirking Misa. _"We're both somewhere nearby, so come and find us! Come 8 o'clock, my final goal will be achieved, whether my army captures the targets or not. Can you defeat the both of us before all the targets are captured_ or _time runs out? Be sure to put up a good fight!"_

As the projections died down, Kazumi's voice returned. _"The last boss has revealed herself! Chao Lingshen is the one leading the enemy attack on the city!"_ A new projection formed, but this one was a picture of Chao with the word 'Wanted' above it. _"Chao Lingshen is hiding somewhere in the game area! Bonus points will be awarded to the person who finds her!"_ A picture of Misa joined Chao's. _"But be careful! Chao's strongest fighter is also out there! If you come across her, be ready for just as tough of a fight!"_

With the end of the announcements, Naruto turned back to Kairi and was met with a determined look. "We're joining the search."

Nodding, Kairi spoke up. "Where do you think they are? They could be anywhere in the city."

Taking a moment to think, Naruto's eyes went to the world tree. "They're probably somewhere near one of the six magic focal points…But I don't know which."

"So what do we do?" Kairi asked.

Dismissing his Keyblade, Naruto brought his hands up into a hand seal. " **Shadow Clone Jutsu**." In puffs of smoke, fifty clones came into existence on the roof. "I want five groups of ten to search the other five areas. We'll handle this one. Try to conserve energy as you search, and be mindful of not letting yourselves be spotted together. That will just get people to ask annoying questions." The clones nodded or saluted before speeding off in different directions.

Kairi sent a worried look at Naruto. "How are you holding up? You've been keeping the contract activated this entire time, _and_ you've been fighting. On top of that, isn't that clone technique really tiring?"

Naruto tilted his head in thought as he assessed his current condition. "I'm doing fine, so far. Because of your affinity to light, it takes nearly nothing to keep the contract going. I haven't thrown around _too_ many spells, so that's also fine…And yeah, that jutsu is a little taxing, but I have more than enough energy to spare."

"If you say so…"

Hearing the hesitation in her voice, Naruto smiled at her. "I'm fine, really." He reassured before glancing at the setting sun. "If anything, I think we're going to be at this for a while yet, so we can take a breather if we really need to. And I'll start being more careful with just how many moves and spells I use." Kairi nodded, bringing a grin to his face. "Now then, let's get back at it."

* * *

 **Rooftop Near Keyhole Plaza (7:30 pm)**

Naruto panted lightly as he struck down another attacker. "And that takes care of another group."

Nearby, Kairi was trying to catch her breath as she braced herself on a wall. "Finally…" She muttered. Placing her back against the wall, she slowly slid down so that she was sitting. "I'll take that break now, if you don't mind."

Glancing at her, Naruto noted how exhausted she was. Nodding, he walked over and sat down next to her. "How you holding up?" The groan he got made him chuckle. "That bad?"

"Shut up…" Kairi retorted, although it lacked any heat. "It's like there's no end to them. I thought that with our numbers, we would be evenly matched!"

Humming in thought, Naruto spoke up. "Those bullets are a problem." He replied. "Our side was doing well at first, but that was only against the first couple waves of the army. Once those guns came into play, the flow began to shift." His eyes flicked towards the streets below, where shouting and fighting could still be heard. "But that doesn't mean that people are going to just give in. They're tired, but they're still putting up one hell of a fight."

Kairi nodded. "Yeah…" She looked off into the distance, where the other battles were being waged. "Have your clones found anything?" Naruto's glare off to the side made her sigh.

"Not a thing. They've scouted about the entirety of the other five areas by now, but there hasn't been a sign of Lingshen or Misa." Naruto answered. "At this point, only about fifteen of them haven't been dispelled yet."

"I guess the only thing we can do is keep searching…"

"Yeah…" A slight tremor halted their conversation. Bolting to their feet, Naruto and Kairi scanned the area for the source. "There!" Naruto's head snapped around to the direction that Kairi indicated, and he grimaced at what he saw.

Making steady progress towards the plaza was one of the six giant robots. This one was shaped similar to a knight, but it had six arms. From their position, the two of them were able to see that despite the many people firing at it, no visible damage was being dealt.

It was at that time that five massive pillars of light shot into the air from different parts of the city. "What? What are those?"

An influx of chakra and a rush of memories made Naruto's eyes widen. "They've captured the other five locations." He said, much to Kairi's surprise and dismay. "My clones let me know a second ago."

" _This is the worst possible situation!"_ Kazumi's voice cut in. _"We have received reports that other than the world tree main plaza, the defense points have all been taken over! If the last plaza gets taken over, then it's game over!"_ The wanted image of Chao reappeared. _"But don't lose hope! There's still a chance of recovery! There's still about half an hour left! If you defeat the enemy's leader before time runs out, then it's still a win for the Mahora Mage Order!"_

Naruto swore. "That's _not_ a lot of time…" They still had no clue where to even _find_ Chao.

An image of a magic circle popped up. _"Intel says that the last boss is waiting somewhere outdoors within the game area on top of a sigil similar to this! The sigil is approximately thirty meters in diameter! How hard is it to spot something like that?!"_ Kazumi demanded.

Frowning, Naruto repeated the question in his head. "…She's right…Something like that should be easy to spot." He said.

Kairi bit her lip. "So with this people searching, why hasn't she been found yet? The entire city is looking for her."

"Good question…" Naruto muttered, but he wasn't able to put much thought into it before the approaching giant grabbed his attention. "Meanwhile, this thing is still getting closer…"

"What do you think?" Kairi frowned and turned back to the robot. "Are we going to help with it? We probably should, but we still have tougher fights to save our energy for…"

Naruto scowled, but before he could say anything, a voice interjected. "Leave it to me." Both of them blinked and looked behind them, where a smirking Gray stood. "I'll take care of it." He declared confidently.

"…How long have you been running around the city without a shirt?" Naruto couldn't help but ask that, even though he wasn't sure if he wanted to know the answer.

"…"

"…Never mind…" Sighing, Naruto turned to fully face the ice mage. "So you'll handle it?"

Regaining his smirk, Gray nodded. "Yeah, it shouldn't be too hard. I still have plenty of energy left in me to fight."

"Hold it!" The sound of the new voice immediately made Gray scowl.

"Great, now this moron shows up…" As he finished talking quietly to himself, a madly grinning Natsu landed on the roof, Happy joining him the next moment.

"I haven't fought one of the giant ones! I wanna get a crack at it!" Natsu proclaimed excitedly.

Growling, Gray glared at the pyro. "Back off! I was here first!"

Scowling, Natsu turned to face him. "Huh? If you wanted to fight it, then you should have done it by now!"

"I was about to, but _you_ decided to interrupt!"

"Interrupt what?! You were just standing around looking like a dumbass!"

" _I_ was looking like a dumbass?! _You_ were the one who flew in with that obnoxious grin and shouting about how you wanted to fight it!"

"In my opinion, you both are pretty stupid…"

"What?!"

Groaning, Naruto rubbed his temples when Happy added fuel to the fire. "Why is it always like this…?" He mumbled. Some days, he wished that he didn't agree to travel with them.

"Hehehe…" Kairi laughed weakly at the interaction of her friends. "…Um, guys?" No response. "Guys?" The Fairy Tail members continued to ignore her. "Hello?" Naruto sent a sympathetic glance her way.

A loud explosion drew their attention back to the immediate problem. Scowling, Naruto turned to the Natsu and Gray. "I don't care which one of you does it, just make sure it doesn't get any closer to the plaza."

At the same time, they smirked. "Is that all?" Gray asked, cracking his knuckles.

"Heh. That'll be easy!" Natsu said.

Returning the smirk, Naruto nodded towards the robot. "Then get on it. Kairi and I will keep searching for Misa and Lingshen."

"Tch, give us twenty seconds. That's all we need!" Gray declared. "Destroying stuff is the specialty of a Fairy Tail mage!" And with that, they leapt off the roof and rocketed towards the robot.

* * *

 **Battle Against the Giant**

"Fall back! Regroup at the staircase!" Yuna shouted, hoping that everyone would hear her. Much to her relief, she saw that the few dozen people remaining began to make their way to the stairs that led to the plaza. Her relief was short lived as another tremor reminded her just _why_ they were falling back in the first place. Scowling, she fired off a couple of shots as she ran. "Dammit, how tough is this thing?!" She demanded, sliding into cover behind a wall.

"Apparently really tough." Akira said tiredly. "And according to what we've heard, they're all like this."

Yuna grinned, although it was tinged with nervousness. "Then that just means that we'll be the first and only group who manage to take one down." She proclaimed. Yet another tremor made her grin fall into a grimace. "...I hope."

Suddenly, the giant halted, gaining the attention of all those in the area. "...It stopped?" Someone questioned. "Does that mean we beat it?"

That question was answered when the giant's mouth opened, revealing a bright light that sent panic coursing through all of them. "No, it doesn't! It's going to fire!" Yuna yelped. "Get behind cover!" Everyone scrambled to do as she said, but there just wasn't enough time. Most of the remaining fighters were too far away, including Yuna and Akira. "Crap, crap, crap, crap! We're not gonna make it!" Closing her eyes, Yuna prepared herself for the utter _humiliation_ that the robot's beam was about to force on her.

" **Ice Make: Shield**!" Surprised by the interruption, Yuna's eyes snapped back open, and she watched in shock as a huge construction of ice sprouted up from the ground in front of the group, just in time to intercept the beam. "Tch! You're strong, but not strong enough!" Following the voice, Yuna looked towards the voice and saw the back of someone that was vaguely familiar to her.

"Huh?" She mumbled in confusion. After a minute, the light from the beam died down, allowing her to see more clearly. "…What just happened?"

"Is that…Gray-san?" Akira asked uncertainly.

Hearing his name, the ice mage glanced over his shoulder at them. "Hey, you guys can focus on the smaller ones. Leave this one to us."

"To us?" Yuna repeated, not yet able to wrap her mind around the situation. Suddenly, her attention was pulled back to the robot when it moved its hand in their direction. "Hey! Watch out!" She raised her gun to shoot at it, but she never got the chance.

"Hey! Over here! **Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame!** " Out of nowhere, a _huge_ ball of fire impacted the side of the robot's head, making it stagger back and fall over. The jaws of all the non-magical people in the vicinity dropped in awe when a single attack did more than anything they had been able to do the entire time. "Ha! How do ya like that?!" Natsu cackled in glee as he jumped down next to Gray from his spot on a rooftop.

Gray smirked at the dragon slayer. "Hmph. Well what do you know? It looks like you _can_ be good for something. Then again, we always knew that your specialty was destroying things…"

"Aye!" Happy swooped in to hover next to the two. "To make Natsu useful, all you need to do is point him in the direction of the things that you want to break!"

"Screw you guys!" Natsu snapped, but he didn't continue beyond that because the robot started to get back to its feet. "Hey, I think its gonna try again!"

Nodding in agreement, Gray glanced back to the students again. "You're still here? I told you to focus on the other ones!"

"We can't leave this to you!" Someone shouted back at him. "We can help!"

Gray shook his head. "Sure, but this thing isn't the only problem. We still lose if one of the robots makes it to their target. Leave this to, uh, the «Hero Units»!" He ordered.

"Natsu! Gray! Look! The robot is changing!" Happy announced, slightly fearful of what he was saying.

Snapping his head around, Gray watched as darkness pooled at the robot's feet before it started to crawl up its legs. "The hell is this?!"

"It's darkness!" Happy cried out. In no time at all, the entirety of the robot was colored purplish-black, and its eyes at turned yellow.

"Wh-What…?" Yuna stuttered. "Is this part of the game?"

"Gray! Heartless are appearing!" Natsu pointed at the surrounding area, where Soldier and Shadow heartless were showing up.

Seeing this, Gray cursed. "Shit, this isn't good…" Whirling around, he hurriedly spoke to the students. "Hey! Like I said, we'll take care of the big one! You guys need to get rid of everything else! Especially the new ones!"

"Huh? Wait, what are the-"

"Go!" Gray barked, sending them scrambling to follow his orders. Turning back towards the giant, Gray glared. "This is gonna be tougher than we thought. You up for this, Flame Brain?"

Natsu sent a smirk his way. "Heh. If anything, you're just gonna hold me back!"

"Cocky bastard." Gray grinned. "Let's go!"

"Right!" The two of them dashed forward.

* * *

 **With Naruto and Kairi (7:36 pm)**

"Heartless?! In the city?!" Naruto growled. "Dammit, Misa…" They had been fortunate so far, but this only made things that much more serious.

"We need to find her." Kairi said. "She's probably the one controlling them, right? So we should find her."

"But where is she?! We haven't found her _or_ Lingshen! And time is running out!" Naruto gritted out. "And even if we do find her, Lingshen is still a problem! So how can we-"

" _This just in!"_ Kazumi's voice cut him off. _"We've found her! Chao Lingshen has been located!"_

Naruto and Kairi's eyes went wide at this. "What? Really?" Kairi wondered.

" _After sending a scout to check, it_ has _been confirmed that Chao Lingshen is two and a half miles above the world tree on top of a blimp!"_

"You've gotta be kidding me…" Naruto muttered as both he and Kairi turned their eyes in the direction of the world tree. After a moment of looking, he scowled and pointed. "There." Following his finger, Kairi spotted the object in question in the darkening sky.

" _As of right now, our final «Hero Unit», Negi Springfield, is on his way to face her!"_ An image of Negi popped up. _"He's our final hope of defeating the enemy leader!_ However, _there is no fixed scenario in this game! Lingshen has no intention of going down without a fight! And she has called in her last line of defense to aid her!"_ A picture of a heartless appeared over the lake. _"These creatures are even_ more _dangerous than the robots from before! Do_ not _let them get close to you! And on top of all_ that, _Lingshen's best fighter has yet to be located!"_

Kairi's eyes shone in worry. "This are really getting out of hand…"

Naruto nodded in agreement, still staring at the blimp. Slowly, his hand started to move towards his dream eater deck. "…Come on, we need to get up there. Lingshen is Negi's fight, but Misa is mine. And that's probably where she is."

"Hm, not quite." The sudden voice made Naruto and Kairi whirl around with their Keyblades raised, ready to attack or defend. Standing behind them with a smile was the person they were talking about a moment ago.

Glaring, Naruto's grip on his Keyblade tightened. "Misa."

Misa nodded to him, seemingly completely at ease. "Hey there. I figured that since Chao is going to have her big fight now, why don't we have ours? And isn't that a great way to end this? It'll be an awesome climax!"

Naruto's glare darkened. "So this is just a game to you? Bringing heartless into the city? Kidnapping Kairi? All of it is a game?"

She shrugged and glanced into the streets, where a battle against the robot and heartless was still waging. "Well, most of the people in the city think it is, so I'm just following the mood." She grinned. "I've been looking forward to this!"

"Naruto…" Kairi mumbled. She knew how angry he was at the situation, and Misa's words wouldn't be helping him.

"…Fine. Then let's do this." Naruto said lowly. Shifting his eyes towards Kairi, he spoke up. I'm cancelling the contract now, okay." Kairi bit her lip, but nodded her head in agreement. Naruto closed his eyes for a moment, concentrating on the small slip of light leaving his body and moving to Kairi. Finding the link, he cut it off. Not even a second later, the slight glow surrounding Kairi's body faded away. "And here. I'll give you some help to stay out of harm's way."

"How are you going to do that?" Kairi asked curiously, making sure to keep an eye on the patiently waiting Misa.

"Like this." Reaching into his deck, Naruto pulled out the desired card. " **Summon: Halbird**!" He declared. In a flash of light, the dream eater was flying in place next to him. The dream eater cried out in greeting upon seeing Naruto, but quickly noticed the atmosphere. "Hey, Hal. Can you keep Kairi safe while I fight? She needs to still be close though, so don't go too far away. She'll tell you when you are far enough. Just be sure to keep out of the way of the fight." The dream eater nodded in affirmation before landing next to him. "Thanks." Turning to Kairi, he nodded towards the dream eater. "There you go."

Kairi nodded back. "Okay…She glanced between him and Misa for a moment, but she then pulled herself together and moved towards the dream eater. "Good luck. Win this thing quickly, okay?"

Naruto grinned. "You got it." Kairi turned her Keyblade back into a card and climbed onto Halbird's back. Seeing her finish getting a grip on the eagle, Naruto nodded. "Take her up, Hal."

"Kah!" Flapping his wings a few times, Halbird took flight into the air. And as Naruto said, he stopped gaining altitude when Kairi instructed.

Misa glanced between the pair in the air and Naruto a few times. "So why does she need to stay close? Wouldn't it be better to get her far away from me while you can?" She asked curiously.

Hearing this, Naruto frowned and turned to face her. "No, because I'm not going to lose here, so there's no need to worry."

 **Play Kingdom Hearts 1.5 ReMIX OST: Another Side-Battle Ver. Extended**

His answer prompted a giggle from her. "Confident, are we? I wouldn't be too sure about that." Misa raised her hand up, and her black Keyblade appeared in a flash of darkness. "I'm pretty tough." She slid into a combat stance.

"Doesn't matter how tough you are." Naruto retorted, getting into his own stance. "You're not getting Kairi." The two of stared at one another in silence for several moments, not budging an inch.

Then the silence ended.

"Let's go!" Misa flipped into the air before coming back down at Naruto with her Keyblade. Seeing this, the crimson blond jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding the explosion of darkness that erupted from the impact.

Landing on his feet on the other side of the roof, Naruto cloaked his Keyblade in fire. " **Fire Dash**." He sped forward towards Misa.

Not hesitating, Misa mimicked his actions with her own version. " **Ice Dash**." A miniature blizzard came to life, coating her Keyblade. Blurring forward, she met Naruto partway in a clash of fire and ice.

The two of them struggled against one another, staring into each other's eyes.

Breaking away, Naruto and Misa both leapt back at the same time and pointed their Keyblades forward.

" **Fira**!"

" **Blizzara**!"

An explosion of smoke covered the roof.

* * *

 **Down in the Streets**

"Whoa!" Many of the people running around fighting paused in shock and alarm as one of the nearby rooftops suddenly exploded. "What the hell was that?!" Yuna demanded, trying to shoot a heartless and glance over at the same time.

"I don't know! Do you think it's part of the game?!" Akira shouted back.

Their questions were answered as Misa flipped out of the smoke and down into the street. Landing easily, she quickly raised her Keyblade up to block a downward strike from Naruto, who also came out of the smoke.

"Huh?!" Someone shouted.

"Who're they?!"

"Hey, isn't that girl the one of the bad guys?" Ignoring their audience for the moment, Misa and Naruto launched into a flurry of blows and parries, both attempting to land a decisive hit on the other, only to end up in another power struggle with their Keyblades. "Shouldn't we help him? She needs to go down, right?"

Hearing this, Misa smirked at Naruto. "Aw, it looks like they like you better than me. I'm a little jealous~"

Naruto scowled and applied more strength. "Leave them out of this. Your fight is with me."

"Heh, I can't help it if they involve themselves." Misa said with a smile. "It's just self-defense, you know? I won't be the one to start anything with them." Her smile sharpened. "Although I can't guarantee that they won't get hurt if they _do_ try anything…" This only served to make Naruto's scowl deepen.

" _Hey! I've got some big news!"_ Kazumi's voice came to life again. _"It looks like Lingshen's general has been found! She's now locked in battle with one of the «Hero Units»! And if my info is right, then they have something of a history together! Stay out of the way of this fight! It's gonna get ugly! Focus on the other enemies and trust the «Hero Units» to do their job!"_

"She's right. The robots are already super close to the goal! We don't have time for her!"

"Dammit. I wanted to get that prize bonus…"

"Shut up and shoot!"

A wave of relief flooded Naruto as the students diverted their attention elsewhere. He would have felt extremely guilty if someone had gotten hurt because they were pulled into the crossfire of his fight.

"And there they go." Misa laughed quietly. "It's really impressive how much the magically aware people are able to keep things under control, even as the non-magical people are fighting their battles." She paused before shrugging. "Well, it's either impressive or depressing that people can't tell that this _isn't_ just a show. If something like this happened back in Konoha, there's no way that those paranoid shinobi wouldn't have assumed the worst."

Naruto's anger grew at how casually she was treating the situation. Here they were, fighting in the middle of a legitimate war, and she was _joking around_. Noticing the grip on his Keyblade tighten and his teeth clenching, Misa quirked an eyebrow. "Hey, what's wrong? Why are you making that face?" She asked innocently.

"Stop screwing around!" Naruto demanded. Breaking the struggle, he swiftly brought his Keyblade back before slashing it at her. "Take this seriously!"

Now grinning, Misa jumped back a couple of feet. "What do you mean? We always talk while we spar! We've done it since we were in the academy, remember?"

"Yeah, but I _also_ remember you _stabbing me in the back_!" Naruto snarled as he rushed in for another attack. "You stabbed me in the back and _smiled_!" He shouted. "And you're _still doing it_!"

"Guh!" Misa grunted as she was forced back a couple of feet when she blocked the blow, but she still didn't lose her smile. "Come on. You can't hold that against me."

"Like hell I can't!" Naruto shot back. " **Shadowbreaker**!" Darkness coated his Keyblade as he spiraled at her.

Misa swiftly canceled the darkness out with some of her own before leaping up onto a nearby balcony to avoid the following light empowered slash. "Hey, that's the one you used back in the Forest of Death!" She laughed. "Man, that feels like forever ago."

Her refusal to stop acting as if nothing between them had changed only made Naruto angrier. " **Meteor Shower**!" He shouted, aiming his Keyblade as he did so. As a result, numerous projectiles made of light shout out of his Keyblade and hurtled towards Misa.

"Whoa!" Still refusing to drop her smile, Misa jumped into the air, flipping and twirling around as needed to dodge all the attacks. At the height of her jump, she pointed her Keyblade at Naruto. " **Dark Volley**!" Misa's orbs of darkness matched Naruto's own projectiles of light, causing many small explosions to appear in the space between them, but some of them still made it through and headed straight at Naruto.

Swearing softly, Naruto stopped firing light at her and leapt up into the air. Rotating his body, his feet touched down for a moment on the side of a building. Using the building, Naruto sprung at the still falling Misa.

Seeing this, Misa ceased her own attack and brought her Keyblade up in time to intercept the oncoming one. The two of them clashed momentarily in the air, sparks flying from their Keyblades. Twisting around, Misa broke contact with Naruto by using the force of his attack to push herself back into the wall of a building.

Sticking to the side of the building with chakra, Misa turned and ran in the opposite direction. "Come on! Let's find a better spot!" Scowling, Naruto touched back down on the ground before sprinting after her.

* * *

 **With Kairi**

"Naruto…" Kairi said quietly in worry. As she had instructed, Halbird had been sure to keep a constant distance from Naruto, despite the moving fight and the odd stray ball of light or darkness. She hadn't heard every word being said between the two, but she was still able to put enough together to guess. Between Naruto's angry expression and Misa's smile, it wasn't hard for Kairi to figure out that the crimson blond was frustrated by her apparent lack of care.

When Naruto and Misa clashed again as they ran down the street, Kairi bit her lip. She had faith in Naruto to win, but she was still worried about him.

' _Maybe I shouldn't have let him fight alone…'_ She thought to herself, but she quickly banished the idea with a shake of her head. _'No. He's going to win this. I shouldn't be worried about him. And this is something that he needs to do, or he will be stuck on it for a long time.'_

* * *

 **With Naruto and Misa (7:45 pm)**

Misa landed in a crouch ahead of Naruto, only this time, she didn't continue running. A second later, Naruto came to a stop as well. Now that they had stopped moving, Naruto glanced around, recognizing the location. "The keyhole plaza?"

Hearing the question, Misa smiled lightly with a shrug. "Why not? It has enough room for it, after all. And that giant is being held off by your friends, so we have time to fight." Her smile widened as she fell back into a combat stance. "Now then. I'm not running anymore! Let's do this!" Darkness shrouded her body as she sped at Naruto. " **Dark Haze**!" She brought her Keyblade down on him.

Covering himself in twilight, Naruto met the attack head on. The two of them clashed once, and he used the chance to parry her Keyblade back up towards the air. Not letting up, he then brought his quickly slashed his Keyblade upward. " **Aerial Slam**!"

Misa was knocked high into the air, Naruto immediately following after her. Jumping with enough force to overtake her, Naruto came into existence above Misa, bringing his Keyblade back down on her. "Gah!" Misa was launched back towards the ground, but instead of impacting it, a pool of darkness opened up and swallowed her.

Landing back on the ground, Naruto tensed and looked around warily, watching for any signs of her reappearing. Suddenly, a new pool of darkness emerged from behind him. "Gotcha!" Misa's eyes widened in surprise and her smile faltered when Naruto successfully whirled around her in a reversal and blocked her blow within a second.

"Not quite." Naruto grunted out before kicking her back. He was definitely happy for the boost to his reflexes this Keyblade gave him. Focusing back on the fight, Naruto swung his Keyblade at her. " **Dark Firaga**!" Several balls of fire coated in darkness rocketed at Misa.

Acting quickly, Misa batted the fireballs out of the air and then responded in kind. " **Blizzara**!" She shouted, sending ice at him. Knowing that it wouldn't be enough, she also stabbed her Keyblade into the ground. " **Ice Barrage**!"

Naruto, caught in the middle of slashing through the flying ice, was unable to avoid the ice crystal that abruptly sprouted out of the ground. "Gah!" Gritting his teeth in pain, Naruto was launched into the air, only to be sent slamming back down when an awaiting Misa slashed at him with her darkness infused Keyblade.

Landing in a crouch, Naruto snapped his head back up before quickly rolling to the side. Getting to his feet, he swung his Keyblade. " **Wind Storm**!" Seeing her get hurled back, Naruto crouched in preparation of his next move. " **Wind Dash**!" Using the wind as a boost, Naruto blurred towards Misa and slammed his wind coated Keyblade into her side, changing the direction she was flying in.

"Agh!" Misa flipped her body around to be upright again, but Naruto was already upon her once more. Alarmed, Misa hastily melded her body with darkness to evade, reappearing behind Naruto with her Keyblade raised. "Hyah!"

Naruto stifled a pained scream as the attack connected. Fighting through the pain, the crimson blond spun around slashed at her, but only met with air as she gained some distance. Not letting up, Naruto pursued her right after. " **Aero Buster**!" Naruto swiped his Keyblade again, but both the blade and the blast of wind were ineffective as Misa jumped over him.

" **Dark Break**!" Darkness poured from Misa's weapon as it came down on Naruto. Seeing this, Naruto rolled to the side, but was hit head on by the resulting shockwave of darkness. Regaining his bearings, he rushed at Misa again, intent on finishing the fight quickly with one powerful move.

" **Zantetsuken**!" The strike was successful, managing to make contact with Misa's body and sending her hurtling back.

"Agh!" Misa's back impacted the obelisk that stood in the center of the plaza, and she stayed there for a moment before falling to her knees, panting and in pain, her Keyblade on the ground next to her. By now, the smile had long since been wiped from her face. The keyhole and magic circle came into existence, but they both ignored them.

Seeing that she was down, Naruto lowered his Keyblade and slowly walked up to her. Glaring, he spoke up as he tried to regain control of his breath. "You can't win, Misa. You're not strong enough to beat me."

"…Heh…Looks like it, huh?" She said weakly. "I should've…figured. I don't know…how long you've had your Keyblade…but from what I've seen…you've definitely had it for a while…You've had more time to train than I have…" Misa laughed quietly. "That kinda sucks…We've always been pretty evenly matched…before…Or have you…always been holding back?"

Naruto stayed silent for a moment, searching her face. "…Why did you do it?"

"Huh…?" Misa blinked at him, and her confusion only made his anger resurface.

Glaring harder, Naruto elaborated. "Why did you join Orochimaru? Why betray everyone like that? What could that freak possibly offer you that made it worth it?" No response. "Or were you with him from the start? Was it all just an act? Were you ever really my friend?"

"Ha…So _now_ you ask?"

"Answer me!" Naruto demanded.

"…No…" Misa finally said. "I won't. If you want those answers…" She shakily pushed herself back to her feet, grabbing her Keyblade as she did so. "Then you're going to have to beat them out of me." She said, smiling slightly.

The reappearance of that smile drove Naruto's frustration to new heights. "Look at yourself! You can barely stand! And you still want to fight?!"

Misa chuckled. "Then I guess I should even the odds, shouldn't I?" This question made Naruto's eyes narrow and his guard go back up.

"…What are you planning?"

"You've said it yourself…I'm not strong enough to beat you." Misa said quietly. "…Then that only means that I need to _get_ strong enough!"

A sudden pulse of darkness from Misa made Naruto's eyes widen. "What?"

"Gah!" Misa's free hand went up and clutched at her shoulder in obvious pain. "Man, he wasn't kidding when he said that the first use would be painful!" She said humorlessly. Suddenly, a strange, flame-like pattern started to spread across Misa's skin.

Seeing it, Naruto's mind went back to the Forest of Death. "…You didn't." He breathed numbly. Seeing her pained smile, his anger flared again. "You actually let that freak put that thing on you?!"

"Hey, to be fair, it wasn't my idea." Misa winced as the markings spread some more. "Orochimaru-sama told me that since I may end up facing you in the near future, it would be better for me to have some kind of boost." She winced again. "You know how it is. What the boss man says, goes."

"He shouldn't even be your boss!" Naruto shouted.

"So you've said." Misa closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Naruto opened his mouth to speak, but he was cut off by another pulse of darkness coming from her body, only this one was _much_ stronger. By now, the curse mark had spread to cover half of her face. In addition to this, an aura of darkness was visible around her body, completely enveloping her. Misa grinned widely and opened her eyes back up, showing that her right eye had changed. What was previously brown was now the same yellow that Kuro's eyes were, and her sclera had also turned black. "Wow! What a rush!"

"Misa…"

Misa's grin widened. "Hey, what's with that face? I feel great!" She laughed. "Better than great! This is awesome!" She slid into a battle stance. "Come on, let me show you! I can only use this thing for a short burst, so we better hurry! Try to keep up now!" She disappeared in a burst of darkness.

"What?!"

"Naruto, above you!" It was only thanks to Kairi's alarmed shout that Naruto was able to dive to the side in time to avoid Misa's strike.

Rolling to his feet, Naruto readied himself for anything. _'I guess that this is the boost she supposedly caught me off guard with before they came back in time…'_ And if that was true, then he needed to be careful.

His opponent laughed. "Sorry was that too much for you? Let's try again!" She blasted towards him, ready to attack. This time, Naruto managed to get his Keyblade up in time to parry the blow. Following this, he rotated his body around her in a reversal. Seeing her exposed back, Naruto attacked. "Too slow!" Misa melded with darkness again, resurfacing a few feet away.

Scowling, Naruto rushed her. " **Wind Dash**!"

Still grinning, Misa's Keyblade shot up. " **Dark Barrier**!" A barrier came into existence around Misa, causing Naruto's Keyblade to bounce back. "And then **Counter Aura**!"

A discharge of darkness threw Naruto back, tumbling through the air as he went. Disoriented, Naruto was unable to defend himself when Misa quickly followed after him, ready to attack again.

" **Sonic Shadow**!" Misa's body became cloaked in darkness as she shot at Naruto. Striking his front, she disappeared in a burst of speed before she reappeared to his side, only to vanish again after slashing at him again.

Naruto grit his teeth in pain as he was batted around by the onslaught. Every time he lashed out at her, she would vanish again to hit him from the other side. Becoming frustrated, Naruto began channeling wind. " **Multivortex**!" A tornado of cutting wind exploded out around him, catching Misa as she came at him again. The second she hit the wind, it blasted her back as small cuts were made on her body.

Landing back on the ground, Misa twirled her Keyblade as the tornado faded away. "Hah!" A volley of darkness and ice careened towards Naruto. Spotting this, Naruto began moving between the projectiles as he could, while hitting away others. Seeing that she still couldn't land a hit, Misa's smile faltered a bit. "Just give up!"

Hearing her shout, Naruto glared as he sliced through another ball of ice and deflected a ball of darkness into a different orb. "Not happening!" Pushing himself to move faster, Naruto jumped high into the air. " **Heat Dive**!" Fire ignited across his Keyblade as he came at Misa with a downward strike.

Cutting off her volley, Misa raised her Keyblade to block the blow. "Guh!" Misa winced as the force behind the strike served as enough to make her arms go slightly numb. Throwing off the feeling, she pushed back against Naruto, prompting the crimson blond to leap back.

Not wasting a moment, Naruto wrapped wind around his Keyblade and flung it at her. " **Wind Raid**!" Misa deflected the Keyblade into the air, but she was caught off guard by Naruto suddenly appearing in front of her. With no time to react, Naruto's fist embedded in her gut, earning a pained grunt from her.

Snarling, Misa swung her Keyblade at Naruto, but it was deflected by his own Keyblade coming back from its throw, the wind still guiding it. Misa's eyes widened when she felt Naruto kick her in the side, sending her tumbling back a few feet.

Grabbing his keyblade from the air, Naruto dashed at her again. "Enough!" Misa screamed, creating a shockwave of darkness that slammed into Naruto. Not expecting this, Naruto was launched back. Smile completely gone by now, Misa glared at Naruto. "This ends now!" The aura of darkness surrounding her body flared, and Naruto watched as she rose into the air. "Sorry, Naruto. But you lose!" She thrust her Keyblade into the air. " **Dark Abyss**!" A pillar of darkness shot into the sky, and Naruto's eyes widened when he realized what she was doing.

Acting quickly, Naruto raised his Keyblade up. " **Reflega**!" He shouted, putting up the strongest barrier he could. The next second, darkness rained down from the heavens on him. "Shit…!" Naruto's face scrunched up in concentration and his knees threatened to give way under the overwhelming pressure.

 **End Music**

* * *

 **With Kairi (7:55 pm)**

Kairi gasped in alarm as her entire view of the battle was shrouded in darkness. "Naruto!" Halbird cried out as the shockwave from the attack hit them, making it difficult to stay airborne. _'Come on, Naruto!'_

* * *

 **With Natsu and Gray**

Gray panted in exhaustion as he glared up at the giant robot. "…Dammit…Why won't this thing…go down?" He gritted out.

From his spot next to the ice mage, Natsu was faring little better. "What's…What's the matter? Can't keep…up?"

"Tch…Like you're doing better." Gray said halfheartedly. "You…look like you're about…to fall over."

"Ha! As if!" To prove his point, Natsu ignited his fists. "I can keep this up all night!" He declared.

"Heh. And there's no way I'm going to tire out before you do." Gray retorted. Placing his hands together, he began to create ice.

"Go, Natsu! Go, Gray!" Happy cheered. "It's almost finished!" The cat tilted his head at the robot. "…I think? I can't really tell…" Suddenly, an explosion in the distance caught the attention of everyone in the vicinity. "What was that?!" Happy cried fearfully.

Snapping his head around, Natsu saw an explosion of darkness. "The hell? Is that darkness?"

"Yeah…And there's a lot." Gray answered. A frown formed on his face. "Naruto was fighting over in that direction…" He and Natsu glanced at one another. Then at the same time, they turned to the giant with identical scowls. "We don't have time for you anymore." Gray said.

Nodding, Natsu crouched in preparation of his next attack. "Yeah, a friend of ours might need some help."

"So that means…" Gray continued.

"That you…"

"Need to get the hell out of our way!" They shouted together before charging.

* * *

 **Keyhole Plaza**

Misa gasped for breath as she slowly lowered back onto the ground. "That was…everything I had left…Now stay down…" Sweat was trickling down her face as she spoke. Smoke covered the area, preventing her from seeing Naruto. "Uh…That was tiring."

Suddenly, pain flared in her shoulder, causing her to snap a hand up and grip it. Scrunching her face up in pain, Misa bit back a whimper as the curse mark receded. Once it was gone, Misa rolled her shoulder. "I really hope I get used to that thing…" She muttered. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she looked towards the sky, where Kairi was. Putting a smile back on her face, she called out. "Naruto lost! You know what that means, right?"

Kairi glared down at her. "You don't know that he lost! And even if he had, I can still fight you!" Halbird landed on the ground, allowing Kairi to jump off of his back. Pulling out her pactio card, she summoned her Keyblade. " **Adeat**!"

The defiance brought a small and pained laugh to Misa. "Don't even bother, princess. If Naruto couldn't beat me, then there's no way you could. Just come quietly and I won't hurt you." The redhead shook her head, bringing a sigh to Misa. "Come on, I'm tired and want to rest. Naruto was the best your side had, and he lost. Give it up."

"…Sorry to disappoint." A familiar voice said, making Misa freeze. "But I'm not done yet."

Smile wiped from her face yet again, Misa scowled and swung her Keyblade, creating a small gust that rid the area of the residual smoke. Right where he was last seen, panting and using his Keyblade as support, Naruto glared back at her. "You've gotta be kidding…"

"Naruto!" Kairi said in relief.

Naruto pushed himself back to his feet. "If that was your strongest attack, then _you're_ the one who should give up, Misa. Whether it be in your normal state or with the curse mark, you aren't strong enough to put me down."

Misa's glared at him. "No. That's not true."

"Yes, it is." Naruto said with finality. "You said you put everything you had into that, and yet I'm still here." He shook his head. "So I'm telling you one last time…Surrender."

"No! I refuse!" Misa shouted. Her curse mark flared to life again, this time spreading to cover more of her face and the entirety of her right arm. She cloaked herself in darkness. "I won't lose! I can't!"

"You've already lost."

"Shut! Up!" She _couldn't_ lose! Not after all of that! Misa raised her Keyblade again, preparing to attack. She rocketed forward.

"Naruto!" Kairi screamed, not seeing him put up any attempt at defense.

Ignoring her, Naruto watched Misa close the distance between them. To Kairi's alarm, he didn't move out of the way or gather twilight to attack.

"This is the end!" Misa shouted. When she was close enough, she slashed her Keyblade down at Naruto.

"Too slow."

Misa's eyes widened in shock as Naruto's Keyblade lashed out and deflected hers, knocking it out of her hand and across the plaza. "…Wha-?"

Not giving her any time to react, Naruto took a step forward and gathered chakra into his free hand. " **Rasengan**." The spiraling ball slammed into her unprotected stomach, launching her back into a wall.

His opponent screamed in pain as the force of her impact created a spider web of cracks in the building. Not able to support herself any further, she fell to the ground.

Slowly, Naruto lowered his hand, only staring at Misa with a sad expression. "You lose." He said quietly.

"Gah…" Misa struggled to push herself back up, but her arms gave out. "…Dammit…" She whispered as her curse mark receded again. Unable to do anything else, she rolled onto her back.

"That last charge was the slowest one all fight." Naruto told her. "That would never hit me."

"But…I…" Misa attempted to find something to say, but she eventually sighed. "Fine…I've lost this one." She conceded.

Naruto stared at her for a moment. "…Will you tell me now?" He asked. "Why did you do it?"

Hearing the question, Misa laughed quietly. "…Do you believe in destiny?" She inquired.

The crimson blond scowled. "Answer my question." He demanded.

Misa weakly shook her head. "I need to hear your response first."

Naruto's hand balled into a fist. "What do you mean?"

"Destiny…That everything is predetermined. That no matter what we do, the ultimate outcome is already chosen for us."

"No." Naruto said immediately. "I don't believe in that. We make our own destinies. Anything can happen. There is a person in this world who is _traveling back in time_ to change things. So, no. I _don't_ believe in destiny."

"And if I said it was my destiny to betray you?"

"Then I would say that that's a load of shit!" Naruto shouted in frustration. " _You_ chose to turn traitor! _You_ chose to stab me in the back! _You_ chose to side with Orochimaru! _You chose to turn your back on every single one of your friends_! So don't blame it on _destiny_!"

Misa smiled, but there was something sad in the expression. "Hm…You're right…It was my choice." She agreed. "But because it was my choice...does that mean I'm accepting destiny...or fighting it?" She asked.

"Huh? What does _that_ mean?" Naruto demanded.

"…You'll figure it out." Misa told him.

Suddenly, a **Corridor of Darkness** opened up under her body. Spotting it, Naruto's eyes widened. "No!" He made to stop her, but he was intercepted by a group of Armored Knight heartless. "No!"

"You beat me this time, Naruto." Misa told him, still smiling. "…I had fun for a bit. It's been a while since we've fought."

"Misa!"

"See ya next time." She slid her eyes over to Kairi. "Goodbye to you as well, princess." With that, she vanished into the corridor. Once she was gone, the heartless also disappeared, leaving Naruto, Kairi, and Halbird alone in the plaza.

"…"

"…Naruto?" Kairi asked hesitantly.

Instead of responding to her, Naruto spoke up. "Thanks for keeping Kairi safe, Halbird. You can return now."

"Kah…" The dream eater let out a sorrowful cry before disappearing in a flash, leaving his card in his place. Picking up the card, Naruto returned it to the deck, still not looking at Kairi.

"Naruto, please say something." Kairi pleaded.

The two of them stood in silence for a minute before Naruto let out a sigh. "…What do you think, Kairi?" He asked without turning to face her.

The sudden question made her blink in confusion. "Huh?"

"Do you believe in destiny?" He elaborated.

Kairi bit her lip as she considered the question. "…Yeah, I do…"

"You do?"

She nodded. "Maybe…Maybe not in the same sense that Misa was talking about…But I _do_ think that it's destiny that connects us." Kairi said. "It's because our destinies are intertwined that we met in the first place. What were the chances that you guys would just happen to go to that world and find me on the top of that mountain?" Seeing him glance back at her, she gave him a small smile. "That was definitely destiny. What happens from there…" She shrugged, her smile growing. "…the rest is up to us."

Naruto stared at her for a moment before returning the smile with a small one of his own. "…Makes sense, I guess." Before anything else could be said, Kazumi's voice returned.

" _Well, everybody! The robot army has been mostly destroyed! The last giant robot has been demolished. And I've just received word that both Lingshen and her top fighter have been defeated! But was it done fast enough?! Has the deadline already passed?!"_

Suddenly, the keyhole reappeared without being promoted, showing that the magic circle attacked to it was growing brighter and brighter with each passing second. Along with this, the world tree was also starting to glow brighter

"What's happening?!" Kairi asked. "Were we too late?!"

Naruto's eyes narrowed as he gazed at the magic circle. After a moment, he smirked. "No. we were in time."

Out of nowhere, a beam of light shot out of the magic tree and into the air, where it eventually exploded like a giant firework. In response, the magic circle flared once before fading away, leaving only the keyhole behind.

" _You did it! The enemy was defeated with not even a minute to spare!"_ Kazumi shouted. " _It's the Mahora Mage Order's complete victory!"_ An answering roar of celebration echoed throughout the city, drowning out the celebratory fireworks.

Kairi sighed in relief. "Oh, good." She shot Naruto a beaming smile. "We did it!" Naruto smiled back.

"It was pretty close though." He said. Turning to the keyhole, he pointed his Keyblade at it. "But yeah, we did it."

* * *

 **Hollow Bastion**

A **Corridor of Darkness** opened up into the entrance hall of the castle, depositing a battered Misa onto the floor. Grunting in exertion, she slowly pushed herself to her feet.

"Whoa, what happened to you?" Hearing the voice, Misa frowned and looked over to the side. Standing there was a teen with silver hair. "What's wrong? Not happy to see me?" He wasn't even attempting to hide his amusement at seeing her in such a state.

Misa's frown deepened. "Am I happy to see the witch's pet? No, not particularly."

The teen snorted. "Says the snake's pet." He shot back.

"I'm not a pet. A pet does nothing but obey their master without question." Misa replied. "Someone like you."

"Ha! That's rich coming from the girl who betrayed her friend when her master told her to."

Her eyes narrowed. "Like you have any room to talk! You're here working against your friends, just like me! Didn't you kidnap that one Princess of Heart when your friend was trying to save her? Alice was her name, right? You're also a traitor!"

"No, I'm not!" The boy shouted. "Sora betrayed me first! He replaced his friends the first chance he got for new ones! _He's_ the traitor! He betrayed both me _and_ Kairi!"

At this, Misa paused before a smirk slowly spread across her face. "Ah, Kairi. That's right…"

Seeing her expression, the boy shot her a wary look. "What about her?"

Misa gestured to her injuries. "It just so happens that I got these from fighting against Naruto. You remember him…" The boy nodded, not understanding what she was getting at. "Well, the reason I was so late to return isn't because I wanted to fight him for fun. It was because of the fact that Naruto is traveling between worlds with some new friends…Take a guess as to who one of them is."

His eyes widened, hope and confusion clear in them. "Kairi…"

"That's right." Misa confirmed with a smile. "She's been traveling with Naruto for a little while now. The world I crossed path with them in was actually hosting a festival." Her smile sharpened. "Based on what I saw while there, she was having a great time. A whole lot of fun exploring the festival. Seemingly without a care in the world."

The boy's hands clenched into fists. "…But that's…Does that mean that she…" He whispered.

"If you ask me, she forgot about you…Just like how Sora did." Misa shrugged. "She saw the chance for a change in friends, and she took it."

"You're lying!"

Misa laughed. "Nope! Check it out for yourself! All you've got to do is find Naruto, and you find Kairi too! Both of your friends really have forgotten about you. Two out of two!" She clapped slowly. "Good going! What did you do for both of your best friends to replace you the first chance that they got?"

"Shut up!" He summoned his weapon in a flash of darkness and dashed at her.

Seeing this, Misa smirked and summoned her Keyblade. Swiftly, she parried his weapon and disarmed him of it, sending it spiraling through the air and across the room. The boy's breath hitched when the tip of her Keyblade pressed against his throat. "I may be tired…I may be injured…But I am _still_ better than you…" Misa said quietly. "You are _nothing_ compared to me." The boy's eyes shone in hate as he glared at her, but he was unable to do anything.

"Enough." Both of their eyes snapped towards the top of the stairs, where Orochimaru was standing.

"Orochimaru-sama." Neither of them were sure as to the exact moment that he got there.

Orochimaru stared at them blankly for a moment. "…Misa, dismiss your Keyblade. Maleficent would be…irritated with me if you harmed her pet project." His words made Misa smirk and the boy scowl. Doing as ordered, Misa willed her Keyblade away and took a step back from the boy. "…You said that your primary mission was a success?"

Misa nodded. "Yes, sir. I have the data from the world tree for you."

"Good…Now as for your current appearance…" Misa withheld a wince as Orochimaru's lips dipped into a frown. "…You fought against Naruto-kun…and lost? Even with the curse seal?"

Swallowing nervously, Misa nodded. "…That's correct, sir…"

A shiver raced down both her spine and the boy's as Orochimaru suddenly smiled. A smile such as that never spelled good news for the people they were intended for. Privately, the boy even felt pity for her.

"…That just won't do." Orochimaru said lightly. "It seems that we have to up your training again."

* * *

 **City Park (A Little Later)**

Naruto sweat dropped as he watched class 3-A tear themselves about over what he considered to be the dumbest reason possible. "Is it weirder that they are fighting over a book or that they are fighting over a book to see who ends up with who in the future?"

Kairi offered him a hesitant giggle. "Uh, yes?"

"Fair enough." The sound of footsteps approaching made him turn his head. Upon seeing who it was, he made his expression neutral.

A sore and fatigued Chao stood across from him, sporting a small smile, despite the fact that she lost. After a minute, she spoke up. "Well...I guess I lose." She shook her head. "Even after all of that, you guys still beat me." She glanced over to Kairi. "And you managed to keep Kairi-san away from Misa, too."

Naruto nodded, opting to remain silent.

Seeing that he wasn't going to say anything, Chao sighed. "I really hope you know what you're doing, Naruto-kun. This path lies to ruin."

"We won't let it happen." Naruto finally responded. "Whatever future you come from...It isn't ours."

Sadness invaded Chao's smile. "I hope so...I really do." She reached into her pocket and pulled out her time machine. Taking a glance at it, she continued. "I can't stay in this timeline any longer. If I don't leave now, then I'll be trapped here until the next time the world tree gathers power."

Kairi frowned. "So this is goodbye? You're just going to leave?"

The time traveler shrugged. "I wasn't really supposed to be in this time, anyways. I would have left already, but I wanted to say goodbye." She looked over to her feuding classmates. "I've already said goodbye to everyone else, it's just you guys that were left." She smiled. "Whatever the outcome...I'm glad to have met you. Both of you. Even against the odds, you never lose faith...I'm glad to have seen that." Her time machine started to glow. "Ah, time is about up."

Not satisfied, Naruto quickly spoke. "Wait, I have one last question for you."

Chao blinked and titled her head at him. "You better hurry, the time machine is going to activate any minute now."

Not needing to be told twice, Naruto said what was on his mind. "In the future that you know...You said that it was my desire to protect others that got me killed...What did you mean by that?"

At this, Chao averted her eyes, unable to meet his gaze. "...That's..." She shook her head. "...You've misunderstood." She finally said.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"In my future...You...You haven't been killed..." Chao hesitated. "You're just in no condition to fight Xehanort."

Naruto's eyes widened. "Wait, so I've been crippled? I'm in a coma? Lost in darkness?"

Chao frantically shook her head. "No...No, I shouldn't have said that." She took a deep breath before smiling shakily at them. "Don't worry about it. You won't let it happen, right? No matter what happens, you'll keep fighting, won't you?"

The crimson blond opened his mouth to demand an answer, but he paused when he saw the sheer _desperation_ Chao had to hear his response. Taking a moment to sigh, he gave her a small smile. "Yeah, of course."

Kairi nodded enthusiastically. "Absolutely. We'll all keep fighting! Don't worry about that!"

The two of them saw relief flood Chao's eyes. "...Good. Promise me that you'll keep fighting against them?"

"Promise." Naruto and Kairi said together, understanding that it was important for Chao to hear that.

The last traces of desperation left Chao as her time machine glowed brighter. "...Thank you..." Her new smile was brighter and more sincere than any of the others she had given them previously. "Seeing this...Seeing all of you...I think that maybe things will turn out okay, after all." A magic circle appeared under her feet. She waved cheerfully at them. "See you later-ne!" In a flash, she left their time lime.

Kairi stared at the spot she was standing in for a minute. "...What do you think she meant?" She asked hesitantly. "What do you think happened to you?"

Naruto frowned for a moment, but eventually sighed and folded his arms behind his head. "Doesn't matter...Whatever it was, it won't happen this time."

* * *

 **Headmaster's Office (Two Days Later)**

"So you're leaving?" Negi asked sadly.

Naruto offered the child teacher a smile. "Yeah. We've been here for long enough. We should get back out there towards the next world." The off-worlders had spent a day recovering from their battles, and while that normally would not have been enough, the miracle of magic had drastically decreased their recovery time.

"I see…" Negi mumbled.

"Hmph. I don't see why you're so sad, boya. At the very least, the boy will be back." Evangeline said.

Hearing this, Naruto blinked. "Huh? I will?"

Evangeline smirked at him. "Of course. You don't seriously think that little bit of training you did was enough to master darkness, do you? No, when your current journey ends and you want to continue your training, you will come back to seek me out. I always finish what I start."

"Uh, sure…" Naruto wasn't sure if he would really do as she said, but he still filed it away for later consideration.

"Ohohoho~ You should consider yourself lucky, Naruto-kun! It is not every day that someone as powerful as Evangeline willingly takes on a student." The headmaster laughed.

' _I don't feel very lucky…'_ And Takahata's smirk didn't help him feel any better about it, nor did Negi's shiver.

"Anyways, I would like to thank you again for everything you have done for us." The headmaster continued. "This world is in your debt. All of you." Kairi blushed under the praised while Gray smirked silently. In contrast to this, Natsu and Happy burst into laughter and began boasting about how awesome they were.

Rolling his eyes, Naruto smiled. "We were happy to help." His smile dimmed. "And I'm sorry that my problems put your people into danger. I'm just glad that none of the heartless were able to take any hearts."

The headmaster waved him off. "As you've said, no one's heart was taken, so do not fret about such things. Simply focus on the task ahead instead of the past. Your mission isn't completed yet, so don't lose focus."

"Right."

Nodding, the headmaster opened a drawer. "I have something for you. It was given to me by Yen Sid, the other Keyblade master I know. But I believe you will have better use for it than I will." He pulled out an object that made Naruto blink.

"A keychain…" In the headmaster hand was a keychain designed like a crescent moon.

"Indeed. I trust you know how to use it." He held it out, allowing Naruto to take it.

"Yeah, I do…Thanks." Naruto took in the keychain's appearance for a moment, but then he recognized it. "Wait…This is the keychain that was attached to Nox's Keyblade." He realized.

"Huh?" Gray looked over Naruto's shoulder to get a better look. "Yeah, you're right…"

The headmaster smiled. "Oh? You know someone with this keychain? Then perhaps they are an apprentice of Yen Sid!" He laughed again. "I didn't think that he still took apprentices, but that is welcome news!"

Happy floated next to Naruto. "So this Yen Sid person is Nox's master?"

Naruto pocketed the keychain. "Could be. There aren't that many masters left, so the chances are actually pretty high…" He shrugged. "When we see him again, we can ask." He nodded to the headmaster with a smile. "Thanks again."

"It was my pleasure, my boy. I wish you all the best of luck in your mission."

* * *

 **Gummi Ship**

Kairi let out a sigh of relief as she relaxed into her seat. "Phew. I'm beat!"

Hearing this, Gray sent her an amused smirk. "What's the problem? You tired out?"

She stuck her tongue out at him. "Well, duh! Between searching for Happy, the festival, the training, and that huge battle, we were running around so much while here! Sure we got a day off, but I'm still tired!"

Naruto nodded in agreement. "She's right. We were pretty active the entire time."

Natsu laughed. "Yeah, but it was still loads of fun!"

"Aye!" Happy flew over to hover next to Naruto. "So where are we going next?"

Considering the question, Naruto pulled up the world map. "Dunno. Does anybody have any preference?" Glancing around, he saw that Happy, Natsu, and Gray didn't have anything to say.

Kairi groaned. "Wherever we go, I just hope that we can stay seated in the gummi ship instead of running around a city. I don't want to do that again right away."

Naruto scoffed. "Yeah, sure. We aren't that lucky."

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 50!**

 **Ugh, finally done with that world. I normally wouldn't have let it drag on for so many chapters, but there was just so much to do there. Between the power ups, the confrontations, and whatnot, it kept going!**

… **And I may have gotten a little carried away.**

 **Whenever I'm writing a scene where the enemy is a large number of what is basically cannon fodder I usually wind up playing** _ **From Shadows**_ **by Jeff Williams. This was no exception.**

 **I'm semi-shaping Kairi's fighting style to be like Aqua's.**

 **Hm…Any guesses as to what the next world is? (This could be a short world, but you know how it is. If I think it will be, then it becomes super long).**

* * *

 **Review Responses!**

 **Kairitrion Cerulean: That delay came faster than expected, huh? Eh, if you ask me, the Kingdom Hearts story was already a bit of a chore to keep up with because of how much it jumps consoles. If it wasn't for the internet, then I would only have an understanding of three games out of the series.**

 **fallendemon248: Sorry about that. This was the last chapter.**

 **keyblade master cole: Did that answer your first question? As for your second one, not yet.**

 **Dark Natsu Dragneel: I already know how I'm going to handle the end of the Kingdom Hearts 1 story.**

 **redlox2: I'm planning for Hikari and Yami to be out of contact for a while yet.**

 **rinsegaku: Ugh, don't make me think about it. I'm done with this time travel crap...For now, at least.**

 **Weeldx: One of the planned worlds is a Kingdom Hearts canon world, yes.**

 **Rio Skyron: Nope, can't say that I've seen that, sorry.**

 **fresh prince1: Relax, the time travel confusion is over with…For now(?)**

 **Xion The XIV: I'm not completely certain how it is done in the manga, but I remember reading some theories that there are two timelines, like in DBZ. As for this story, I'm thinking of doing it that way.**

* * *

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**

* * *

 **Shameless self-advertising!**

" _ **Thrust into an unfamiliar world with no way to get back, Naruto has no choice but to adapt, and quickly. And as if that much wasn't already a big enough problem, the manifestation of this thing called the Lifestream refuses to let him live there...Unless he accepts her offer to become something called a WEAPON and defend her."**_

 **I've got a new story! This one is called The Final WEAPON: Preliminary Crisis. It's a crossover between Naruto and Final Fantasy VII.**


	52. 50-5: Interlude: Boy Meets Cat

**And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 50.5!**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts, or anything else. I'm just a broke college student…**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Bijū/Deity Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Bijū/Deity Thinking: _**'Insert witty remark here.'**_

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

The first time she saw him, she couldn't help but think that there was something…different about the boy. Not that that was a bad thing, but there was definitely something that set him apart from the others. Even going by the strange standards and pace at which children developed here, something about him stood out from any child of his age.

But after going beyond a short glance, she still couldn't determine _what_ about him had caught her attention.

At first, she had thought that it was simply his unique eyes and hair. After all, heterochromia wasn't something that you saw every day, nor was hair that was naturally colored in such a way that made a certain strawberry's hair look natural.

Such notions were dismissed when her eyes still drifted over to the boy, despite her already registering the colors in her mind.

Next, she considered the possibility that she was subconsciously sensing something about the boy…Something that wasn't what the people of this world called chakra. Perhaps he she was detecting the form of energy that she had long grown used to in her own world? Could he be from her world?

This idea was also discarded when she concluded that as far as she could tell, he didn't have anything beyond chakra. Although she _did_ note the fact the energy she could sense from the boy was tinged with something…else. But an anomaly like that was more of her best friend's area of interest, not hers.

Now focusing solely on the boy, she scanned him again. This time, she paid special attention to his other characteristics, trying to see something there besides his strange whisker marks. After a minute, she realized that she had seen his features somewhere before, along with those hair and eye colors. The blond hair and cerulean eye greatly resembled the leader of this village -The Hokage, she reminded herself- and the crimson hair with the violet eye color were things she had seen in the man's wife that one time they were in the same area. And while the eye colors were slightly different -The cerulean eye was a touch too bright and the violet one was a shade too dark- it was still easy to tell that this boy was their son.

However, even _that_ observation didn't satisfy her curiosity.

By then, she was beginning to feel slightly irritated. Here she was, a previous captain with centuries of experience in reading people within the timespan of a blink -A skill gained from battles of both the political kind _and_ the bloody kind- and yet she _couldn't figure out what it was about this boy that made her notice him_.

She scanned their surroundings, thinking that maybe he only appeared out of place in the current setting.

Initially, she didn't think anything of it. He was a young boy -A child, no matter if compared to a normal person or someone of her age- and it was the middle of the day. They were in an empty training ground, yes, but it wasn't completely uncommon for children to play there instead of a park. And from what she had seen during her short stay in this world, children were free to wander around without supervision.

To her consternation, this idea also proved to not be enough to help her determine the source of his oddity.

Taking a moment to sigh silently, she took in his appearance _again_ , trying to spot anything that didn't belong.

Her eyes started towards the ground and worked their way up. Typical blue shinobi sandals, black pants with orange stripes, a white shirt with a swirl on the back…Nothing out of place.

But while she didn't see what made him different, she _did_ pause when she saw his expression. Slowly, concern joined the curiosity she was feeling, both caused by the boy.

While it could be something simple -He was a child. There was a good chance that it ultimately was not important- that depressed and _lonely_ look in his eyes made her want to help him somehow.

Suddenly, she blinked.

Why _couldn't_ she help him? It most likely wouldn't cause problems, and he seemed like he needed someone there for him.

And this way, she may be able to figure out what about him called out to her.

Her mind made up, she stood up and stretched before jumping down from the tree she had been resting in, landing gracefully and without sound. As she had expected, the boy did not notice the presence of anything else in the vicinity. Resisting the urge to shake her head in response to his lack of awareness, she walked up to him.

From the moment he arrived in the training ground to then, he had yet to move from his position on the ground, sitting against a tree. All he had done from his arrival to then was stare up towards the clouds.

Nudging her head against his leg, she forced down the chuckle that threatened to escape when the boy jumped in surprise at the sudden contact. When his wide eyes landed on her, she tilted her head at him.

"Meow." It was a good thing she could freely control her voice in this form. The one she usually used in this state wouldn't have been convincing in any way.

The boy blinked several times. "…A cat?" He glanced around. "Do you belong to someone around here?"

Scoffing inwardly at the idea that _she_ belonged to anyone, she nudged his hand with her head. As she expected, the boy understood the silent command and began to pet her. And while he wasn't the best at it, she appreciated the feeling nonetheless.

A small smile appeared on his face when the sounds of purring reached his ears. "Heh. That feels good, huh?"

"Meow~" His smile grew at the contented meow, taking it as confirmation.

"Glad I could help." He said. Unfortunately, that seemed to be as far as his interest in her went before he resumed his previous activity of staring up at the sky, although his hand was still absently stroking her. His expression had once again shifted into something that compelled her to act.

Not fighting the urge, she leapt up onto his lap, again surprising the boy. "Huh?" The boy stared at her with wide eyes as she propped her two front paws against his chest and mewed quietly. His surprise grew before melting into comprehension. "Oh? You can tell that I'm sad? You're a smart cat…"

"Meow…" She tilted her head again.

The boy smiled. "Okay, I'll tell you why I'm sad." His smile grew. "But first, I need to choose what I'm going to call you…"

"Meow?"

"Hm…" The boy looked her over and nodded to himself. "You're a black cat…So I'm going to call you Kuro!" He declared.

Well, there were certainly worse names that he could have chosen. Deciding to go with it, she rubbed up against him affectionately, purring as she did so. This action made the boy break out into laughter.

"It's nice to meet you, Kuro." The boy greeted. "I'm Naruto!" And from there, he launched into a retelling of the small changes he had been noticing when it came to his relationship with his family.

Listening to the story, she concluded that the boy really did need someone to talk to, even if that person was simply a cat. With that thought, she decided that she didn't mind being that person. She would be there for him as much as he needed her to be.

Even if that meant that Yoruichi Shihōin, the Goddess of Flash, needed to be Kuro the cat to do it.

Naruto went home that first time smiling slightly, and when he came back a couple of days later, Yoruichi approached him again to keep him company. Then he returned the after a couple of days had passed, earning the same result. This pattern repeated itself, to the point that Yoruichi didn't go a week without seeing Naruto at least twice, but she didn't mind in the least.

Eventually, Naruto started to visit that training ground often to train there. On those days, Yoruichi would greet him as she usually did before walking over to a patch of shade to watch. She could tell that Naruto appreciated her presence, even if she was doing nothing more than being a bystander.

Although she still couldn't determine what it was about him that stood out to her, she found herself enjoying his company just as much as he did hers. He was genuinely a good kid, so she didn't mind.

Before either of them knew it, months had gone by like that.

* * *

 _'This boy…'_ Yoruichi shook her head when she walked into her favorite training ground to relax in, only to find Naruto there, sleeping.

In _her_ favorite spot.

Deciding that he needed to be punished for such an act, Yoruichi took a moment to crouch before leaping up onto the branch. With silence that was equal parts due to her current form as well as her personal skill, she made her way over to his head. When he suddenly began to shift around, she feared that she had somehow woken him up, but her worries were put to rest when he sat up, took a single look around while yawning, shrugged, and then laid back down. Knowing that it was the time to act, Yoruichi darted forward so that her face was only inches from his.

It was with great satisfaction that she watched him yelp in surprise and fall out of the tree.

After his half-hearted grumbling, Naruto spent the next few minutes talking to Yoruichi, as he normally did when he had something on his mind. The subject of the talk did cause her to contemplate things, though.

She had known that he used to have strange dreams when he was younger -He mentioned it to her once or twice- but this was the first time that he went in depth about what went on in one of those dreams, beyond mentioning a few names or objects. She was just as confused about his dream as he was, but unlike him, Yoruichi considered the possibility that something else was at work here. Children do not normally dream about monsters, fighting, getting swallowed by darkness, and moral questions. So, what was different about Naruto?

Was the reason he was having these dreams also the reason that he stood out to her?

Yoruichi was pulled back to the situation at hand when Naruto's thoughts turned to his family, and Yoruichi was surprised just how _difficult_ it was to not hiss at the mention. She hadn't met any of them personally, but what they were doing to Naruto greatly angered her.

The sound of sniffling made her anger grow further, but she forcefully shoved it aside in favor of comforting the boy, as she had been doing for months.

Back in her world, many people would be shocked that she would dedicate so much time to helping a single boy, and there were some that she knew would tease her about it. A certain firework-loving Shiba came to mind.

But seeing Naruto smile at her, Yoruichi couldn't bring herself to care.

* * *

When Naruto didn't return to the training ground for more than two weeks, Yoruichi was contemplating an impromptu infiltration mission into the Uzumaki-Namikaze household to check on him. Two days before the deadline of when she decided to launch her plans, she was relieved to see the subject of her thoughts wandering into the training ground, although he did seem to be distracted by something.

She wasn't expecting to hear him think aloud about finding someone who could teach him how to use a sword. Yoruichi approved of this idea, as learning how to use a weapon was smart for anyone to do, especially if that person would be experiencing combat in the future, but she couldn't say that she supported his plan of finding some random person to teach him. Her tail swished idly as she contemplated what he needed.

Moving beyond the fact that he would be asking a stranger, there were also the possibilities that the person he asked wouldn't be a capable teacher. Or they may not have a style that was suited for him. On top of that, Yoruichi had also noticed that Konoha was somewhat lacking when it came to the number of sword users in the village. In fact, she wouldn't be surprised if the best in the village at the moment was Kis-

Her tail froze at that thought.

Could that work?

…Yes.

But would he be willing to do it? After all, he didn't know Naruto. And while her vouching for the boy would get the man curious, she couldn't force him to take on a student. So that meant that Naruto had to be capable of impressing him enough to convince her friend to train him. But would Naruto be deemed as someone worth the time and effort?

Yes, she decided. The man would be willing to teach Naruto.

She has interacted with Naruto enough to get a good read on his person, and what she has seen impressed her. Yoruichi had no doubt that her friend would also find him impressive.

With her decision made, Yoruichi rubbed her body against Naruto's leg, getting the boy's attention, planning to lead him to a certain shop in the village and meet his -hopefully- new teacher.

And who knows? Maybe Kisuke would be able to discern what it was that made Naruto special.

* * *

It was with great satisfaction that Yoruichi watched Naruto trudge away. As she had expected, Kisuke had become interested in him upon learning that she had personally guided him to the shop. Knowing that she wouldn't have done that for just anybody, he led Naruto down to the training ground -At this point, was it a replica of the original training ground or a replica of the replica?- for a short test.

Yoruichi could tell that Kisuke was as surprised as she was to see how competent Naruto was with a sword. Not in the sense of skill -No, _definitely_ not that- but in the sense that even at the age of six, he already _knew_ what needed to go into a strike to truly make it powerful, which was something that Kisuke heavily emphasized when training someone.

Now here she was, hours after the initial meeting, feeling _pride_ of all things over how much potential Naruto had. The fact that Kisuke agreed with her made it all the better. As the eccentric candy shop owner turned to head back into the store, a thought occurred to Yoruichi.

"Kisuke…" She began, prompting him to stop and glance over his shoulder at her.

"Hm?"

She paused, trying to find the words. "…Did you notice anything…different about Naruto?"

Kisuke tilted his head. "Different? I'm guessing you mean besides the bit about a six-year-old wanting to learn how to use a sword? Or that he knows that fear will only hold him back? Not to mention that he apparently has a troubled life?"

"Yes, besides those." Yoruichi responded.

Her lack of sarcasm in any form in the face of his own clued him in that she was being serious. "Well…There was something…familiar about him, that's for sure. And I'm not talking about his looks. I'm referring to his personality and the presence he has. If I'm being honest, he reminds me a lot of Ichigo." He admitted. "Is that what you meant?"

Yoruichi tilted her head in thought. Was it what she meant? Now that he pointed it out, she could certainly see a few similarities between Naruto and Ichigo, but was that it?

Eventually, she shook her head. "…No, it isn't."

"Then what did you mean?" He asked in interest.

"The best way that I can phrase it is that it is as if there is something about him that makes me react to him on a subconscious level. I don't know what it is, but he stands out to me for some reason." Yoruichi explained.

"Interesting…" Kisuke murmured. "Well, he didn't have that effect on me. Do you think it's a cause for concern?"

"No." She said immediately. "It's nothing like that. It's just…curious, is all."

"Huh. If you say so…" Because she wasn't looking at him, she didn't see the grin growing across his face. "Are you sure that your maternal instincts aren't taking hold? Maybe you had a feeling of incompleteness inside of you that you didn't even notice, and it is only now coming out?" Yoruichi sighed quietly at this.

The next thing Kisuke knew, his face had been slashed open by an irritated cat.

* * *

"Okay, that's enough for today, Naruto-kun!" Yoruichi cracked an eye open when she heard Kisuke call an end to the training session.

"Huh…? But I…can still continue!" The twelve-year-old boy panted out, despite looking as if he was about to collapse. Defiant, he lifted his blade again, but there were obvious holes in his stance that weren't normally there. "…Come on…Let's keep going!"

' _Not again…'_ Sighing to herself, Yoruichi stood up and took a moment to stretch. Now more awake, she made her way across the rocky terrain and over to Naruto.

"I don't think you can!" Kisuke laughed.

"Says you!" Naruto argued.

"No, not says me." Kisuke smiled when Naruto blinked at him in confusion. "Says the annoyed cat behind you."

"Wha-?" Naruto was cut off by the claw that suddenly started to maim his face. "Ow! Yoruichi!" He hissed, glaring at the feline. "What the hell?!"

The boy's obvious pain only served to make Kisuke laugh harder, but it stopped abruptly when Yoruichi turned towards him with a paw raised. Understanding the clear threat, he coughed and blocked his mouth from view with his fan.

Yoruichi nodded. If anyone knew how much her claws hurt, it was Kisuke. With that done, she refocused her attention on Naruto and motioned her head in the direction of the exit.

"What? Come on, I'm not that tired." Naruto protested. "Why should we stop?"

Kisuke quirked an eyebrow at him. "You're not usually this enthusiastic about training. What's the rush?"

Instead of answering immediately, Naruto averted his eyes, much to the confusion of the other two present. "It's…" Feeling some worry seep in, Yoruichi rubbed her head against his head in a show of support. The contact had the desired effect, as Naruto smiled down on her. Shaking his head, he spoke his mind. "…I'm gonna graduate from the academy in two months."

It was now Yoruichi's turn to blink in surprise. _'Has it truly been that long already?'_ That meant that it had already been more than six years since she and Kisuke had arrived in this world.

Since she had met Naruto.

Taking another look at Naruto, Yoruichi momentarily had trouble reconciling that the normally confident and skilled boy in front of her was the same boy who had wandered into a random training ground, depressed because of familial issues.

It was even more difficult to reconcile that the same boy that she had comforted and supported so many times would soon be considered an adult by the standards of this world.

To Yoruichi's confusion, she felt slightly sad to realize that over six years had flown by so quickly, despite being centuries old. In the long run, six years didn't mean much to her.

Or at least they shouldn't.

Yoruichi was pulled from her thoughts when Naruto continued speaking. "When that happens, I'll be assigned to a team, and I will have to spend a lot of my time with them…" He said. "…I won't be able to come here anymore because my training will be done."

Understanding hit Yoruichi at this. He was sad that he wouldn't be able to spend as much time with them anymore. Truthfully, Yoruichi was also somewhat disappointed at this realization. Just as it had become common to meet Naruto frequently in the training ground when he was younger, it had become common to see him around the shop frequently. The knowledge that that would stop didn't sit well with her.

She rubbed against him again while throwing a meaningful glance at Kisuke. Spotting this, Kisuke adopted a smile and waved hand lazily. "Ara? What are you talking about, Naruto-kun? Why would you stop coming here?"

Naruto blinked in surprise. "Huh? Because of my team…?"

"So? Why would they prevent you from coming here?" The shop owner asked. "Of course you will continue coming here! I still need your help around the shop and other general tasks! Not to mention your training. I'm pretty sure that this is the best training ground in the village, after all."

The boy stared at him with wide eyes. "…I can still come back?"

Kisuke laughed while Yoruichi rolled her eyes. "I just said that you can. In fact, you're going to! This place wouldn't be the same without you here. You might not be able to come here as often, but you're still welcome here."

Hearing this, Naruto was stunned into silence for a few moments. Eventually, a small smile spread across his face. "…Thanks." He said quietly.

Yoruichi purred as she started to push Naruto in the direction of the ladder. "Yoruichi's got the right idea. Go get some rest."

"Yeah, yeah…" Naruto trudged over to the ladder. "Do you mind if…" A yawn interrupted him. "…if I use the spare room to sleep?"

"You know it's okay, Naruto-kun!" Kisuke called back. "Now go!" Naruto's smile grew as he reached the ladder and began to climb it.

Once he was gone, Yoruichi sighed. "That boy…So that's what has been bothering him lately?"

Kisuke shrugged. "Guess so. But I can somewhat see where he's coming from."

"Hm…" Yoruichi hummed thoughtfully, but a sudden smirk appearing on Kisuke's face made her grow suspicious. "…What are you planning?" She asked.

"Oh, nothing much…" His chuckle did nothing to relieve her apprehension. "I simply thought of an interesting way to test Naruto's skills."

"…Just don't do anything illegal."

"Relax, it's perfectly legal."

"…"

"…Okay, maybe some graffiti and disturbing the peace a bit. But that's it!"

Yoruichi sighed again.

* * *

Yoruichi averted her eyes away from Kisuke's smirk. "What do you want?" She demanded.

"So…Soifon, huh?" He asked, smirk growing.

She huffed. "Shut up. It was the first thing that came to mind. He knows my cat form as Yoruichi, so I couldn't use that name for my normal form. I didn't want to spoil that secret yet." She defended.

Kisuke nodded. "Makes sense, I suppose." He agreed. "…I just find it funny that you failed to notice the presence of a twelve-year-old bo-"

"Shut up!" Yoruichi's cheeks darkened faintly. "I was relaxing a bit and I wasn't expecting him to come here. You said it yourself, he doesn't normally come here this early!" His laughter only made her more annoyed. Deciding to make herself feel better, she lashed out a leg and sent the chuckling moron into the wall.

He groaned. "…That was unnecessary…"

"I don't care." With that, she turned and walked away, intent on returning to her magazine. _'_ _Well, I guess this is fine…'_ At least this way she could more actively interact with Naruto…

A small smile formed on her lips.

* * *

"…What didn't you tell him?" The abrupt question made Kisuke glance down at Yoruichi, only to see her staring at him with a serious expression.

Knowing what she meant, he returned his gaze towards the door that Naruto had just left through only a few moments ago. "…What I _didn't_ tell him was the entire scope of Gato's actions. I didn't tell him exactly how despondent the people in the Land of Waves are." Kisuke's voice grew quieter. "It is a lot like the slums of the Rukongai."

Yoruichi's eyes narrowed. "And why didn't you tell him that?" The room was silent for a minute as she waited for his response.

"I didn't tell him because it wouldn't have done him any good. It isn't possible to truly understand it without seeing it for yourself, so I didn't even bother trying to put it into words." They locked eyes. "What he needs right now is to see the darker side of humanity. I wish we could protect him from that, but that is impossible."

"He's already been forced to mature faster than the other kids of this world." Yoruichi retorted.

"You and I both know that that isn't enough. If he's that intent on becoming stronger, then we need make sure he is prepared for what he is going to see. People are capable of far worse than what he is going to come across in the Land of Waves."

Yoruichi frowned, but didn't say anything.

As much as she hated to admit it, Kisuke was right.

* * *

Yoruichi's tail swished lazily. When Naruto had returned from the mission, it was simple to tell something was off about him. And when he had relented and told the two of them what had happened, she felt her heart constrict at the knowledge of what he had been exposed to.

Witnessing the darker side of humanity was one thing, but actually taking lives? Yoruichi didn't want him to be exposed to that just yet.

She was thankful that Kisuke was able to handle the situation so well and help him through it. Both Yoruichi and Kisuke were aware that Naruto was still bothered about losing control like he did, but she was confident that he would eventually work through it.

And then came the second part of the conversation.

Light? Darkness? Keyblades? Travelling to different worlds?

Yoruichi sighed as she thought over everything Naruto had told her and Kisuke. When Naruto had suddenly asked Kisuke about a town that should have been impossible for him to know about, she had _not_ been expecting to hear a story like that.

This knowledge put a new perspective on his actions in the Land of Waves. If he wasn't careful, then there would be a chance that Naruto would grow to be wary of his own abilities. And if what he said was true, which it probably was, then Naruto couldn't afford to hold himself back like that. His role was an important one. In a way, a Keyblade wielder could be compared to the Soul Reapers of her world, but on a much larger scale.

 _'But…'_ She glanced towards the body passed out on Kisuke's back. The boy overexerted himself by showing off too much while sparring with Kisuke. _'…Maybe it isn't_ too _surprising that Naruto has such a big role.'_

She had always known that there was something different about Naruto, but even after knowing him for several years, what it was exactly that made him different eluded her. Maybe she had been subconsciously picking up his twilight capabilities?

But according to Naruto, he didn't unlock those until a little before his sixth birthday, but Yoruichi had known him longer than that.

Was that what she was detecting back then, even though it was still locked?

* * *

"There sure have been a lot of foreign people stopping by lately…" Kisuke mused after another person from a different village left the shop.

Yoruichi cracked an eye open. "They're most likely here for the chūnin exams that Naruto-kun told us about."

"Hm, that makes sense." Kisuke nodded.

From her spot on the counter, Yoruichi glanced at the clock on the wall. "According to what Naruto-kun told us, the exams should be starting pretty soon." She muttered.

Hearing her, Kisuke smiled. "You're worried about him." It wasn't a question.

"…Yes, I am…" Yoruichi admitted.

"You know he is very skilled for his age. I would be shocked if he could be beaten by most of the kids participating. I would say that he could beat all of them, but there are always outliers." Kisuke said.

"I know that, but…" She shook her head. "I don't know what it is, I just…have a bad feeling about these exams."

Kisuke frowned minutely. "Is it the other jinchūriki?"

Thinking it over, Yoruichi hesitantly responded. "No, that's not it…I have faith that he can get an opening to lock the bijū, but…" She shrugged. "I can't describe it." There was simply something… _ominous_ in the air.

"Is that so…?" Kisuke's frown deepened.

* * *

Yoruichi was silent as she watched Naruto head to the guest -At this point, it would probably just be easier to officially call it his- room. Once he was gone, she and Kisuke sat in silence for a minute. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes.

From his spot next to her, Kisuke watched her with a neutral expression. "…He's gone now. You can let it out."

Immediately, the entire area was consumed by her spiritual pressure.

"…You're angry." Kisuke stated.

"You're damn _right_ I'm angry." She hissed. "That man _dared_ to say that Naruto would be a burden if he stayed? That he would _get in the way_?!" The air grew even heavier, but Kisuke still didn't show any visible reaction. "I should-!"

"You shouldn't do anything." Kisuke interjected. "Naruto has asked us to not do anything, so we won't."

"But-!"

"Yoruichi!" Kisuke snapped, shocking her out of her anger, making the oppressive feeling in the air disappear. He _never_ yelled at her, especially not like that. "I know you're furious. I am, too! But we have to respect Naruto's wishes. Don't let your anger make you do something you will regret. It will only end up with Naruto growing angry at us as well."

Yoruichi scowled, but eventually nodded. "You're right…You're right." She sighed. "…I knew something would happen. Things have been… _changing_ ever since that mission to the Land of Waves."

"Have things been changing, or are we simply more aware than we had been?"

"Things have been changing." Yoruichi replied with certainty. "While Naruto's abilities can't be described as anything new, the changes he has told us in his family _are_. They never paid so much attention to him in the past, so why are they doing it now?" Her eyes narrowed as her tail flicked angrily. "And now he has a highly dangerous criminal interested in him as well. Things are _definitely_ changing."

Kisuke hummed. "True…But that means that we need to prepare. So that when the big changes do come, we'll be ready."

Yoruichi glanced at him. "What did you have in mind?"

"Nothing concrete yet, just ideas."

"Hm…" Yoruichi's thoughts turned inward.

They would also need to make sure that Naruto was ready.

* * *

"A dream eater?" Yoruichi asked curiously, looking over Naruto's shoulder as he went through the cards he suddenly obtained. "You can summon the creatures on these cards?"

"Yeah, I can." Naruto said with a smirk. "According to Hikari and Yami, all I need to do is apply some twilight to the card to summon them."

"Makes sense, I guess…" A small smirk pulled at her mouth as Naruto passed a card with a dream eater that resembled a flower. "I have one question though."

"Go for it."

Unsure how to phrase it, she spoke slowly. "You said they were synthesized from your heart?" He nodded. "Then why are they so…cute?" Yoruichi asked.

Blushing slightly, Naruto glared at her. "Shut up. Not all of them specialize in battle. Some of them are meant for support."

From where he was standing nearby, Kisuke laughed. "Oh, it's okay, Naruto-kun! You don't need to be bashful around us! We already know that you're cuddly on the inside, you tsunde-gah!" A sudden fireball aimed at his head forced him to duck. "Hey, watch it! That's dangerous!"

"Shut up, you bastard! I didn't get to pick their appearances!" Naruto shouted. "Not all of them look like flowers! Some of them are dragons, or-or horses and stuff like that!"

Much to the boy's annoyance, Kisuke smirked. "What's this? You have a pony, Naruto-kun? That's adorab-Hey, my hat!" Another ball of fire narrowly avoided his head, but his hat was singed.

Fed up with the teasing and Yoruichi's laughter, a still blushing Naruto put the cards back into the deck that had come with them. "Whatever."

* * *

Yoruichi's eyes were sharp as she scanned the mayhem going on below her and Kisuke. "There are more of them than I was expecting." She said quietly. The two of them were standing in midair, high above the stadium, observing the flow of battle.

"We were never told any numbers." Kisuke reminded her, his normally playful mask nowhere in sight. "But I agree. There are quite a few." He glanced over to her when he noticed that her eyes began to stray off to the side. Even without looking, Kisuke knew where her attention was going. "He'll be fine." Kisuke reassured her. "Naruto is strong enough for this, and he has some allies with him."

"We can see the fight from here." Yoruichi muttered. "A giant toad and a giant slug against three giant heartless things was _not_ what we were anticipating."

Kisuke nodded lightly. "No, it wasn't. But still, trust him to do this." He paused. "…Or do you have doubts that he can?"

Immediately, Yoruichi snapped an angry glare at him. "Of course I don't doubt him. Naruto will get the job done." Hearing her confidence in the boy, Kisuke smiled slightly.

"Good, then let's focus on our roles." He waited for Yoruichi to nod before continuing with a point. "The Hokage and Raikage are fighting over there. They're up against that Mayuri wannabe and the shinobi he revived. All damage done on the resurrected shinobi is instantly healed."

"Meanwhile, the Konoha shinobi in the stadium are still in the process of purging the enemies. It's slow going, but the Konoha side will eventually win." Yoruichi continued. "So? Which one do you want to take?"

A small smirk formed on Kisuke's mouth. "If you don't mind, I would like to go deal with the revived shinobi. At this point, I think the only way to defeat them is by sealing them, but I'm not sure if either the Hokage or the Raikage have a seal that could do the job without any serious repercussions."

"And?" Yoruichi asked, knowing there was more.

"…And I'm a little interested in how the technique works."

Yoruichi rolled her eyes. "Don't do anything stupid. You know some stuff, but you might need to hear Naruto's input before doing any serious tests."

"Yeah, I figured that may be the case." Kisuke shrugged. "Anyways, so you don't mind joining the big fight?"

"…No."

Kisuke quirked an eyebrow at her. "You hesitated." He stated neutrally.

"I…" Yoruichi sighed, her eyes moving to a specific person fighting below them. Even from their current altitude, it was easy to spot the person amongst all of the other people fighting.

The red hair was like a beacon.

Following her line of sight, Kisuke figured out what was on Yoruichi's mind. "This will be the first time that either of us have been exposed to his parents." Kisuke commented.

"…Yeah, it is." She shook her head. "My personal feelings aren't important right now. I can focus on that later." Yoruichi smirked. "I'm ready to go whenever. What about you?"

Kisuke grinned and tipped his hat so that his eyes were shadowed. "Oh, you know me. I'm always prepared."

 _Boom!_

The sudden explosion off in the distance made both of their eyes snap towards the source. "That was…" Worry gnawed at Yoruichi.

"He's fine." Kisuke said again. "That was most likely a discharge from the darkness gathered in the bijū getting dispelled." After a moment, Yoruichi nodded. "Now then, I do believe that we have our jobs. We should get to them."

"Right."

* * *

"So this thing will let him go to different worlds, huh?" Yoruichi mused as she scrutinized the object Kisuke was studying.

"Well, according to both Naruto and my research, a single block won't do him any good. But that's why I'm going to try replicating it." Kisuke corrected, not looking away from the results of the scans of the gummi block. "And even then, there is still the problem of not having a navigation block. But with any luck, that problem should be fixed somewhat soon."

Yoruichi frowned slightly at this. "Yeah, with any luck…"

Hearing her distracted tone, Kisuke glanced over at her before turning back to his computer. After a few moments of silence, he spoke. "…Yoruichi, we've talked about this. You can't keep protecting him." He spun his chair around so that he was facing her.

Her frown deepened. "I know that."

"But you're still reluctant to let go. I can tell, so don't try to hide it from me. We've known each other too long for you to try to fool me with a half-assed lie." Kisuke said quietly. "Naruto isn't the same boy that he was when you first brought him here. He's still young, but he has grown into a capable person with incredible talent and maturity."

"…" Unable to hold his gaze, Yoruichi looked away. "…I know." She sighed and sat down onto a chair. "I know that, I do. But…I just can't help it. I don't know why I'm having so much trouble with this."

"…It's understandable. You're the person who has known him the longest…The person who has seen both his lowest and highest points." Kisuke responded. "You've grown to care for him more than you had expected to. It's the same for me. I'm glad that you brought him here back then."

Yoruichi chuckled weakly, her eyes somewhat distant. "It's funny…He actually kind of reminds me of Soifon." Spotting Kisuke's confused expression, he elaborated. "Don't get me wrong, Naruto's personality isn't too similar to hers or anything, but…" She shrugged. "I'm talking about my relationship with them."

Some comprehension dawned on Kisuke. "I think I see what you're getting at. But your relationship with Soifon started out as a student and mentor thing, right? You haven't really done that much with Naruto."

"Maybe not, but I was talking more about how I've watched and helped them grow." Yoruichi smiled slightly. "Although for Naruto, I was a cat most of the time and it was more of a making sure he didn't push himself too far thing." Her smile grew a bit. "He never did know when to call it quits, always needing someone else to force him to relax. Not to mention how Naruto can be extremely smart for somethings, but slow on others." She chuckled.

Kisuke stared at Yoruichi for a minute. "…Yoruichi…" He began, prompting her to look at him. "When you first introduced me to Naruto, I made a joke that your maternal instincts were kicking in." Yoruichi's smile disappeared at his words. "…Tell me, what is Naruto to you? Is he a protégé? A friend? A curiosity? What is he?" Yoruichi considered the question, attempting to figure out what she sees Naruto as.

"He's…"

* * *

"I'm surprised you told him that." Kisuke said quietly.

Yoruichi frowned minutely. "Why are you surprised? They're his parents, so doesn't it make sense for him to at least try to make up with them?"

"Yes, but I was under the impression that you didn't like them."

"I _don't_." Yoruichi confirmed. "I don't like them one bit, you know that."

Kisuke quirked an eyebrow at her. "Then why did you…?"

"For the same reasons that I told Naruto." She said firmly. "And because it was tearing him up inside. He wanted to reconcile with them, but he was holding himself back…He deserves this chance." Yoruichi shook her head, wanting to change the subject. "Anyways, I'll give him a head start before I begin to follow him. We both know that there's no way that Orochimaru _won't_ try and pull something."

* * *

Tightly controlled anger bubbled within Yoruichi as she took in the entire scope of Naruto's injuries. She couldn't believe that she had allowed this to happen. Making sure he didn't get hurt was the exact reason she had decided to follow him!

If only she had been just a _little_ faster…

Who the hell was that guy, anyways? What did he mean by Naruto truly accepting his darkness? And why were they fighting in the first place?

Her rage spiked as she remembered the scene she was greeted with upon catching up to Naruto.

 _How dare he hurt her little brother._

* * *

Yoruichi leapt to the side, narrowly avoiding a blast of darkness that shot at her. Although she appeared calm, every move she made was laced with hesitation. It was naturally more difficult to subdue an opponent when you didn't want to injure them, but the person she was fighting made things even tougher because of her personal attachments.

Using her superior speed to gain some room, Yoruichi glanced at her temporary allies. While this wasn't the first time she had fought alongside Kushina, fighting with her husband was a new experience. Not to mention the two strange teens that had randomly fallen from the sky and decided to help.

Another enraged shout made her attention snap back to the berserk Naruto.

Seeing that the pink haired teen was about to move in to attack again, she used the speed she had been famous for to distract Naruto with a surprise kick to the back. Unfortunately, this proved to be ineffective when Naruto suddenly released a shockwave of darkness, successfully throwing both her and the teen back. Skidding to a stop, Yoruichi's worry increased when she locked eyes with Naruto.

The eyes that she had grown used to seeing over the years were gone.

No longer were they the shining cerulean or the glimmering violet. Instead, two orbs full of hatred and anger were switching between a glow colored reddish-orange, and another colored purplish-black.

Yoruichi _hated_ seeing Naruto look at her that way. The most he had ever directed at her was mild annoyance or irritation when she was messing with him. _Never_ hatred.

Steeling herself, Yoruichi crouched in preparation of another assault.

 _'Come on, Naruto…I know you're in there somewhere.'_

* * *

"So you're okay with it?" Yoruichi glanced to Kisuke upon hearing his question before shifting her eyes back to the group of Naruto, Gray, Happy, and Natsu. After Naruto had decided that Gray would be the copilot for the gummi ship, Natsu had been futilely attempting to change Naruto's mind.

"You heard what I told Kushina-san."

Kisuke nodded. "I did. And I also heard you voice similar worries not too long ago. What happened to those?"

Instead of answering right away, Yoruichi opted to remain silent for a few moments. A small smile formed on her lips as she watched Naruto and Gray chuckle over an insult that Happy threw at Natsu.

"They're still there." She told him. "But what kind of big sister would I be if I stopped my little brother from doing what he thought was right?"

* * *

"And there they go…" Yoruichi muttered as the gummi ship exited the world. It was hard to believe that the agreed two months of waiting had already gone by. It felt as if someone had compressed those two months into the time span of a couple of days.

Kisuke walked up to her, also staring after the gummi ship. "Hey, don't be so sad. We've known this was coming for a while now."

Yoruichi's lips twitched. "That doesn't mean I have to be happy about it." She murmured.

"Perhaps not." Kisuke acquiesced. "But it is necessary. You know what he said about the seven princesses going missing. Add that to how more and more worlds are getting consumed by darkness and we have a situation that needs to be resolved immediately."

A sigh escaped Yoruichi's lips. "I know, I know."

The candy shop owner glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. "…You know, I don't think I've ever seen you become this protective and attached to someone before." He said offhandedly, making her sharp gaze snap to him. "Not that there's anything wrong with it." Kisuke quickly added. "It's just…curious, is all." He said, intentionally echoing Yoruichi's own words from the day she had first brought Naruto to him.

Recognizing the reference, Yoruichi's eyes trailed back to where the gummi ship had been. After a moment, she spoke. "I'm not really sure why I'm acting differently towards Naruto than I have to others." She admitted. "I've said from the beginning that there was something…different about him, but I was never able to determine what it was. Even after all this time, I don't know what it was about him that caught my attention. After a while, figuring out what it…slipped from my mind."

"You've called him your little brother…"

"I have." Yoruichi agreed, smiling slightly. "I've told you before that he reminds me of Ichigo, but there are also times where I can also see a bit of Yūshirō in him, although only vaguely. But even then, Naruto is his own person, so I try not to compare him too much."

Kisuke stared at her for a minute, but then he shrugged with a smile. "Well regardless, he'll be calling frequently enough to keep us updated on things, so he won't be out of contact. Although I'm sure there will be times that he forgets to call for a little while. You should trust him to know what he's doing."

Hearing this, Yoruichi's smile grew. "I do trust him. He'll get the job done." Suddenly, she grinned and slapped Kisuke on the back, startling the man. Turning around, she began to walk away. "Now come on. You said you had some sort of idea in the works? Tell me what's going on in that insane mind of yours."

Chuckling, Kisuke rubbed the spot she hit. "Sure, sure. Follow me to the lab and I'll bring you up to speed."

* * *

Kushina sighed to herself after Naruto cut the call off. "Why does he do that?" The redhead muttered. From her spot in a chair nearby, Yoruichi quirked an eyebrow, but opted to remain silent. The two of them had just finished talking with Naruto for the first time in a couple of days, so they were both happy to hear from him. Kisuke had dropped in to say hello near the beginning of the call, but he had to quickly return the lab after that. He trusted Yoruichi to tell him if anything important was said, but nothing of great importance came up. However, based on the small cues Naruto displayed, something had happened, but he was hesitant to bring it up.

Unseen by anyone, Yoruichi rolled her eyes. _'He should know by now that he won't get away with bottling things. Someone will get him to open up.'_ That was one of the reasons that she was happy that Kairi had joined them on their journey. From what Yoruichi has seen and heard, Kairi and Naruto have grown somewhat close, resulting in them opening up to each other if they had something that bothered them.

Yoruichi could already roughly guess what they would talk about. For Naruto, it would be his frustrations over being forced to fight someone he viewed as a friend, or maybe the situation concerning how he couldn't contact Hikari and Yami. Those seemed like things that would get to him.

And while Yoruichi couldn't claim to know Kairi nearly as well as she knew Naruto, she could relate to the princess when it came to finding yourself far from home, only to learn that 'home' wasn't there anymore. On top of that, being told that you no longer had a heart, but were somehow still able to function because you were one of seven princesses was a lot to dump on a person in such a short time span.

So, yes. Yoruichi was happy that the two of them had each other to rely on for support.

Even if Kisuke couldn't stop himself from cracking jokes about their relationship.

"Um…" Kushina's hesitation snapped Yoruichi out of her thoughts. Looking over to the woman, Yoruichi made sure to keep her expression neutral as she waited for Kushina to speak. After their initial introduction and Yoruichi later openly stating that she didn't like Kushina or Minato, the relationship between the two women had been somewhat stilted.

For Yoruichi, Kushina was the woman that was supposed to be a mother to the boy she saw as a little brother, but instead ignored him. Out of everyone, Yoruichi was the only person who had seen Naruto at his best and his worst. For someone of Naruto's age, that claim should have gone to his family, not a person he met at a training ground. Although that didn't mean that she resented her position in Naruto's life in any manner. She simply wished that their relationship didn't start for the reasons that it did.

Granted, Kushina was manipulated, but it didn't change the fact that it happened. The resentment was still there.

On the other hand, Kushina saw Yoruichi as the woman who had cared for her son when she failed to do so. When Naruto lost control on the way to Kumo, it was Yoruichi who stayed calm and knew the best way to help him. She was the one who later calmed Naruto down in the hospital when Kushina first said that he wouldn't travel to other worlds. Yoruichi was the woman who openly stated her feelings towards Kushina and Minato and convinced them to let Naruto leave their world for others. Kushina had personally witnessed how close Yoruichi and her son were.

And if she was perfectly honest, she was jealous of their relationship.

Over the course of the two months prior to the departure of Naruto, Gray, Natsu, and Happy, the two women opted to remain polite with one another while also staying out of each other's way. They didn't interact unless they needed to, but they also didn't object to doing so when necessary.

So for Kushina to willingly approach her of her own volition, Yoruichi's curiosity was piqued. Remaining silent, she waited for Kushina to speak.

Seeing that she had Yoruichi's attention, Kushina fidgeted slightly. "I…" She hesitated again, but then she took a breath and locked eyes with Yoruichi. "Did something seem…different about Naruto in that call?"

Yoruichi blinked. "Different as in?" She inquired blankly.

Not allowing herself discouraged by the somewhat detached response, Kushina elaborated. "As in…he was distracted by something."

Hearing this, Yoruichi quirked an eyebrow. "So you noticed." She said, marginally impressed in spite of herself. "He was subtle about it, so I didn't think you would."

"So there was something?" Kushina asked, ignoring the subtle insult and glancing back to the monitor with a concerned look on her face.

Knowing what she was most likely thinking, Yoruichi spoke up. "I wouldn't worry about it too much. He'll sort it out himself. If he wanted to talk to one of us about it, then he would have."

Kushina's eyes snapped back to Yoruichi. "You know what he didn't tell us?"

Yoruichi shrugged. "I can guess." She said easily.

Biting her lip for a moment in indecision, Kushina eventually voiced her thoughts. "…Can you tell me?" At this, a small frown twitched at Yoruichi's lips. "Please?"

"…I already said that he'll sort it out himself." Yoruichi finally responded.

"I know that, but…" Kushina shook her head helplessly. "But I still want to know. So that I can give him my support if he needs me to."

"He hasn't needed your support for a while now." Yoruichi shot back, earning a flinch from the redhead and making her lower her head in shame and regret. While a small part of Yoruichi admitted that she wasn't being entirely fair, she still refused to tell Kushina about Naruto's thoughts and fears without being sure that it was a good idea.

"…You're right. He hasn't." Kushina agreed quietly. Yoruichi's frown deepened, and she was about to refuse the request to share her insight on Naruto's thoughts, but she was stopped by the sudden fierce violet eyes that clashed with her own. "But I still want to be there for him if he ever needs me to. You know him better than I do, so I would be thankful if you would tell me more about him. Not just what he wasn't saying in that call, but more about him in general. I tried to make up for lost time over those two months, but…" Her eyes watered slightly. "But two months of caring can't make up for several years of neglect. So please…" She bowed her head. "Please help me understand him better."

Yoruichi was stunned by the abrupt heartfelt plea, to the point that she was unable to say anything for several moments. Soon, she realized that Kushina's head was still bowed as the redhead awaited Yoruichi's answer. Staring at her, Yoruichi considered the request.

With a sigh, Yoruichi glanced away. "…He tried his best to not show it, but Naruto still gave away his thoughts by his expressions and clues he gave at various points." She began, prompting Kushina to hesitantly raise her head again. "Based on the way he acted, something has been bothering him lately, and whatever is on his mind is most likely confusing. He also showed some frustration when he told us that he managed to seal the keyhole of that last world, so while he got the job done, he didn't manage to accomplish everything he wanted to."

Happy to be getting this information, Kushina quickly followed up. "But he sealed the keyhole, right? So what else would he want to do in that world?"

"You weren't here when he called last time." Yoruichi said. "It was a short call and he only updated us on a couple of things that had been happening in the world." She paused. "You know about Misa, right?"

At this, a frown made its way onto Kushina's face. "Yeah, I do. I remember seeing her around in the past. She was also the one who made Naruto lose control of his darkness, right?" Her eyes widened. "Wait, so she was in that world?"

Yoruichi nodded. "He said that she was. Naruto was intending to finally get some answers from her." She sighed. "But I'm guessing that it didn't go as planned. Naruto appeared to be more confused than angry, so Misa might have told him something that didn't make sense to him."

"It doesn't matter what she told him!" Kushina said heatedly. "Misa is working for Orochimaru, so he shouldn't take anything she says seriously!"

"He knows that." Yoruichi replied. "Naruto is smart enough to realize that, but her affiliation doesn't automatically disqualify anything and everything she says. And even then, it doesn't change the fact that he is bothered by how he has to fight a former friend."

"Oh, right…" Kushina mumbled. "So then he is confused about something that he was told by her?"

With a shrug, Yoruichi closed her eyes. "That's my best guess. In reality, I could be completely wrong. But you wanted to hear what I think and that's it." She cracked an eye open to stare at the other woman. "So? What do you think of what I've said?"

"I think he should have spoken up if something was bothering him." Kushina huffed, crossing her arms. "He has people who are willing to listen to him and give advice, so he should take the chance to talk to them!"

"Who's to say that he won't?"

"Huh?" Kushina blinked, not expecting such a retort.

"There's every chance that he will talk to someone about it." Yoruichi continued. "Just because it isn't either of us doesn't mean he won't do it. After all, he has other people with him." A small smirk appeared on her lips. "Personally, I'm expecting him to go to Kairi about it."

"Oh." Kushina considered that, soon gaining a small smile. "I suppose that's okay…"

Nodding, Yoruichi stood up and stretched. "Well, if that's everything, then-"

"Ah, wait!" Kushina's raised voice made Yoruichi freeze in place. Blushing somewhat, Kushina rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "Um, I was hoping…" Yoruichi watched curiously as the normally confident woman fidgeted in place. "I was hoping that you would tell me more about Naruto!" She said quickly.

"…Huh?"

Blush deepening, Kushina repeated herself. "I was hoping you would tell me more about Naruto." She said.

"More about him…As in?"

"You've known him since he was five, right?" A nod. "How often did you meet with him? I think you said it wasn't always here, so where was it? Did you watch him train? What did he train in? How long did he spend on his kenjutsu in comparison to his other areas? What does he like to do when he's relaxing? Did he eat properly? His favorite foods? Least favorites? Get plenty of rest? You mentioned that he helped Urahara-san in the shop, right? What did he do? Has he always been so determined to reach his goals? How about the month in between the chūnin exams? What did he work on then? Does he always act like that around Urahara-san? Why does he always wear mostly black and whi-?"

"Alright, enough!" Yoruichi cut her off, reluctantly smiling in amusement as Kushina's face mirrored the color of her hair.

Kushina smiled sheepishly. "Ah…My bad-ttebane."

Yoruichi's smile softened at the verbal tic. "It's not a problem, but give me a chance to speak." Sitting herself back down, Yoruichi thought over the rush of questions. "Now let's see…Why don't we start with the amusing one? You asked if he and Kisuke are always like that?" Her smile widened and she leaned forward. "You probably saw the stunt Naruto pulled right before his graduation, but I doubt you know _why_ he did it. _Or_ about what he did to Kisuke after it." Kushina nodded eagerly with a matching expression.

Launching into the story about how Naruto chased Kisuke around with a sword for three hours straight, Yoruichi found herself thinking that if Naruto could give Kushina a chance, then maybe she could too.

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 50.5!**

 **This was something I've been wanting to do for a little while. I would have gone further into the time after Naruto had left, but then that would have started revealing stuff I didn't want to put yet. At some point, I might do another one of these where I do more of the Elemental Nations side.**

 **Review responses are in Chapter 51.**

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	53. Dogfight

**Chapter 50.5 was uploaded with this!**

* * *

 **And we're back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 51!**

 **This and 50.5 were finished a week ago...But I somehow forgot about them. They were done (except for the proofreading), but I never did anything with them after that...My bad.**

 **I added chapter titles because I was bored and felt like it. The only reason I refrained from doing so in the past was because of my worry that chapter titles could spoil what happens in the chapter. I'll just be mindful of that.**

 **I am** _ **so**_ **hyped for Kingdom Hearts 2.8. It looks awesome!**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts, or anything else. I'm just a broke college student…**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Bijū/Deity Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Bijū/Deity Thinking: **_'Insert witty remark here.'_**

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **Gummi Ship**

 _"You opened our heart to Misa. And what did it get you? Nothing but a kami damn Keyblade in the back. Literally!"_

 _"What will you do if you find that she willingly did it? That she betrayed you by choice?"_

 _"You can't form the χ-blade yet because you are missing a vital piece of information…No, we won't tell you what, so don't ask. That's something that will come later."_

 _"Because you don't have your own heart to generate the light, your body is siphoning off a small portion of my light, which it somehow…amplifies. I think it's acting like a pseudo-heart for you."_

 _"Whether you are one of the princesses or not, you can't just accept another person's light in your body and use it as a replacement for your heart, even if the other person is a Keyblade wielder. It doesn't work like that."_

 _"…I admire that attitude, I truly do…But it was also what allowed Xehanort to defeat you."_

 _"Can you truly say that they care for you? That they have your best interest in mind?"_

 _"Beyond being a Keyblade wielder, there are other reasons why your survival is more important than that of other people."_

 _"But because it was my choice…does that mean I'm accepting destiny…or fighting it?"_

 _"…You haven't been killed…You're just in no condition to fight Xehanort."_

Naruto released an aggravated sigh as he rubbed his temples. He was sitting alone in his room in the gummi ship, thinking things over.

 _'Why does it feel like there's always something more to complicate things?'_ He wondered to himself. There was always something else to consider, another secret being kept from him, or another possible hidden agenda.

It had been a couple of days since the group had left Mahora, and because of the current lull in their travel, Naruto's mind started to wander. The more he thought about it, the more he dearly wished for answers.

Unfortunately, he didn't have access to anyone capable of _giving_ him those answers.

Sighing again, Naruto closed his eyes and allowed himself to fall into the long familiar trance. Slowly, his breathing evened out and his awareness of his surroundings dimmed as he turned his senses inward. But even then, the shift that had become so instinctive for him to do at will didn't come.

Whenever Naruto had attempted to enter the Station of Awakening in the past, the transition had been easy. All he needed to do was relax and focus on the balance of light and darkness in his heart, losing himself to the flow. His mind would start to "drift" along the flow, and he would end up in the station.

In some ways, Naruto likened it to listening to an additional heartbeat, but it was still… _more_ than that. It went beyond just the sense of hearing a heartbeat. It was like a whole new sense that you couldn't describe to anyone else because they wouldn't be able to fully understand without experiencing it themselves. By doing this, he would seamlessly slip into the station.

But that changed when he lost contact with Hikari and Yami. Ever since that happened, he has been unable to enter the station. He would go through all the steps, but he would never be able to "drift". No matter how hard he tried, he was unable to establish that link between mind and heart, which meant that he couldn't enter the Station of Awakening.

Realizing he wasn't focusing, Naruto took another deep breath and turned his attention back to his aura. As always, he could feel the light and darkness in his heart, swirling around one another in constant motion. Because he was calm and not trying to use any, his aura reflected that by slowly pulsing in time with his heartbeat.

And as per the recent norm, Naruto felt a small current of light leaving his heart and traveling to a nearby part of the ship. He knew that if he followed the faint pull of the connection, then he would be led to the control room, where Kairi was.

Ignoring the current of light for the moment, Naruto concentrated on the pulsing of his aura, willing himself to be consumed by it.

 _ **Ba-Bump**_

 _'Breathe in…'_

 _ **Ba-Bump**_

 _'…Breathe out.'_

 _ **Ba-Bump**_

 _'In…'_

 _ **Ba-Bump**_

 _'…Out…'_

 _ **Ba-** **Bump**_

His mind began to drift with the flow.

* * *

 **«Play Kingdom Hearts 2.5 ReMIX OST: Dive into the Heart - Destati»**

Cerulean and violet eyes snapped open. Returning to awareness, Naruto glanced around, gaining a confused frown on his face when he took in his surroundings. "This…isn't what I was expecting…"

Ever since the incident with Kuro, Naruto's Station of Awakening manifested as the platform that depicted himself and Kuro. Even after his heart had healed and some time had passed, it didn't change, so seeing himself and Kuro and on the floor didn't come as a surprise to him.

What _was_ a surprise was that the entire station was shrouded in a thick fog that was originating from the floor, making it difficult for him to see more than a couple of feet in front of him. He had made many trips to his Station of Awakening before, but this was the first time that he had seen this happen. Stranger still was how the fog seemed to be made up of a mixture of two different substances.

"This is…" Naruto reached out a hand, making the fog slip through his fingers. "…Light and darkness…?" He muttered, sure of it. The fog obstructing his vision was a mixture of light and darkness. "Why is this here?" He looked around again. "Hikari? Yami?" Naruto hesitantly called, but was met with silence. "Hello?" Still nothing.

Suddenly, the entire platform shook. "Whoa!" Startled, Naruto widened his stance to brace himself, preventing himself from falling. "The hell?!" He scanned the area, but wasn't able to see the cause. After a few moments, the platform stabilized and he sighed in relief. "What was that?" _That_ definitely never happened before. "Hikari?! Yami?!" He shouted, louder this time, but he didn't receive an answer.

"Where are they…?" He mumbled. It was then that he noticed that the fog was…flowing. It was slow, but there was definitely movement. Following it, Naruto walked over to the edge of the platform. Once he was only a step away from walking right off, something happened.

Suddenly, two bridges made of floating tiles appeared in front of him, and off in the distance, light began to filter down from above, illuminating additional platforms, one at a higher elevation than where he was and the other at a lower one. The sight of the platforms brought Naruto to a complete stop. "What?"

Naruto knew about the lower one, as even from where he was standing, he could tell that it was the one that housed the heart of the Kyūbi, but he couldn't identify the other platform. After staring at it in confusion for a moment, Naruto blinked when he realized that the light and darkness flowing from the platform he was on led straight to this new platform.

Deciding to get a closer look, Naruto stepped onto the floating bridge and cautiously made his way over to the platform. Much to his alarm, partway through, the bridge started to shake under him, but it only lasted for a couple of seconds. Swallowing nervously, he sped up his pace. Naruto walked for a minute, listening to his footsteps echo through the silence until he was close enough to see the image on the new platform clearly.

Or rather, he was close enough to not see it.

"It's blank?" Naruto frowned. Now that he was on the same level as the surface of the platform, he saw that the platform was completely white, devoid of any colors or images. Growing increasingly confused, Naruto made to step onto the platform, but he found himself unable to. "Guh…!" He gritted his teeth as he was met with an invisible force, preventing him from proceeding. "What…is this?!" It was as if there was something repelling him, making it more difficult for him to get any closer.

His frustration grew upon being confronted with another source of questions, making his frown deepen as he applied more force. At first, nothing had changed, but slowly, he felt his body start to make progress. Trying harder, Naruto was able to push his way through whatever was stopping him. With a final grunt of effort, he succeeded in placing his foot on the platform.

The moment he did so, there was a flash of light, and then it was as if the previous repelling force was never there.

"Crap!" Stumbling slightly, Naruto caught himself before he could fall due to the sudden lack of a force working against him. "That was close…" He stood up and took in his surroundings. Even then, he still couldn't tell what it was that had been stopping him, but he no longer felt any resistance as he moved. Glancing back, his eyes widened. "The fog…The darkness can't come here."

It seemed that whatever had been impeding him also prevented the darkness in the fog from getting any closer, because as if there was an invisible wall present, the darkness stopped in midair. On the other hand, the light part of the fog was able to continue without any problems. "So only light can come here?" With a start, Naruto's head snapped down, allowing him to take in his appearance. "My clothes…!"

His usual outfit had changed at some point without him noticing. After his fight with Kuro, Naruto realized that the colors of his clothes represented the light and darkness in his heart. That was why the black parts of it had vanished when he was fighting Kuro. At the time, his darkness had left him and manifested in the form of Kuro, leaving him with only the silvery-white color that represented his light.

And just like then, all of the black had disappeared from his clothes, showing that he was currently without any darkness.

"What the hell is going on?" Naruto wondered. Shifting his attention back to the fog of light, Naruto's eyes followed its path. "It's going…into the platform?" The trail of light extended to the center of the platform before suddenly curving down, flowing steadily into it. "Wait…" Naruto's eyes widened as the implications sunk in.

With a small intake of breath, he turned to the platform he came from. "The Station of Awakening is a representation of my heart…" He said quietly. "So the light and darkness leaking from it…is _my_ light and darkness. And if my light is leaving my station and flowing into this blank one, then…" He stared down at the platform. "This is _Kairi's_ station of awakening." It would make sense, as that would explain why it was blank. Kairi's heart was missing, so she couldn't have a complete station, so this must be the manifestation of the pseudo-heart made by his light.

A small rush of relief flooded Naruto at this. At least he could figure _this_ out without winding up with more questions than when he began.

Out of nowhere, the platform started shaking again. Bracing himself, Naruto waited out the quake, only relaxing once it had subsided. "Those really freak me out…" He glanced around, sweeping the area for anything strange.

His eyes came to an abrupt stop on a purple double door.

"That wasn't there before…" Naruto was positive that it wasn't, or else he would have noticed it. Walking up to it, Naruto noted that it was identical to the door he came across in his first dive to his heart, back when he first unlocked his twilight capabilities. And like that first door, this one was transparent, signifying that whatever was on the other side of it was currently inaccessible to him. "Let's try this." He reached a hand out, but nothing happened. "Okay then…" If he remembered correctly, the other door unlocked automatically for him when he got close to it. Naruto sighed. "What is this here for…?" Maybe only Kairi could open it? It would make sense, at least.

It was then that the platform shook again, but this one was more violent than any of the others. "Whoa!" Not expecting it, Naruto stumbled forward, accidentally going through the door. The next second, there was a blinding flash of light accompanied by a short flare of pain in his chest. "Gah!" The platform's trembling increased again as he fell to his knees. Naruto brought his hands to his chest, and it was only then that he noticed that he was now holding something.

Gripped in one of his hands was the same Keyblade he used when he fought Kuro. "When did…this get here…?" He muttered, but was distracted by another wave of pain. "Damn!" He dropped the Keyblade, making it clatter to the floor. "Agh!" Naruto suddenly screamed out in agony as this new pain spiked in his head. Screwing his eyes shut, Naruto clutched the sides of his head. "What…the hell?!" The pain rose to new heights as faint voices filtered into his head, steadily becoming louder.

 _"So eve…ing me? It…ie?!"_

 _"…Yes."_

 _"Wh…ne…?"_

"Who…Who are you…?!" Naruto groaned.

 _"Lis…or…thing."_

 _"…ova!"_

 _"…un! Just g…f here!"_

"Get out of my head!"

 _"No! Su…_ No! _"_

 _"…pin! Take th…n! Q…oo!"_

 _"It's be…ime…to."_

"I…W-What?" It was getting harder and harder for him to think clearly. With each passing second, the pain would grow and the voices became louder. Soon, Naruto's mind was nothing but a jumble of voices. "Ugh!"

 _"…to!"_

"Stop talking…!"

 _"…uto!"_

"Go away!"

 _"…aruto!"_

"I said…Shut _. UP_!"

 **"You shouldn't be here right now."**

 **«End Music»**

* * *

"What the _hell_ just happened?!"

"I-I don't know. The output suddenly spiked!"

"Well, we need to make sure it _doesn't_ happen again. He isn't ready yet!"

"I know that! Best that I can tell, he suddenly started to destabilize, making his power fluctuate like crazy."

"But now he's back to normal…"

"Fortunately."

"Damn it…We're going to need to keep a closer eye on him. At this rate, he's going to start attracting attention to himself."

"You still think we should hold off on including him?"

"You know it isn't our call. Even if we wanted to include him, now isn't the time."

"But it's going to be time soon."

"…Yeah."

* * *

 **Gummi Ship**

 _"Naruto!"_

Naruto's eyes snapped open. Gasping for breath, Naruto doubled over, his body trembling. Trying to get control of himself, he blinked several times and shook his head. Now that he was awake, all the voices and pain had vanished. "G…Gray?" He asked.

 _"Finally!"_ The ice mage said over the intercom. _"I've been calling your name for a while now! I was about ready to send someone to get you!"_

"Sorry about that. I was…" Naruto trailed off, unsure what to say. _'What_ was _that?'_

 _"Yeah, whatever. Just get over here!"_

The urgency in Gray's voice made Naruto quickly hop to his feet. "What's wrong?" He asked as he ran out the door. If there was an emergency, then he would just have to think about what he went through in the station later. Fear gripped him as he realized that there was a possibility that Kairi had reacted in some manner to his trip to the station.

 _"We're coming up on the next world now. But there's a problem."_ Gray answered. _"There's…You need to see this for yourself. The world is under attack."_

Naruto's eyes widened as he registered this. "What?! By who?!" He entered the control room, where the others were all seated, staring at the screen in front of them. Taking a quick glance at them, Naruto took in their expressions.

Natsu was growling as he watched the feed, gripping his arm rests to the point that Naruto was worried he would either break or burn them. On his lap, Happy was shaking while staring at the screen with wide eyes. Over in his seat, Gray had a hard scowl on his face while he held himself back from freezing the room. Finally, Kairi had a hand over her mouth as she watched the screen as well. He felt some relief that she seemed to be alright, but he didn't like the expression that she and the others had.

Deciding to see for himself, Naruto shifted his attention to the live feed of the world. What he saw made him gain a scowl that matched Gray's.

The world was large, and based on what he was seeing, it had a wide variety of climates and terrains. Just at a glance, Naruto could tell that this world was more technologically advanced than the Elemental Nations, and maybe even more so than Mahora had been. The screen they were viewing showed a large city with buildings that reached towards the sky, towering over everything.

But these facts took a backseat when Naruto saw the chaos ensuing on the surface. The normally beautiful city was being thrown into a state of havoc as a huge swarm of ships bombarded it. Even as he watched, one of the taller buildings took damage as a passing ship shot at it.

Heartless were invading the world.

"What the hell is going on?!" Naruto snapped. He rushed to his seat and started to rapidly press the desired controls. "Why are the heartless attacking?!" Naruto hit the buttons needed to get their scanners to count the number of heartless ships.

"No clue." Gray growled. "We didn't even realize until Natsu spotted a small flash on the surface. Turns out it was an explosion that was big enough for us to see from here." He shook his head. "We brought up the video feed and then called you when we saw what was happening."

Natsu growled louder. "This is…Who the hell would do something like this?!"

"It's like this all over the world…" Happy whimpered.

Kairi's eyes began to tear up at the scale of the destruction. "We…We need to do something." She said quietly, her eyes moving to Naruto. "Something. Anything! We can't just leave them! We have to help!"

Hearing this, Natsu and Gray immediately nodded in agreement. Naruto frowned and looked back to the screen. After a minute, a smirk spread across his face. "Yeah, of course. We're going down there." The Fairy Tail members grinned while Kairi gave him a small smile.

Decision made, Naruto started to quickly type in new commands. As he worked, the HUD of the gummi ship activated, complete with a top-down image of their gummi ship that was highlighted green to represent their current condition. "The big city on the screen is getting hit the hardest, so that's where we're gonna go! Natsu and Gray, you two have weapons."

"Right."

"You got it!"

"Kairi, I'm going to be piloting, so I'll need to be concentrating as much as possible on us not getting hit and maneuvering the tighter spaces. Can you take care of the scanners and navigation?" Naruto asked.

"I…" She hesitated for a moment, but then she nodded with a determined expression. "Leave it to me!"

Naruto grinned. "Good. Now, if we're all ready…" Preparations made, Naruto grasped the controls. "Then I'm taking us in!" The gummi ship accelerated, shooting towards the world. Soon, the gummi ship began to shake, but unlike the normal procedure for when this happens, Naruto didn't activate the landing mechanisms.

Suddenly, a loud beeping sound came from Kairi's console. "We've got a problem!" She warned them. "They formed a _really_ big blockade! It surrounds the entire city!"

"So they don't want us getting into the city." Gray commented. "If we try flying straight into the city without thinking about the ships guarding it, then we'll be shot down on the spot."

"Kairi, is there any way around them? Or do we have to blast through?" Naruto asked.

"Wait a sec…" Kairi took a closer look. "The blockade is high in the air. We can…probably go under it? It looks like there's a canyon that goes from the ocean to the city that we can use as an entrance."

Naruto smirked. "Then that's how we're going to get in." He pushed forward on the controls, making the ship dive down. After a moment of nothing but clouds that obstructed their view, they were greeted to the sight of a wide ocean. Pulling back, Naruto angled them so that they were flying a little above the surface of the water.

Kairi's console beeped again. "We've been spotted! There's a small group of ships heading our way. Dead ahead!"

"Natsu, Gray! You're up!" Naruto said.

Natsu grinned viciously. "Heh, come and get it!" A few seconds later, four dots were spotted on the horizon ahead of them. "There you are!" The instant he had a lock on them, he attacked. The guns on the sides of the gummi ship fired, shooting several rounds that punched through the heartless ships. The dragon slayer laughed as the ships all exploded. "Ha! Too easy!"

"Hey, don't hog all of them for yourself!" Gray shouted, but he had a grin on his face. His grin grew bigger when a second group of heartless flew at them, but this time in pairs. "These guys are mine!" Taking aim, he fired two shots, each one impacting a single ship in either pair. As a result of his shots, the damaged ships careened off course, flying straight into their partners. "Who needs overwhelming firepower when you have precision shots?" He bragged.

"And we can do both!" Happy cheered.

" _That_ definitely got their attention." Kairi called out. "There are a bunch of them coming at us now! And not just from in front of us!"

Naruto eyed the squares that popped up on the HUD. "Got it. Natsu, Gray, keep it up, but it might get harder to work while I'm evading."

"Don't worry about it. We'll handle it." Gray said. "Just do what you need to do."

Nodding, Naruto spotted a flash on the side of his vision. "Then hold on!" Pulling up, the gummi ship immediately followed his controls, allowing them to move out of the way of the attack. As if a that was the signal to begin, the air was suddenly filled with streaking lasers and speeding ships.

Easily slipping between two lasers, Naruto swerved to the right to dodge the ship that attempted to cut them off. The attackers were about to try again, but they never got the chance to when a blast from Gray put them all down.

After that, a trio of ships dove in front of the gummi ship, rotating in midair to face them while somehow flying in reverse. The three heartless ships started to charge their cannons, but Natsu never gave them the chance to finish.

"It's nice of them to stay still like that." Happy said brightly, watching as the ships plummeted to the water below.

"They aren't too bright." Naruto muttered, tilting the gummi ship to fly between two more heartless ships. As they passed Natsu and Gray each took one of them out. "They aren't good at evading, either." He commented.

"Sucks to be them!" Natsu cackled as another explosion filled the air. "This is awesome!"

Out of nowhere, a beep came from Kairi's console again. "Naruto! Move left!"

Not questioning it, Naruto did as ordered. The next second, something exploded in the exact spot that they had been in, making their ship vibrate. "Whoa!" Gray yelped.

Naruto cursed, attempting to stabilize them. "Okay, so they have bombs!"

"That's unfair! We don't have bombs!" Happy protested before turning to Naruto with a curious expression. "Do we?"

"No!"

"Oh, in that case, I think we should get some." Happy suggested. "That would make it easier to take out a big group of enemies! I don't know why you didn't think of this before, Naruto. That kind of thing should be obvious." He sighed. "Then again, I shouldn't be surprised by-"

"Happy, I swear to Kami that I will toss you out and make you fly on your own!" Naruto barked, pulling up so that they flew above an oncoming bomb. "I'm too busy to deal with your shit! Now shut up!"

Sufficiently chastised, Happy snapped a salute. "Aye, sir!"

"Would one of you please get rid of those red ships?! They're the ones with the bombs!"

"I'm on it!" Gray replied. Firing at the first red ship he saw, he was surprised to see that it didn't immediately go down. "What? It's still flying!"

"Then shoot again!" Natsu shouted, doing just that. Following two additional attacks, the red ship finally exploded. "Those ones are tougher!"

Naruto heard them, but he didn't have a chance to reply as he was forced to make their ship tilt to avoid another attack. Once they were level again, he spoke up. "Shoot the bombs out of the air!"

"Oh, that sounds like a good idea!" Natsu aimed at an oncoming missile, but his eyes widened when his shots missed. "Crap!"

Suddenly, another laser hit the bomb, making it explode at a safe distance. "Heh, I guess precision jobs shouldn't be left to the flame brain." Gray's taunt prompted Natsu to growl. "Leave the defense to me. You focus on destroying them." Normally, Natsu would have argued with the ice mage, but the proposal for him to blow stuff up made him agree.

"We're coming up on the canyon. It's too narrow for them to keep surrounding us like this, but they will also be able to get a lock on us easier." Kairi informed them.

"I see it." Naruto said. Up ahead of them and rapidly growing closer was a wall of rock, and the only visible opening to it was a narrow passage that led to the other side. "I'm speeding up! When you can, shoot the sides of the canyon to make the rocks fall down on them!"

"On it!" The gummi ship flew into the canyon, and Gray waited for all of fifteen seconds before deciding that a good amount of heartless ships were in range. Pulling the trigger, he shot as Naruto directed. He grinned widely at the resulting destruction of all of the ships that had been following them. "Oh yeah!"

Finally allowing himself to relax a bit, Naruto smirked. "Nice one. Kairi, how much further until we get to the city?"

"Not too much further. We should be seeing it any second now." She pointed in front of them. "Look! The canyon is ending!" As she said, the canyon came to a stopped, opening up to an expansive view of the valley on the other side. The sight they were greeted with quickly made their previous grief and rage return. "This is…horrible." Kairi whispered.

It was one thing to see an aerial view of the city, but being there in person…Actually _seeing_ the burning buildings and the smoke rising into the air, it made the situation so much worse.

Tearing his eyes off of the destruction, Naruto took a deep breath. "Heads up. We need to focus on the matter at hand. We can't help anyone if we get distracted and shot down." Slowly, the others muttered their agreement. "There's more smoke than there was earlier, so we have more cover from being spotted. We're gonna stay low." Angling them down, Naruto flew the gummi ship above the abandoned streets.

"Here comes another one!" Kairi warned.

"From where?!" Naruto asked. Out of nowhere, several lasers shot by them, narrowly missing their ship and instead impacting the buildings around them.

"From behind!" Happy answered with far too much cheer.

"I kinda figured that out-ttebayo!" Naruto shouted, tugging the controls so that they swerved to the side. Circling a nearby tower, Naruto flew them so that they looped back around until the offending heartless ship was in sight. "There!"

"Gotcha!" Natsu crowed, shooting the ship out of the sky. With that done, Naruto reoriented them so that they were heading back towards the center of the city.

"That one called some friends!" Kairi informed them. "There's another group flying at us from above! They have an easy shot at us!" No sooner had she finished than a volley of lasers started to rain down on them. Luckily, the biggest hits taken were a few glancing blows.

Cursing under his breath, Naruto increased their speed. "Come on…" He mumbled, flying closer to the ground. The gummi ship was now so close to the streets that they were almost touching it.

"Naruto…" Gray said worriedly, seeing where they were going. "What are you doing?!"

"I'm putting us behind cover!" Naruto snapped.

"There's a tunnel ahead! We're gonna crash!" Happy screamed.

"They're firing again!" Kairi shouted over them.

"I know!" Naruto yelled. Right as the lasers were about to impact them, the gummi ship flew into the tunnel, only barely managing to fit. "There…" He said, listening to the sound of the tunnel's entrance caving in from the shots.

Gray shook his head. "You're insane."

"I said I was getting us some cover." Naruto responded. "Kairi, does this lead deeper into the city?"

Shakily, the redhead nodded. "Y-Yeah…"

"Good. And because they closed off the entrance, they can't follow us in."

"But what about waiting at the exit?" Happy's innocent sounding question made Naruto blink. "Won't we be an easy target if they know where we're gonna pop up again?"

"Uh…"

"You really are an idiot."

Naruto sent a quick glare at the cat. "Shut up! It was either this or getting shot!" It was then that he noticed light ahead of them. "There's the exit. Get ready to fire!"

"I'm always ready!" Natsu laughed.

"Now!" Naruto instructed as they flew out of the tunnel. Immediately pulling up, Naruto narrowly evaded the onslaught of lasers that streaked their way. In response, Natsu and Gray blasted apart several of the heartless ships.

Once they had some altitude again, Kairi's console beeped. "We didn't get them all! There are three following us!" Naruto attempted to lose them, but Kairi shook her head. "It's no good! They're still right behind us!" Her statement was punctuated by more shots firing by them.

Scowling, Naruto glanced at her. "How far behind are they?"

"Only a couple hundred feet!" Suddenly, a laser impacted them, making the gummi ship shake. On the HUD, the rear of the gummi ship's image turned orange. "And they're getting closer!"

Coming to a hasty decision, Naruto pulled harshly on the controls. "Everyone hang on!"

"Huh?! What are you-Whoa!" Natsu was cut off as the entire gummi ship was abruptly flying upward, but their trajectory didn't stop climbing. "Naruto?!" Soon, they found themselves upside down and flying in the direction they came from.

"Get ready to shoot!" Naruto shouted. Pulling up even more, the gummi ship began to fly down towards the ground. "Come on…" With one final tug, Naruto leveled them back again. Due to his maneuver, they were now positioned behind the heartless ships. "Do it!" Even through his shock, Gray was still able to take aim on the ships and destroy them.

Once the immediate threat was gone, an extremely pale Gray looked at Naruto. "Was the loop really necessary?"

Naruto smirked at him. "It got the job done, didn't it?" He asked.

"Ugh, I don't think I can handle another one of those…" Natsu said weakly.

A heartless ship intercepting them made Naruto scowl. "Too bad, it might happen again!" He said. As they flew around the enemy, Gray shot it down.

Before anything else could be said, Kairi's console beeped and an alert icon popped up in the bottom corner of the HUD. "Someone's trying to contact us."

"Any idea who?" Gray asked.

"I think it's someone from the city." Kairi responded.

Naruto nodded. "Patch them through." Doing so, the incoming call icon disappeared and was replaced by another image. Seeing the person's appearance, Naruto blinked. "…Hello?" He asked hesitantly, slightly surprised to see another humanoid dog. Staring back at them was a dog with golden brown fur, but he was standing up and dressed in red military attire.

 _"Attention unknown ship, do you read me? This his General Pepper of the Cornerian Army. Please respond."_

Regaining his composure, Naruto spoke up. "Yes, we hear you, General. This is Naruto, pilot of the Stingray."

General Pepper smiled, obviously relieved. _"I don't know who you are, but I appreciate the help you're giving my people."_

"Happy to help. We saw what was happening and decided that we needed to lend a hand." Naruto replied. "We'll assist in any way we can."

The General seemed to hesitate, but an explosion on his end of the call quickly helped him make a decision. _"We'll take anything we can get. The evacuation of the civilians is nearly complete, but that's only because the enemy forces aren't focusing on taking random lives."_

"Then you know what they _are_ aiming for?" Naruto guessed, hearing the implication. Much to his confusion, Pepper lowered his head. "General?"

 _"_ … _Me."_ The general finally said. _"The target of the invasion is me. Everything else is collateral damage."_ Even from where he was, Naruto could tell that Pepper was being crushed by the sheer amount of pain and regret at that knowledge.

"…What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

Pulling himself together, Pepper shook his head. _"My past has come back to haunt me."_ He locked eyes with Naruto. _"The evacuation of the city is complete. All that's left is the control tower. The problem is that it is also where the bulk of the invading forces is grouped."_ He bowed his head. _"Please, I beg of you. Help me save the rest of my people."_

Naruto smirked. "You didn't even need to ask. We were planning on it from the start. We'll get you the opening you need to clear the tower." Pepper quickly looked up, shocked to hear that. "I already said that we would help, right?"

 _"_ … _Yes, you did."_ The general said quietly before nodding. _"You have my thanks. At the pace you're moving at, you will reach the tower in a minute. My best squad will arrive soon to assist you."_

"Understood." Naruto said. "Leave it to us. Just focus on the evacuation. We'll keep our comms open."

 _"I'll keep you updated on the evacuation. The best of luck to you."_ The transmission was cut.

 **«Play Star Fox Zero OST: Corneria Extended»**

Once the call ended, Naruto glanced to the others. "You guys ready for this?"

"Yeah!"

"Ready when you are."

"Let's do it!"

"Then let's go!" Pushing the throttle, Naruto sped the gummi ship until it was little more than a blur streaking across the sky.

"There's the tower!" Happy exclaimed, pointing to the building that easily stood out in the surrounding area.

It was then that the HUD highlighted approaching ships. "And there are the heartless." Naruto said.

Beeping was heard from Kairi's console. "They're surrounding us!" All around them was a ring of heartless ships.

Seeing this, Naruto attempted to break free, but the heartless were persistent, constantly closing in on the gummi ship. "Someone create an opening!" He ordered.

"Comin' right up!" Natsu took aim at a ship in front of them. A moment later, the heartless vessel went up in flames and plummeted towards the ground. "There you go!" His glee was cut short when another ship quickly replaced the one that was destroyed, but this new one was much larger. "Uh…"

Gray made a sound of annoyance when he shot down a different ship and met with the same result. "They're swarming us!"

"It's worse than that! They're going to ram into us!" Kairi said, alarmed. "We can't take hits like those at these speeds!"

"What?! They're gonna blow themselves up, too?!" Happy yelped. "No! I don't wanna die!"

"We aren't going to die!" Naruto shouted. Thinking quickly, he pushed forward on the throttle again, making the ship speed up.

Noticing their increasing speed, Kairi's eyes widened. "Naruto, what are you doing?!"

Instead of answering, Naruto glanced at Natsu and Gray. "Shoot the big one in front of us! Now!" Not questioning it, both of them opened fire on the indicated heartless ship. The attacks blew the ship up only seconds before the gummi ship would have crashed into them, resulting in them getting encased in a huge ball of smoke and fire.

Acting immediately, Naruto swerved down and to the side, hitting the brakes as he did so, forcing all of them to lurch in their seats from the inertia. Natsu had to lash out a hand grab Happy to stop the cat from hitting something.

A moment later, there was the sound of several things flying by at extreme speeds. Once he heard that, Naruto sped back up, making them shoot out of the cloud of smoke. When their vision returned, they were greeted to the sight of the backs of the heartless ships. "Fire!"

Following the command, Natsu and Gray took the chance to annihilate the ships that had previously been giving them trouble. When they were all gone, Naruto sighed in relief. "That was close. I never thought that they would be willing to sacrifice entire ships just to take us down with them."

Gray shakily laughed. "You're insane…" He muttered, Happy nodding in agreement.

"It worked, didn't it?" Naruto defended himself. "They didn't stop us."

"No, but my heart nearly did." Gray retorted as they circled the tower.

Naruto opened his mouth to reply, but he didn't get the chance to when Kairi hastily spoke up. "I think they're starting to get angry at us! There's a _lot_ of them heading our way!"

Snapping his attention back to the surrounding area, Naruto spotted a large group of heartless ships flying in their direction. Cursing, he pulled the controls to the side to avoid the volley of lasers. "How much longer until the evacuation is complete?" He asked, glancing to the burning tower.

"About half of the people have been moved to safety, but they still need a little more time to finish." Kairi answered.

"We can buy them time." Gray said.

"That's the plan!" Naruto made them dive down towards a stray heartless ship. Once that ship was destroyed, he veered off to dodge another attack from the side. As they flew, Naruto saw something that made him scowl. "Looks like they're bringing out other types of vessels."

Following Naruto's eyes to see what he meant, Natsu gaped. "What the hell are those things?!"

"They look like spiders!" Happy shivered. "Creepy…"

Crawling up the side of several buildings were giant machines that stood up on four legs connected to a circular body. The most notable thing about them were the flashing yellow lights on the bodies. Glancing around, Naruto saw that they were on many of the buildings, including the tower.

"I didn't think that the heartless had things like these…" Gray commented.

"…They don't." Naruto said, surprising the others. "Nor do they launch full scale invasions on worlds like this."

Natsu blinked in confusion. "Huh? What are you talking about? We're looking at them doing it!"

Kairi gasped as she caught on. "You mean that they're getting help from someone?"

Nodding, Naruto scanned the area. "Yeah, they probably are. We all know that it's possible for someone to gain some control over the heartless. It isn't hard to convince them to attack people, so this isn't much of a stretch if a person is determined enough."

"That's…" Kairi whispered, horrified.

"Unforgivable." Natsu growled.

"It is." Naruto agreed. "But we can focus on that after we finish this. Some of those spider things are scaling the tower, so we'll start there!" Turning them towards the tower, the Naruto waited for the HUD to highlight all the enemies climbing it. "Be careful with your shots!"

Gray picked a spider to start with. "Understood." Firing, he smirked when it fell to the ground, Natsu doing the same.

With the first volley done, Naruto was about to turn around, but he was shocked to see that two of the spiders leapt off the side of the tower in an attempt to reach them. "Whoa!" Pulling hard, he barely evaded the two of them. Right when the spider machines were about to fall, the yellow lights on their bodies turned red, making Naruto's eyes widen in alarm as the implications sunk in. "Shi-!"

 _Boom!_

The spiders exploded with only a couple dozen feet between them and the gummi ship. Several voices screamed in shock, but Naruto didn't pay any attention to them. While it wasn't the worst possible scenario, the immediate blast had hit them directly, causing the entire gummi ship to shake violently. On the HUD, the entire body of the gummi ship's image gained an orange tint. To make things worse, the explosion made Naruto lose control of the ship, and now they were spiraling towards the ground.

"Pull up! Pull up!" Happy screamed.

"I'm trying!" Naruto bit out through gritted teeth. "Come on…" The ground was rapidly approaching them. "Come on…!" Only a few dozen more feet. "Come on!" With a final shout, Naruto managed to level them off and stabilize their flight. "Holy _shit_ …" He breathed.

Gray clutched at his chest. "Okay…So now we know not to get so close to those spider things…"

"They're _all_ bombs?" Kairi mumbled.

Naruto snapped his eyes over to the tower. "Yeah, and they are all over the tower. We can't let them get to the top. We're going to shoot them from more of a distance this time." They couldn't take another hit like that.

Circling around, Naruto gave Gary and Natsu a clear shot, one which they happily took advantage of. With this new information on the spiders, it was simple for them to pick them off without getting too close.

Suddenly, a part of the tower exploded. "What the hell was that?!" Natsu demanded.

"Something from inside?" Kairi guessed. "Do you think there are enemies inside, too?"

"I don't think so." Gray's voice prompted their attention to shift. "Check out the rooftops and highways. There are tanks all over the place." Just as he said, numerous large tanks sporting the heartless emblem were stationed periodically throughout the surrounding area. On the rooftop across from the newly damaged part of the tower, there was another tank present.

Coming to a snap decision, Naruto altered their path. "Focus on those tanks for now. The only spider things left are the ones at the base of the tower." Understanding his instructions, Natsu and Gray stopped looking for spider machines to destroy, now searching for the stationary tanks.

Picking one, Natsu opened fire on it, but scowled when it took longer than he would have liked to destroy. "These things are tougher."

A flash out of the corner of his eyes prompted Naruto to immediately tug on the controls. The next second, a large beam blasted through the exact spot they were about to be in. "They're aiming at us now!" Naruto warned. Not a second later, the other tanks started to shoot at them. Diving down, Naruto evaded a beam, only to have to veer out of the way of a following one. "Hurry up and take them out!"

"Easier said than done!" Gray shouted back. Taking out another tank, he quickly went for the next. "These things are freakin' annoying!"

Kairi's console chose then to beep. "There's another wave of ships flying in!"

"Damn it!" Leveling them out again, Naruto aimed their ship at the oncoming reinforcements. "Do it!" Natsu and Gray opened fire, but not all of the ships were shot down. As a result, Naruto was forced to weave their way through the swarm of heartless ships, destroying them as they went along.

"We've got a pair tailing us!" Kairi warned. "Ant they're getting closer!" Hearing this, Naruto chose to speed up and try to shake them off, but it was proven ineffective when lasers streaked by them. "They're still there!"

Growing more annoyed, Naruto pulled up on the controls. "I'm doing a loop again!" Not listening for their responses, Naruto tightened his grip and pulled harder. Coming out of the loop, Naruto was surprised to see that the heartless ships weren't there. "Wha-?" Out of nowhere, a shot hit their ship, making the right wing turn orange on the HUD.

"They're still there!" Natsu shouted.

"I can't shake them!" Naruto realized.

Kairi's console emitted a long beep. "They've got a lock on us!" She said, alarmed. "We can't dodge it!"

 _"Looks like you guys could use some help."_ An unfamiliar voice interjected. The next moment, two explosions were heard from behind them. _"Heh. Too easy."_ He said cockily. Suddenly, four new ships flew out of the cloud of smoke and surrounded the gummi ship, flying alongside them.

"What? Who the hell are you?" Natsu demanded.

 _"You don't know who I am? How can you not know about me?"_

A small rush of relief flooded Naruto. "I guess you're the squad the general said would soon be arriving?"

 _"Oh? So you_ do _know who I am! My reputation precedes m-"_

 _"Not the time, idiot."_ Another voice interrupted, this one sounding more agitated than the first. _"Corneria is under attack and you're still not taking this seriously!"_

 _"Huh? I_ am _taking this seriously! No one is more serious than I am!"_ The first voice shouted back.

 _"That's not what I saw when you were having fun while on the way here!"_ A third voice chirped, this one higher pitched than the other two.

 _"T-That was-"_

 _"That's enough."_ Cut in a fourth voice. Surprisingly enough, the other three immediately did as instructed. _"Opening video feed."_ At this, Naruto did the same. After a moment, four boxes popped up on the HUD, displaying the four newcomers. In the first box was another humanoid animal, but this time it was a fox. _"This is Fox McCloud, leader of Star Fox."_

The second box housed a large toad with a cap. _"Slippy Toad here!"_ He said, revealing that he was the owner of the higher pitched voice.

In the next box was some type of blue bird. _"Falco Lombardi, the one who just saved your asses."_ Even then, Naruto could detect some smugness from Falco.

Lastly, the fourth member of the team was what appeared to be a Hare. _"Peppy Hare, reporting in."_ He said with a serious tone.

Naruto nodded. "I'm Naruto. With me are Kairi, Natsu, Gray, and Happy."

Falco whistled, although Naruto didn't voice that he wasn't sure how a bird could manage that. _"Wow, you guys look weird."_ Naruto's eye twitched.

"The hell does that mean?!" Natsu shouted.

 _"What? It's true! Just look at yourselves! I've never seen people like you bef-"_

 _"Falco, enough already."_ Fox said, and Naruto heard the trace amounts of anger in his voice. _"We can worry about their looks later._ After _we save the city."_ Naruto realized that he was probably angry that his home was being invaded. _"Besides, they came in a ship, so they're probably from another planet."_

Slippy's eyes widened. _"What?! But how?! No one has managed to leave the planet's orbit for months now! Something has been blocking us!"_

 _"It doesn't matter!"_ Peppy retorted. _"Fox is right, we need to worry about the city for now."_

Nodding, Fox returned his attention to Naruto. _"The general updated us on the situation before we got here. We appreciate what you're doing. Are you still able to fight?"_

Frowning slightly, Naruto glanced at their current status. "…We can still fight, but another big hit will finish us."

Surprisingly, Fox smirked. _"Then it's a good thing that we're finishing this now."_

"And how do you plan on doing that?" Gray asked skeptically.

 _"General pepper told you that their target is him, right?"_ Slippy asked. _"They're tracking him with advanced biotech!"_

Natsu blinked. "Yeah? And?"

 _"That means that if we can imitate the general's signature, then we can trick them!"_

Naruto quickly caught on. "We can lure them away from the tower. And once they are clear of it, we can launch a larger attack to finish them all at once!"

 _"Exactly!"_ Slippy grinned.

"Do you have a way to do that?" Kairi asked hopefully.

 _"You bet we do!"_ Peppy responded. _"Watch this!"_ The ship on their left broke off and flew towards the tower. Soon, Peppy decided that he was close enough. _"Here goes nothing!"_ A large blue ball shot out of the front of his ship, rocketing at the tower. After a few seconds, the ball exploded, creating a huge explosion in the air, but instead of dying down, it remained there.

The off-worlders watched in surprise as most of the heartless ships invading the city immediately stopped what they were doing to head for the explosion. From the flying ships to the spider things, they all willingly flung themselves at it while those that couldn't gathered around it.

 _"Yes! It worked!"_ Slippy cheered.

 _"Whoa! They're moving into the blast!"_ Falco said. _"Nice one, Slip!"_

 _"Hehehe, thanks!"_

"How'd you pull that off?" Naruto asked numbly. "You were able to mimic his signature that easily?"

 _"Slippy made missiles that mimic Pepper's life signs using my lucky charm."_ Peppy answered.

Kairi tilted her head. "How did a lucky charm help?"

Peppy smiled. _"It was a lucky charm made of Pepper's fur; Given to me as a sample of our friendship."_ The pride in Peppy's voice was obvious.

"From his fur?" Happy repeated.

"Nothing weird there." Natsu added sarcastically.

 _"I know, right?"_ Falco agreed.

 _"SHUT UP!"_

Fox's voice returned their attention back to the matter at hand. _"Enough! It's now or never! All units attack!"_

Knowing this was the best chance they were going to get, Naruto pointed them in the direction of the gathering of heartless. "Natsu! Gray!" Grinning widely, both mages let loose a large amount of shots at the swarm, Star Fox doing the same. The resulting explosion destroying every single heartless that had been there. "Hell yeah-ttebayo!"

 _"We did it!"_ Slippy whooped, but out of nowhere, a large beam of energy shot out of the sky and hit both him and Peppy. _"Wahhhh!"_ Both of their images started to shake.

 _"Slippy! Peppy!"_ Fox shouted in alarm.

Regaining control, the two of them groaned. _"I'm okay…"_

 _"Just grazed, is all…"_ Peppy reported.

"What the hell was that?!" Gray asked.

Kairi's console beeped. "Look! Up in the sky!" Looking where she instructed, all of their eyes widened in shock.

Sitting in the sky high above the tower was a large purple portal, and slowly emerging from it was a massive structure. As more of it was revealed, Gray realized what it was. "It's…a fortress…An entire flying fortress." Floating in the sky was a red fortress with a circular body and a tower in the center. The fortress was sporting enough weaponry that Naruto had little down that it could level the area if it let loose.

Naruto's heart sank as he saw that it was big enough to cast a shadow over the tower and the surrounding area. "You can't be serious…"

Suddenly, a new image popped up on the HUD. This time, the person on the other side was a monkey wearing a helmet with a large A on the front. _"Damn you! I'll squash you like the insects you are!"_ He shouted before his image disappeared.

"That must be the leader." Gray observed.

Kairi bit her lip in worry. "How do we fight something like that?"

 _"Like everything else we do. With style!"_ Falco said confidently.

 _"We're going in!"_ Fox declared. _"Can we count on you for help?"_

Shaking off his doubt, Naruto nodded. "You know it. Just tell us where to shoot!" As one, all five ships flew at the fortress. As they approached, the cannons mounted on the surfaces of the fortress swiveled around to aim at them. "You're gonna need to try harder than that!" Veering to the side, Naruto avoided the lasers until they were flying along the surface of the fortress. "Take out those turrets!"

"Got it!" Gray locked onto a turret and opened fire, Natsu doing the same with another.

"Incoming from behind!" Kairi warned.

Acting on instinct, Naruto tugged the controls to the side, making their entire world spin. "Wha-?!" Happy yelped in alarm as several lasers shot by them, only barely missing.

Once they were correctly oriented again, Naruto smirked. "Heh, that was fun." It was only then that he noticed the disbelieving stares he got. "…What?"

"Ugh…" Natsu mumbled, somewhat green. "Don't…Don't do that again…"

"Did you…just do a barrel roll?" Gray asked numbly.

 _"Oh, yes he did!"_ Falco laughed. _"Nice one!"_

 _"Shield analysis complete!"_ Slippy called out. _"If we take out all those big laser cannons, we can take out that thing's G-Diffuser system!"_ The indicated cannons were highlighted on the HUD, showing that there were a few on the top, but only two on the bottom.

Natsu grinned. "I don't know what that last part means, but I get what we need to do!"

Naruto nodded. "We're on it!" He directed them so that they flew under the fortress. Flying under an oncoming attack, Naruto got them close to one of the cannons. "Now!" Taking the chance, Gray blasted the cannon apart. "One down." He grinned as explosions trailed along that segment of the fortress.

 _"Hey! Don't hog all the fun!"_ Falco admonished with a laugh, destroying the next one on the underside.

 _"We won't fall that easily!"_ The monkey man's voice growled. _"Fire the missiles!"_

From the sides of the fortress, panels shifted to the side, revealing missile launchers. The next second, the missiles were firing into the air, rocketing towards the gummi ship and Falco. Cursing, Naruto swerved to the side, but the missiles followed their every move. "Those things are tracking us!" Unable to prevent it, one of the missiles caught up to them, impacting the underside of their ship. The warning klaxons blared to life as the HUD reported the damage taken. "Crap, that one really hurt!"

Kairi frowned in concern. "How bad is it?"

Naruto glanced at their condition again. "The shields are fried, and there might be some damage done to the engine." He gritted his teeth as he narrowly avoided the next missile. "A little help here!"

 _"I've got the same problem over here!"_ Falco shouted. _"How about we help each other out?"_

"Anything to get rid of them! I don't want to blow up!" Happy yelped.

 _"Good! Then do exactly as I say and fly towards me!"_ Falco's ship circled around and started to streak towards them. _"And_ don't _move until I say so!"_

Understanding what he was planning, Naruto pulled them around until they were heading in Falco's direction, him still doing the same. At their current rate, they would collide head on in a few seconds. "I really don't like this plan…" Kairi said weakly.

 _"It'll be fine!"_

"Naruto…" Gray muttered.

Naruto ignored him, opting to focus on the task at hand. "Wait for it…"

"Naruto."

"Almost there…"

"Naruto!" Kairi screamed.

"Now!/ _Now!"_ At the same time, Naruto pulled up while Falco dipped down, resulting in the two ships passing one another with hardly a foot to spare. "Fire!" Startled, Natsu and Gray shot their weapons, destroying the missiles that had been following Falco. Behind them, Falco was making quick work of the missiles that had been trailing them.

Once the last one was gone, Falco smirked. _"Hey, you're a pretty decent pilot."_

Naruto returned the smirk with an identical one. "The same to you."

Kairi shook her head. "They're both crazy…" She mumbled. "And Naruto isn't normally like this…"

"It's probably some sort of adrenaline rush he gets by flying like that." Gray guessed. "Either way, it sucks."

"Aye."

"Ugh…"

Slippy's voice pulled their attention back to the present. _"There goes the last cannon! Everyone, open fire on the tower!"_

 _"Alright, this is it! Let's take it down!"_ Fox shouted, leading his team in.

Nodding, Naruto pushed down on the controls. "We're going in, too." Following his prompting, the gummi ship flew back down at the fortress. "Do it!" Not needing to be told twice, Natsu and Gray launched a large attack on the fortress.

The resulting chain of explosions was immensely gratifying to everyone involved. "Yes!" Happy cheered.

The monkey's image returned to their HUD. _"Curse you! When Andross hears about this, you'll be through!"_ He raged as his fortress shed several layers, leaving only the central tower behind. _"You hear me?! Through!"_ Not giving them the chance to say anything, the tower blasted up into the sky, retreating into the portal it had come from.

"Look! The heartless are leaving, too!" Kairi pointed out. Just as she said, all the remaining heartless spread throughout the city were also escaping into the portal, leaving the damaged city behind.

 **«End Music»**

 _"Should we follow?"_ Slippy asked.

 _"No, let them go."_ Fox said. _"We don't know where it leads, so it would be stupid to go into there."_ Naruto didn't add that although he wasn't sure that it was a **Corridor of Darkness** , it wouldn't be a good idea for a ship that wasn't protected from darkness to risk it. With all the chaos dying down, Naruto guided the gummi ship so that they were flying along Star Fox as they approached the command tower. _"Naruto, right? Thanks for the help."_

Naruto grinned. "No problem." He was about to continue, but he was distracted when a bright light suddenly lit up in the sky above the tower.

 _"What the-?"_

 _"Whoa, what's that?!"_

Ignoring Falco and Slippy, Kairi gasped at what they saw in the sky. "That's…!"

When his mind caught up to what he was seeing, Naruto's grin widened. "The keyhole." Shining in the sky was a familiar looking keyhole. "I didn't even think of that." He had been so focused on the invasion that he had forgotten that they would need to find the keyhole.

"But how do we get to it?" Gray asked. "It's kind of in an odd spot…"

Happy blinked, bewildered. "Huh? What are you talking about? Just do it from here!"

Kairi frowned. "Will that work?" She asked Naruto.

Considering the question, Naruto eventually shrugged. "I don't know, but it's worth a shot." Making sure that they were stationary, he pressed the button that would keep them there without any guidance. Standing up, he raised a hand and summoned his Keyblade. As if it had been waiting for him to do that, the keyhole flashed and Naruto felt a familiar tug in his hand.

Smirking, he twirled the Keyblade before pointing it at the keyhole, not see the beam of light that shot out of it. The light went right through the gummi ship as if it wasn't there and headed straight into the keyhole.

 _Click_.

Hearing that sound, Naruto dismissed his Keyblade and sat back down. "There. Keyhole locked."

 _"Okay…"_ Falco's voice said. _"I'm not the only one who is confused, right?"_

 _"No…It's not just you."_ Fox said slowly.

 _"Oh, good. I was worried for a second there."_

Naruto chuckled. "Don't worry about it. I just helped you guys out. You should get less of those other ships now."

 _"Really? It was that easy?"_ Peppy asked skeptically.

 _"Incredible! How does that work? What did you do? Was that keyhole emitting some sort of signal that drew them here?"_ Slippy questioned.

Not waiting for the answer, Falco cut in. _"As long as it works, I don't care what you did. I just want some sleep."_ He paused. _"It looks like your ship is pretty banged up. How're you guys doing?"_

Naruto glanced over to the image that depicted their current condition. "We took some pretty big hits and need some serious repairs. Once we land, I doubt we will be able to take off again."

It was then that General Pepper's image returned. _"If it is repairs that you need, then Corneria will happy to help. It was thanks to both you and Star Fox that we are still here."_

"Uh…" Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "I don't suppose you guys have some spare gummi blocks?"

 _"Gummi blocks?"_ Slippy repeated.

 _"What're those? Some kind of snack?"_ Falco asked sarcastically.

Sighing, Naruto shook his head with a smile. "No, they are what our ship is made of. We need those to perform repairs."

Peppy frowned. _"But we don't have any, so what are you going to do?"_

After a moment of thought, Naruto had his answer. "I'm sorry about this, but we're going to leave straight from here."

 _"You're leaving?"_ Slippy lamented. _"Already?"_

 _"Nothing we can do about it, Slip."_ Fox said. _"Their ship needs repairs and we don't have the right gear."_

Pepper nodded. _"It is unfortunate, but understandable."_ He lowered his head. _"On behalf of the people of Corneria, I thank you for aiding us in our time of need."_ Still somewhat uncomfortable with such sincere thanks and praise, Kairi blushed, unable to simply smile it off like the others.

Falco gave them a thumbs up. _"It was short, but fun. Next time you're in the system, be sure to swing by."_

Joining in on the farewells, Slippy waved. _"Next time, I want to hear about these gummi blocks. Oh, and that keyhole, too!"_

Peppy nodded, smiling slightly. _"You guys are almost as reckless as Falco-"_

 _"What was that?!"_

 _"-but you've proven to know what you're doing. Don't be strangers."_

Fox grinned. _"I'm tempted to offer you a spot on Star Fox. I definitely wouldn't mind flying with you guys again one day."_

Naruto grinned back. "The same to all of you. Next time, I hope we don't have to leave so quickly." He pulled the gummi ship around. "So long!"

"Bye!" Happy called.

"Good luck with your recovery!" Kairi added. With that, they flew away, heading towards the next world.

* * *

 **Ocean Between**

Once they had returned to the endless expanse of stars, Naruto smirked at Kairi. "Well, Kairi? Was that what you wanted?"

She blinked at him in confusion. "Huh?"

"You said it, didn't you?" He asked. "Back when we left Mahora."

"Said what?" Gray inquired, seeing that Kairi still didn't understand what he meant.

Naruto's smirk grew. "She said that she hoped that we wouldn't need to leave the gummi ship for the next world we went to." Kairi's eyes widened. "Are you happy now?"

"That wasn't what I wanted!" Kairi denied. "I meant something relaxing! Not heart pounding and terrifying!"

Happy giggled into his paws. "You jinxed it!"

"No I didn't! That wasn't my fault!"

"I dunno…" Naruto chuckled as Kairi pouted. "Anyways, it was a good chance to get some experience in battling with the gummi ship. It even showed us the extent of the damage we can take."

Gray frowned. "Speaking of that, what are we going to do about our repairs? Head back to the Elemental Nations?"

Much to their surprise, Naruto grimaced and shook his head. "Actually, no." He opened up the map and pointed at their current location. "We're here…" He pointed to another spot. "And the Elemental Nations are here."

"…Yeah…?" Natsu said slowly. "And?"

Naruto sighed. "And here is our current condition." He pulled up the display of the gummi ship. By then, nearly the entire ship had gone from green to orange, and there were even a few spots that were completely red.

"Will we make it?" Kairi asked, concerned.

"I don't know." Naruto replied honestly. "But I don't want to risk it."

"So what are we going to do?" Gray considered the situation. "We need repairs, but the Elemental Nations are out of the question…"

"We're going to go somewhere else." Naruto answered.

Happy glided over to him. "Huh? Where?"

Naruto selected a world. "Here."

"Traverse Town?" Happy blurted in surprise.

"Yep." Naruto confirmed. "There is a lot of traffic there, remember? I'm betting we can find someone to fix our ship. It isn't exactly close, but it's a lot closer than the Elemental Nations."

Gray nodded. "Makes sense. Let's do it. We can also check up on Wendy."

Entering the coordinates, Naruto hummed. "That's about what I was thinking, yeah."

Kairi gasped, forming a smile. "And maybe we can get news on Sora and Riku!"

Naruto gained a smile of his own at her excitement. "Maybe we will. I could use some good news."

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 51!**

 **I said last time that this world would be a short one, didn't I? I liked the idea of having a world that was bigger on combat with the gummi ship than normal ground combat, so I decided to try it. Star Fox seemed like a great choice.**

* * *

 **Review Responses!**

 **rinsegaku: You didn't get it wrong. She knows some stuff that will be revealed in the future.**

 **keyblade master cole: The Evangeline thing was just me keeping my options open, it isn't a for sure thing. But if I do have him get training from her, then I have a good idea of when it would happen.**

 **redlox2: I'm not sure how much the interlude did for you, but that's about the extent of what I'm planning to do with the Elemental Nations in the immediate future…Unless I feel like making another one. And implied nothing, it** _ **is**_ **the training period.**

 **Kairitrion Cerulean: Fair enough. I can admit that I didn't plan the Negima stuff well enough, meaning that it went on longer than it should have. As for a world with no fighting, I** _ **do**_ **have one like that (Or at least, I don't currently have any plans for fighting there) lined up, but it is still a few worlds away. The Kyūbi is currently classified as future stuff. I have a decent idea of when (And how) I want to go into that.**

 **The10thDoctor1964: Thanks! Glad to hear that you're enjoying the story. As for your question, I know a** _ **little**_ **about the Tales franchise, but not really anything about Tales of the Abyss. The one I know the most about is Tales of Vesperia…I'll admit it's doable, at least.**

 **Bubble MaKeRr: Subtlety is overrated!**

 **Guest(2): If by "every" you mean the only two that were ever finished, then yeah, I do make him lose them all. And who were those two up against? Sephiroth (Seriously, I could** _ **not**_ **justify him winning that fight) and Cloud (And that was also intended to be somewhat close, but still in Cloud's favor). The Nox fight didn't finish and neither went all out. Urahara is a badass, he just acts like an idiot. He is currently out of Naruto's league. Looking for an OP Naruto story? Go somewhere else.**

* * *

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**


	54. Return to Traverse Town

**And we're finally back! Welcome to Twilight Key, Chapter 52!**

 **Yes, it's really true. A chapter has been posted. I've been writing this one off and on for a while now, and this is the result. I** _ **am**_ **sorry that I suddenly disappeared without warning, but I am** _ **not**_ **sorry for actually disappearing…If that makes any sense.**

 **I've been making small edits here and there to earlier chapters. Nothing substantial, just a few extra details or altered phrasing. There's no need to go back and scan the story for them, but you will probably notice mention of an added detail in this chapter. I promise nothing plot wise has changed in the instance I'm talking about. It's just that I made a piece of plot tie in better.**

* * *

 **Anyways, on with the story!**

 **I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts, or anything else. I'm just a broke college student…**

* * *

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: _'Insert witty remark here.'_

Bijū/Deity Talking: **"Insert witty remark here."**

Bijū/Deity Thinking: **'Insert witty remark here.'**

Scene Change: **Insert Place Here**

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: **Insert Jutsu Here**

* * *

 **Gummi Ship**

"...Gentle...Gentle..." Naruto muttered to himself, putting all of his focus into his task. "Almost there...Right about..." Slowly, he reached over and grabbed a lever on his console, bringing it down carefully. "And...touchdown." He smiled slightly, happy that nothing had gone wrong with the landing. More confident now, he pressed several buttons, and the gentle hum of the engines died down. With that final step completed, he released a sigh and sat back in his chair. "There we go."

From where she was seated, Kairi smiled at him. "Nice job. Besides the caution, I could hardly even tell that the ship was damaged."

Gray nodded lightly in agreement. "Same here. Nice flying." Glancing at the screen, he stared at the ship's status, which had yet to be taken down from their time in Corneria. Because of some Heartless vessels encountered on their way back to Traverse Town, even more damage had been dealt to the ship. It spoke a lot of Urahara's skills when it comes to building durable creations that they still were able to operate as well as they have been. "So what's the verdict? How bad is the damage?" He asked.

Frowning slightly, Naruto pressed a few buttons, making the image that reported the ship's damage enlarge until it took up more of the screen. Along with it were several boxes that each contained information details of different parts of the ship. As he read over the boxes, Naruto's frown deepened. "On top of what we were already dealing with, now one of the wings has a chunk of it missing. I'm pretty sure you all noticed when it suddenly became harder for us to fly steadily?"

Recalling the last leg of their journey here, Natsu's face turned green. "Ugh, no way I would forget that!"

"Yeah, that seems to be the worst of it. We did a good job avoiding most of the attacks sent out way and destroying anything that got too close. Nice going there, you guys." Gray smirked at this while Natsu grinned through his nausea.

Wanting to test something, Naruto reached over and began the normal procedure to start the ship. Suddenly, another box on the screen popped up, making Naruto blink. Reading it over, he sighed. From his seat in Natsu's lap, Happy tilted his head. "What does that mean?" He asked curiously.

"That means the system has detected a critical failure in the ship and the safeties have kicked in, preventing me from starting the engines until repairs are made." Naruto explained tiredly. "We already knew that the ship was damaged, but I wanted to see if it would even start. Apparently not."

"There are safeties that do that?" Kairi asked in surprise. "Why didn't they activate sooner? We've been damaged for a while."

Naruto shrugged. "They did activate, but because we were already flying, they didn't do anything besides provide a warning. If I'm being honest, they had tried to get me to land sooner, but I ignored them because I wanted to do it somewhere where we had a chance of finding repairs. I could override this, but now that we're here, I agree with it."

"Oh..." That made sense to her. "So...What now? Do we start looking around for someone who can repair the ship?" She asked the room at large.

Natsu grinned widely. "No way! Now we go visit Wendy and Carla!" He declared, Happy instantly agreeing with him.

Kairi's eyes widened. "That's right! You guys said that your friend was here." At the mention of reuniting with friends, two boys came to the forefront of her mind.

Spotting her expression, a small smile pulled at Naruto's lips. "Keep in mind that this is also the last place that we saw Sora, so there's a chance of getting something on him while we're here. And who knows? Maybe Riku, too." That served to be enough to make Kairi grin widely. Shifting his eyes over to the dragon slayer, Naruto continued. "And we can do both at the same time. I was planning on asking Leon's group if they knew anyone who could repair our ship, which means that we would run into Wendy anyways."

Practically vibrating from excitement, Natsu leapt to his feet. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" He dashed towards the door with Happy flying after him.

Gray rolled his eyes. "Impatient match stick." He insulted under his breath, but the grin gave away his true feelings. He was just as excited to see his friends.

Nodding, Naruto stood up as well. "We should hurry up. I feel like every time we lose sight of them when we get to a world, something annoying happens." Hearing this, Gray snorted and Kairi giggled.

* * *

"Well?"

"Aren't we impatient?"

"Just shut up and tell me."

"Hmph. They've arrived."

"Is…?"

"Is…? Oh. Yep, exactly like I said. You ready to go see for yourself?"

"...Yeah."

* * *

 **Traverse Town (First District)**

Walking through the large doors and into the plaza, they all glanced around. Idly noting that just like their previous visit, it was night time here, Naruto took a moment to watch the activity around them. Nothing seemed to have changed from the last time they were here, right down to hustle and bustle of the people around them.

"You're doing it again." Naruto was pulled from his thoughts and turned to face the voice, only to find the others watching him. Seeing his confusion, Gray elaborated. "As soon as we walked through those doors, you started to smile. You did the same thing the last time we were here."

Naruto blinked, only then becoming aware of the fact that he indeed had a smile on his face. But the moment he became aware of it, the smile faded. "Huh...That's weird." He said before returning to observing the surrounding area, not really concerned about it.

Gray quirked an eyebrow. "That's it? You comment that it's weird and then go back to doing it?"

Not seeing what he was getting at, Naruto shrugged. "What do you want me to say? I told you last time that there is something relaxing about the world. That's still true now. I can't help but like this place."

"But why this place?" Gray pressed. "Why do you like this world to the point of instantly relaxing when we enter the town? Why not the others?"

Tilting his head in thought, Naruto considered the question. One by one, he compared each of the worlds they had visited to this one, only to come up blank. "No clue. But it doesn't matter, does it? I'm sure you would find yourself more comfortable in a world that was covered in ice. Or Natsu with one that was on fire."

"Oh! I want a world that's all fish!" Happy interjected cheerfully.

Rolling his eyes, Naruto turned away. "Yeah, I'm sure you would." He muttered. "Anyways, let's get moving. Cid's shop is just up ahead." Without another word, Naruto started walking towards the stairs. For a few moments, Gray watched him, only to sigh and shake his head before he followed with the others.

Entering the shop, the group looked around, noting the distinct lack of people. Frowning slightly, Naruto walked over to the counter and rang the bell on it. "Hello?" He called out, only to not get any reply. "You think the shop is closed?"

"But then there would have been a sign that said it was, right?" Kairi asked.

Grinning, Natsu walked over to the counter. "You just didn't do it right!" Before anyone could question what he meant, he took a deep breath. "HEY! WHERE IS EVERYBODY?!" The dragon slayer bellowed, repeatedly slamming on the bell as he did so. "HELLO?!"

"Shut your trap! I heard ya the first time!" A somewhat familiar voice shouted back from the back room. A moment later, a scowling Cid walked through the door behind the counter, eyes fixed on the pink haired teen. "What the hell is wrong with you? Who does that?"

Naruto rubbed his temples in a futile attempt to stave off the oncoming headache. "I'm really sorry about that." He apologized.

Taking another moment to glare, Cid nodded. "You do that again, and I'll show you what I can do with a spear." He threatened before turning to Naruto. "Good to see you again, kid. We haven't heard from you in a while, so some people were starting to get worried." It was then that he noticed Kairi. "And who's this? You got another person tagging along with you?" Kairi offered him a smile and a wave.

Smiling, Naruto nodded. "Yeah, that's actually part of the reason that we're here." Gesturing for her to come forward, Naruto introduced her. "This is Kairi." Hearing the name, Cid frowned thoughtfully.

"Hold on a sec…" Cid began. "Isn't that the name of…"

Seeing that he understood, Naruto confirmed his suspicions. "Yep. This is the same Kairi that Sora is looking for, along with Riku."

A hopeful light entered Kairi's eyes as she took a step forward. "Naruto and the others mentioned that they ran into Sora the last time they were here. Have you seen or heard anything since then? Or anything about Riku?" She asked.

Grimacing, Cid averted his gaze. "Sorry to say, but you just missed him. He was here a couple of days ago, but left pretty quickly." Spotting her dejected expression, he hastened to continue. "But maybe one of the others know more about where he planned on going! You should ask them!" Cid reassured, not wanting to be the reason for a girl to become sad, even if he didn't do anything wrong. He relaxed when Kairi perked back up.

"We'll do that, thanks!" She beamed at him.

Nodding, Cid returned his attention to Naruto. "And? I take it you're not here to buy anything, are you?" The Keyblade wielder shook his head. "Tch. Wastin' my time…" Growing slightly gruffer, Cid waved a hand impatiently. "So? You mentioned that you had more than one reason for being here? What are they?"

Naruto ran a hand through his hair with a sigh. "We ran into some trouble in the last world we visited, which ended up with us getting into this huge dogfight with Heartless ships. We won, but our ship…"

"Got damaged, and now you need repairs." Cid finished, an interested gleam entering his eyes. A wide smile broke across his face. "Well, you've come to the right place. I can fix your ship right up for you, no problem!" He declared, surprising all of them.

"Wait, seriously?" Gray asked. "You know how to fix up a gummi ship?"

Cid scoffed. "You won't find anyone better in any world!" He said with obvious pride. Internally, Naruto wondered what Urahara would say about that, but remained quiet. "Don't doubt me on this."

Smiling at the unexpected bout of good luck, Naruto nodded. "If you would, that'd be great. We really appreciate the help."

"Now hold up. Who said I would do this for free?" Cid asked, smirking at their expressions of disbelief. "Fixing up a gummi ship is a lot of hard work. Not to mention it can be expensive. Why would I do it without some form of payment?" With each word, Cid's smirk grew wider and wider.

"Huh?! But you just said that you would do it!" Happy exclaimed.

"I didn't say anything like that, cat." Cid denied. "I only said I _can_ fix it up, not that I _will_."

Now scowling, Naruto crossed his arms. "Okay...So what kind of payment are we talking about? How much is this going to cost?" This question only made Cid's smirk grow wider.

"There you go making assumptions again. I didn't say anything about you paying with anything monetary." Cid shook his head. "Oh, no. You lot are gonna be working off the debt."

Trading glances with the others, Naruto was given shrugs and unsure looks. "...Sounds reasonable." He eventually said. "What do you want us to do?"

Grinning triumphantly, Cid reached behind the counter and pulled out some paper and a pen. "I'm sending you to meet up with Leon. He'll tell you more about what to do." Quickly writing something on the paper, he folded it up, wrote something else on the outside, and handed it to Naruto. "Give that to him. You'll find him in the house closest to the north staircase over in the Third District. I wrote the address on the paper. You know the way?" Receiving a thoughtful nod, he continued. "Good, then I don't need to explain. Where did you land your ship?" Getting the location and the passcode to enter the ship, Cid hummed. "I know the place. I'll go check it out and let you know what I find. Now scram! Get movin'!" He made shooing motions with his hand at them.

Growling at the gesture, Natsu opened his mouth to shout something, but didn't get the chance to when Naruto's hand grabbed the back of his scarf and started to haul him in the direction of the door. "Thanks again for the help." He called over his shoulder, not letting up his hold on the struggling dragon slayer, much to the amusement of everyone else present.

* * *

 **Third District (A Little Later)**

Glancing around, Naruto double checked the address he was given. "This is the place…" He said.

Happy glided over to his side. "I wonder what Leon is going to make you guys do?" The cat wondered.

Gray and Naruto frowned at him. "What do you mean by 'you guys'? You say it like you're not going to help." Gray asked.

"Eh? But what can I do? I'm just a cat!"

"Why doesn't that ever prevent you from doing the things you want, but then it pops back up again when there is work to do?" Naruto asked in mild irritation. Happy simply gave him his best innocent look. Shaking his head, Naruto walked up to the door. "Never mind…" Raising a fist, he knocked on the door.

The group only had to wait for a few seconds before the door opened slightly, revealing a curious Aerith. Spotting them, her face lit up. "Oh, you're back! It's wonderful to see you again!"

Naruto offered her a smile. "It's nice to see you too, Aerith-san."

Stepping back, Aerith opened the door wider, granting them entry. "Come in. I'm sure the others will be happy to see you as well. Both Wendy and myself were starting to get worried at the lack of news." Walking inside, Naruto looked around curiously, noting the bed and furniture, along with the sword leaning against the wall, before his eyes landed on the other occupant in the room.

Glancing up from where he was looking over a map on the table, a small smirk twitched at Leon's lips. "You're back." The man said in greeting.

"Yeah, we only arrived a little while ago." Gray said, nodding to him.

Leon quirked an eyebrow. "And the first thing you did was come see us?" He asked, earning a swat on the arm from Aerith.

"There's nothing wrong with them coming here, even if to simply say hello." Aerith chided lightly, earning snickers from Natsu and Happy at Leon's expression, but their laughter died when the man turned his gaze to them. While Naruto and Gray smirked, Kairi giggled.

The sound of the unfamiliar laughter drew the attention of both Aerith and Leon, prompting them to look at her. Noticing this, Kairi smiled at them. "Hi, it's nice to meet you. I've been tagging along with these guys for a little while now. My name's Kairi." Hearing the name, a small gasp escaped from Aerith.

"Kairi?" Aerith repeated. "Oh, you must be Sora's friend. He'll be so happy to know that you're okay!"

At the mention of her friend, the hopeful gleam returned to Kairi's eyes. "Yeah, that's me. Before we came here, we stopped by Cid's shop, and he mentioned that one of you might know where Sora planned on going. Do you? Or maybe some other news about him?" At this, Leon shrugged and turned the majority of his attention back to the map, not having an answer for them, but Aerith tapped her chin with a thoughtful look.

"Let's see...I don't think he stated where he next planned to go, no..." She began, making Kairi slump slightly, but Aerith's next words made the redhead gasp. "...But he did mention briefly that he had come across...Riku? That was the name of your other friend, right?"

"Yeah, that's it!" Kairi confirmed excitedly. "Sora and Riku found each other? They're both okay and together now?" This was some of the best news she's heard since they were all separated!

Much to the confusion of those present, Aerith shook her head. "They're not traveling together, no. I didn't ask for the details, but from what I could tell, Sosa and Riku met briefly here in Traverse Town, but because Sora and his friends left without Riku, I don't think they've joined up."

Kairi frowned in confusion at this. "Huh? But why...?"

Naruto chose then to speak up, having been listening silently. "It's a little weird that they didn't stick together, but then again no one ever said that they had to." He smiled slightly. "Maybe they decided to split up to more easily search for you?"

This thought brought a smile to Kairi's face. "Huh...Maybe you're right." Nodding to herself, she continued. "Yeah, that could be it!" Kairi turned back to Aerith. "Thanks for telling me! I'll just have to make sure that we don't accidentally miss each other next time."

Aerith giggled at her enthusiasm. "That sounds like a good idea. I wish you the best of luck. I know you'll all find your way back to each other eventually." She looked to Natsu, Happy, and Gray. "Sora did also mention that he came across one of your guild members."

In an instant, Natsu was in front of her, vibrating in glee. "Really?! Where?! When?! Who was it?!"

"Um, I think her name was...Erza?" Aerith recalled.

Hearing the name, Natsu deflated. "Oh, it's just Erza..."

Spotting Aerith's confusion at the apparent lack of interest from the dragon slayer, Gray explained. "We ran into Erza a while ago. She did mention at the time that Sora had been through there." She nodded in understanding. "Did Sora say anything else? Did he come across any other friends of ours?"

"I'm sorry, he didn't mention anyone besides Erza."

"No, it's fine." Gray waved off her apology. "That just means we'll have to keep looking. And speaking of our guild members, where are Wendy and Carla? We were hoping to visit with them while Cid fixes up our ship."

"They're out with Yuffie right now, doing some scouting for us." Leon informed, surprising everyone but Aerith with the knowledge that he had been paying attention to the conversation. "They'll be back here soon."

Stepping forward, Naruto held the paper Cid had given him out to Leon. "Going back to Cid fixing our ship for us, he said that in return for doing that, we would need to work as payment. He said to give you this and you would tell us what to do."

Quirking an eyebrow, Leon accepted the piece of paper and proceeded to read whatever Cid had written. As his eyes scanned message, Naruto spotted a small smirk growing on Leon's face. When he finished reading, Leon nodded and put the message in his pocket. "I see...Well, you've come at a good time. We could use a Keyblade wielder's help right about now." Stepping away from the table, he leaned his back against the wall with his arms crossed.

Naruto frowned slightly. "How so?" He asked.

"A few days ago, we finally managed to locate the Keyhole for this world." Leon began.

"Oh, so you need me to lock it?" Naruto guessed, somewhat annoyed with himself for not considering the possibility that this world's Keyhole would need to be locked the last time he was here. "Sounds simple enough."

"No, that's already been taken care of." Leon denied, making Naruto blink. Not waiting for anything to be said, he continued. "The Keyhole was locked, and thereby making it so that the Heartless couldn't get to it."

Naruto tilted his head. "Then what's the problem?"

"The problem is that even though the Keyhole has been locked, we're still dealing with more Heartless than we would like." Leon said grimly. "In fact, I would even go as far as to say that there are more Heartless around now than the day that we locked the Keyhole."

"But wait, shouldn't locking the Keyhole stop the Heartless from coming here? Or at least stop the amount that do come to this world from rising?" Kairi asked in worry.

"Normally, I would agree with you, but that isn't the case this time." Leon frowned. "We had been expecting exactly that to happen. Imagine our surprise when it didn't."

"You have any idea why?" Gray asked.

"I have a guess." Frown deepening, Leon explained. "This world acts as a refuge of sorts for people who have lost their original world. When your world is consumed by darkness, there is a good chance that you end up here. But not everyone managed to make it here. You'd be hard pressed to find someone who didn't have a friend or loved one that they lost because of this. And that doesn't even consider losing everything else in your life."

"Grief is understandable." Aerith took over. "It's normal to grieve those lost, but it is also dangerous. It's easy for grief to turn into something worse."

"Anger…Sadness…Despair…Fear." Leon supplied. "Those are also normal, but..."

"It breeds the darkness in people's hearts. In such a large amount, it can attract Heartless." Naruto concluded, earning a nod.

"Exactly." Leon confirmed. "So, while we did lock the Keyhole, that didn't stop the flow of people coming here from other worlds that weren't as fortunate. As time goes on, more and more worlds get consumed by darkness, and this is where many of the people from those worlds end up."

"Which in turn means that there are more people whose hearts are attracting the Heartless." Naruto sighed, grimacing at the situation. "I understand."

"That's terrible." Kairi said quietly. "Even after losing their homes, these people are still in danger."

"That just means it's our job to protect them." Aerith responded. "It's what we've all been doing ever since we got here, and it's what we will continue doing." Naruto blinked in slight surprise at this declaration. Aerith had always struck him as somewhat reserved, so he wasn't expecting to see her be so passionate about this. Then again, he had only ever met her once before.

Gray and Natsu smirked, approving of her attitude. "So when you said that the others were out scouting..." The ice mage began.

"They're out scouting the other districts to get a grasp of how many Heartless are roaming around right now." Leon confirmed, gesturing to the map on the table. "We're planning on doing a sweep of the districts to clear them of as many Heartless as we can."

"And that's where we come in." Naruto said, smirking slightly. "You want us to help with the sweep."

Leon nodded. "Cid's message suggested that you help out, and I find myself agreeing. I trust you're up to the job?" He asked.

Grinning, Natsu pumped a fist. "Hell yeah! This'll be a cinch!" Mildly amused by the dragon slayer, Naruto and the others nodded and voiced their agreement.

"Good. We'll lay go into greater detail as soon as we know what we're up against." Leon said, glancing at a clock on the wall. "The others should be back soon. Will you be ready to go immediately?"

"Yeah, it won't be a problem." Naruto told him. "None of us are injured or anything like tha-"

"Hey guys! The awesomeness that is Yuffie has returned!" A loud voice interrupted, the owner opening the door at the same time. "Squall! We finished up with the scou-Oh, hey! You're back!" The next thing Naruto's group knew, a grinning Yuffie was in front of them. "Good to see ya!"

From her spot by the door, Wendy spotted them and smiled widely. "Oh, welcome ba-"

"Wendy!" Before she could get any further, Natsu and Happy shouted in glee and rushed over to her, Gray following behind at a more sedate pace.

"So you've returned." Carla observed, sounding somewhat disinterested.

Kairi and Naruto gave them all a little time to themselves, instead turning back to Yuffie as she proceeded to talk to Leon. "Bottom line is that it's bad, Squall. There are even more out there compared to the last time we checked. You can't even go down a single block without running into some Heartless!"

Leon frowned at this information. "That's not good..."

"Duh."

Ignoring the hyperactive ninja, Leon continued. "Then we should get things going before it becomes unmanageable." Walking back over to the table, he spoke to everyone in the room. "Listen up. Playtime is over. You can get back to it later." As they gathered around, Wendy gave Naruto and Kairi a smile in greeting, which they returned with Kairi quickly introducing herself as they did so. "Thanks to Yuffie, Wendy, and Carla, we now have a better idea of what we're up against. Unfortunately, it's worse than expected." He pointed at the map, drawing all eyes to it. "This here is a map of Traverse Town."

Gray's eyebrows scrunched up. "Is this a map of the entire world?"

"No, it's not." Leon denied. "Only the nearby districts that we operate in. There are a couple of other areas, but most of the population reside in these. We are currently in the Third District." He pointed it out on the map. "The scouting party went as far as checking out the Fifth District." He moved his finger to the indicated location. "Yuffie, tell them what you told me."

Nodding, Yuffie stepped forward. "There are Heartless in every district. It's impossible to cross the town without seeing at least a few. The spots with the most Heartless are the Post Office, the Second District, the Back Streets, and the Fifth District. Those four areas seem to have the highest number of Heartless."

"Which works for us." Leon took over again. "There are eight combat ready people here, and four locations that have a higher number of Heartless."

"Four groups of two." Naruto concluded, gaining a nod from Leon.

"Exactly. We'll split up and head to different parts of town; clearing out the Heartless in our assigned areas." Pausing for a moment, he regarded Kairi with a small frown. "...You can fight, right?"

Taking a moment to throw a small glare his way, Kairi nodded. "Yes I can, thanks." Now smirking, she pulled out her pactio card, much to the confusion of those who hadn't seen it before. "In fact, I think you'll be surprised to see what I can do. Check this out! **Adeat**!" In the customary flash of light, Kairi's Keyblade appeared in her hand. The redhead grinned at the shocked expressions she was getting.

"A K-Keyblade?!" Wendy squeaked, not even noticing that Carla lost the concentration needed to stay floating in the air, instead falling to the floor. Aerith raised a hand to her mouth in shock, while Leon's eyebrows shot up.

"Another one?!" Yuffie shouted.

"A third Keyblade wielder?" Leon muttered. "What are the chances of that?" Before he even finished, Kairi was already shaking her head, making him frown slightly.

"I'm not really a Keyblade wielder." Kairi said. "Not a true one, anyways."

Leon's crown deepened. "Explain."

Kairi returned her Keyblade to its card form and showed them. "This is a pactio card. It's something that we learned about back in one of the other worlds we visited. It basically gives my physical abilities a boost and an artifact to use. In this case, a Keyblade. It has some of the abilities of an actual Keyblade, but it isn't a real one."

"Could have fooled me." Yuffie said, taking a closer look at the card. "I couldn't even tell."

"I agree. I wouldn't have known it was any different if not for the way that you summoned it and you telling us." Leon stated. "So you can fight. Good. Going back to what we were talking about, there are eight of us here that can fight, so we'll split up. The next question is who here knows how to heal?" At this question, Aerith, Wendy, and Naruto all stepped forward. "Huh, I would have preferred to have a healer in each group, but we'll work with this." His eyes met Naruto's. "I already know Aerith and Wendy's abilities, but not yours. Can you give a quick rundown?"

Naruto shrugged. "I'm mainly offensive, but I know some supportive stuff too. I'll admit that most of my skill set revolves around my Keyblade, but I'm not defenseless without it or those techniques. I know a decent amount of magic, but it's not my go to. I'm a close range to mid-range fighter." He paused. "We all are, actually. And I think I'm the only one of us four that can pass as a supportive role if absolutely needed. I think that Kairi has some potential for support magic, but I haven't had a chance to teach her yet."

Seeing that the others nodded in agreement, Leon considered the information. "I see...Anything else?"

After a moment, Naruto nodded. "Yeah, Kairi and I have to be a pair." At this, Leon and Naruto locked eyes again. "Where she goes, I go. The opposite is true as well."

Glancing between Naruto and the slightly nervous Kairi, Leon slowly nodded. "...I can agree to that, although I am curious as to why. But it's not important right now. I trust that you know how to work together." Not waiting for a response, he looked to the others. "Any other requests for pairs?" He asked, only to get negative responses. "Alright. Here's how it's going to go." He pointed to their current location. "Districts Two and Three will be covered by myself and Aerith." He pointed to another spot. "Next up, we have the First District and the Back Streets. The Back Streets can be confusing to navigate if you're not familiar with them, so at least one of our group will be going there." He motioned towards Wendy. "Wendy, that will be you. Natsu will be your partner."

Wendy nodded with a determined expression. "I...I won't let you down!"

"Ha! We're gonna go all out!" Natsu shouted in glee.

Huffing quietly, Carla crossed her arms. "No need to shout. We can all hear you perfectly fine."

Ignoring them, Leon continued issuing instructions. "Gray and Yuffie will handle the Post Office and the Fountain Plaza."

Gray quirked an eyebrow. "The Post Office?" He repeated, voicing the question he thought of upon first hearing the name.

Yuffie laughed at the question. "You'll understand when you see it!"

"So that leaves the Fourth and Fifth Districts for us..." Naruto said, double checking the map to make sure.

"Any questions?" When none were raised, Leon nodded. "Alright. You guys said you were ready to go at any time, but give us a few minutes to get ready." With that, Leon moved over to his weapon and started his last minute checks.

Seeing Naruto reach into his pouch, Kairi quickly grew curious. "What're you doing, Naruto? You don't have anything you need to do to prepare, do you?" The Keyblade wielder was well known in their group for always getting his supplies ready before they left the gummi ship, so to see him start going through his supply pouch was something of a small surprise.

Naruto shot a smirk at her. "Not in the normal sense, no." He said. "But I figured that this would be a good time to test something out." His response drew the attention of the other people in the room.

"What are you testing out?" Happy asked.

Grabbing what he was searching for, Naruto grinned. "This." Held in his hand was a keychain. Spotting the design of the keychain, Aerith let out small gasp of shock as Leon's eyebrows shot up and Yuffie gaped.

"Hey, wait! I know that symbol!" Yuffie exclaimed, surprising most of the others.

Blinking, Naruto looked at her, noting the expressions on Leon and Aerith's faces as well. "You do?"

With a nod, Aerith took a tentative step forward to get a closer look at the keychain. "This motif is Fenrir...It's the call sign of a close friend of ours...A friend that we haven't seen a while." Her eyes turned hopeful. "Where did you get this?"

Trading glances with the others, Naruto scratched the back of his head. "Um, it was given to me by someone I met on another world...Is your friend's name Cloud? He was the one who gave me this."

At the mention of the name, Aerith nodded as her eyes began to grow moist. "It is."

Yuffie whooped in joy as a smirk made its way onto Leon's face. "Ha! I knew it! I _knew_ that chocobo was too stubborn to go down!" Yuffie cheered.

Deciding to explain, Leon spoke up. "Cloud is a friend of ours from our original world, but we haven't seen him for a long time. We weren't sure if he made it off of our world, but this confirms that he did." He paused. "What world did you meet him in?"

"We met Cloud in Olympus Coliseum." Naruto replied. "He's well known there for fighting in the tournaments. He and I actually fought while we were there." Naruto smiled ruefully. "I got my ass handed to me." Yuffie snickered at this while Leon's smirk grew a bit more.

"It wasn't that bad." Kairi said in his defense. "It was actually really close. You forced him down to a knee, but that last clash hit you a bit harder than it did him."

This piece of information prompted a somewhat impressed look from Leon. "Cloud is no slouch. If what she says is true, then you did well."

"If you say so." Naruto said, somewhat unsure of what to say. "Anyways, after our fight, he gave this to me." He jiggled the keychain. "Said I would get more use out of it than he would. Then he left without another word."

Aerith smiled upon hearing this. "That definitely sounds like Cloud."

Yuffie bounced up and down. "Hey, Squall! We should totally head over there and see him! Maybe even fight in a tournament!"

"My name is Leon." Leon muttered absently as he thought it over. "...It could happen." He finally decided. "It depends on Heartless activity after today. If they don't immediately come back in higher numbers, then I don't see a problem with it." When Yuffie pumped a fist into the air, he continued. "But _only_ if things work out."

"Psh." She waved him off. "You worry too much. It'll be fine!"

Sighing, Leon shook his head. "Anyways, we should get back to getting ready." Not saying anything else, he turned his attention back to his gear. With the conversation done, Naruto raised his hand, summoning Midnight Roar.

"I wonder what this one is going to give you." Gray mused, moving closer to get a better look.

"Only one way to find out." Reaching over, he pressed the new keychain against the one already attached, generating a flash of twilight. A moment later, he was holding a brand new Keyblade with Midnight Roar's keychain in his hand.

Leaning in, Natsu scratched his head. "This one doesn't look like the other ones. Is there something wrong with it?"

Naruto shook his head. "No, it's fine." He said absently. "This Keyblade is named Fenrir. Along with the bonus of the longer reach, it makes my strokes more powerful, but it has the downside of restricting my movement somewhat."

Held in his hand was a Keyblade with a red handle and a dark grey guard, where two rods jutted out of the top of the guard. The blade was the shaft of a pin tumbler lock key, and the base was wrapped in bandages similar to the ones wrapped around the sword that Cloud had used.

"It restricts your movement?" Gray asked. "Is it okay for you to use then? That sounds like a dangerous thing to use if it makes you move slower." Before he even finished, Naruto was already shaking his head.

"That's not really what I meant. When I say restricts my movement, I don't mean that my speed is reduced, I just mean that the longer reach is a little awkward to work with. All of the Keyblades I have used before now were shorter than this, so it will take some getting used to. It's also a little heavier than the others...But I can work with this." Naruto explained. "If anything, I just need to compensate for it by making sure to not overreach with it. Ending my combos a step or two early will fix it." He gave them a smile as he dismissed the Keyblade. "Don't worry about it. I'll be fine."

"Trust him to know what he's doing." Leon called over without looking up from his work. "If anyone knows if he's okay to go out, it's him." Finally satisfied with his check, he nodded and holstered his weapon. "If everyone's ready, then let's move out. We'll meet up back here when we're done. Agreed?" He got a round of nods. "Good."

* * *

 **Fourth District (A Little Later)**

"Crap crap crap crap crap...!" A man muttered under his breath as he sprinted down the alleyway. "I _knew_ this was a bad idea!" He skidded to a stop as he exited the alley and his eyes darted around, attempting to locate the best possible path. Coming to a decision, the man turned left and began running again. " _This_ is why we were warned to stay inside, idiot!"

It was supposed to be nothing more than a quick shopping trip. The stores in the First District didn't have quite what he wanted, so he had no choice but to go to the ones in the Fourth District. A little out of the way, sure, but he thought it would be worth it. Simple, really.

And then _they_ showed up.

He had only made it partway through the district when a horde of Heartless had appeared out of nowhere. The only reason his heart wasn't already taken was because the shock of suddenly getting attacked made him stumble back, and thereby narrowly missing the claws of the attacking Heartless. And so here he was, sprinting through the streets in an attempt to get back to safety.

 _Why_ hadn't he listened to the warnings given? It was so _stupid_ of him to just scoff and wave off those strangers. At the time, he thought they were exaggerating about the danger. He had been in this "world" for the better part of three weeks now, so he felt that he could manage himself well enough.

"Crap crap crap crap crap cr- _shit_!" Suddenly, a pair of Shadow Heartless appeared in front of him, claws already extended in an attack. Throwing himself to the side, the man tripped and fell to the ground. "Agh!" He screamed in pain as one of the claws slashed into his shoulder.

Now bleeding onto the ground and nearly hyperventilating, the man pushed himself back, away from the Heartless, but was stopped when his back reached a wall. "N-No...Please!" He begged, but his words were ignored as the Heartless crept closer. Once they were close enough, they leapt at him, and the man screwed his eyes shut. "Someone! Help!"

"I gotcha!" The sudden inclusion of a girl's voice surprised the man to the point that his eyes snapped back open, just in time to see a girl with red hair who seemed to be glowing destroy the Heartless. Stranger still, her choice of weapon wasn't like anything he had ever seen before.

"Hey, you okay?" At the sound of yet another person's voice, the man's attention was pulled to the boy standing next to him. While the girl scanned their surroundings for any additional Heartless, the boy looked the man over. "You're safe now. You can relax." The boy said calmly.

Swallowing nervously, the man nodded shakily. "T-Thank you."

The boy shot a small grin at him. "No problem. After all, we're here to help. You know Leon's group?" He waited for the man to nod before continuing. "We're with them."

"I, uh, I see..." The man said. If only he had listened to that group in the first place, then this situation would never have happened.

The boy's eyes went to the man's shoulder. "Hang on, let me get that." The boy raised a hand until it was hovering over the gash. " **Cure**." Immediately, the man felt a rush of warmth and he watched in awe as the fresh wound healed over. A few seconds later, a newly healed shoulder remained. "There." The boy held out a hand to help the man up.

Only hesitating because he was still in awe at the magic, the man accepted the boy's help. "I... _Thank you_." He breathed.

The girl smiled at him. "You're welcome, but the area is still dangerous. We're about to clear out some of the Heartless now. There is already a path back to the First District that has been cleared from us coming here, so you should take that route back." The spike of fear that resurfaced upon the reminder that he was still in danger faded, allowing a new wave of relief to rush through.

The man listened closely as the two of them gave him directions of which path to take before he thanked them again and quickly went on his way. As he walked, he couldn't help but shake his head. Kids fighting monsters with magic and giant keys.

What a weird place.

* * *

"It's a good thing we got here when we did." Kairi commented. "That was a close call."

Naruto nodded in agreement. "A minute later and he would have had his heart taken." His eyes roved the city line. From where they were standing, they had a great view of the district.

The main gate that connected the Fourth District and the Fountain Plaza sat at the top of a diverging set of stairs, with both paths leading deeper into the district. In the center of the district was a large tower that had numerous streamers running from it to the nearby rooftops. The entire district was well lit, to the point that the distinct lack of people didn't seem to fit. Off in the distance, Naruto could see a large balloon tethered to the roof of some sort of arena.

Finished with taking in the size of the district, Naruto pointed at the balloon. "The gate to District Five should be over in that direction." He glanced at Kairi. "How do you want to do this?" He asked.

Kairi frowned slightly as she considered their options. "This district is kind of big…" Her eyes lit up as an idea came to her. "Do you think we can do the same thing we did back at Mahora?"

Naruto easily caught onto what she was suggesting. "You want me to send out some clones to help us?"

Smiling, Kairi nodded. "I mean, if you don't mind."

"It's fine. This will make things easier." Naruto formed the needed hand seal. " **Shadow Clone Jutsu**." He waited for the customary explosions of smoke to fade before speaking to the newly created clones. "Alright, listen up. Spread out and do a sweep of the district, working towards the direction of the arena. Be sure to prioritize civilian safety as needed. You don't need to be careful of not getting spotted together. Move out!" The clones saluted or nodded before rushing off to do as ordered.

Once they were gone, Kairi hummed thoughtfully. "That's really handy."

"Yep. I'm glad I know it." Naruto told her. "I don't use it too often in fights, but for this kind of thing, it's insanely useful."

Hearing this, another thought came to Kairi. "Come to think of it, I haven't really seen you use that many techniques from your world. Jutsu, I mean." She thought back to everything she has seen him done. "I've only ever seen you walk and walls and create clones…Oh, and that spinning ball thing."

"The **Rasengan**." Naruto corrected absently. "Yeah, I don't use jutsu that often. I _can_ , but…" He shrugged. "I just feel more comfortable with my Keyblade, magic, and Keyblade techniques. I'm not really sure why." He admitted.

"Just like how you can't help but like this world?" Kairi teased lightly.

Naruto huffed in amusement. "Could be. And it doesn't hurt that I'm definitely more skilled and versatile with those techniques than with my jutsu." Shaking his head, he summoned Fenrir. "Anyways, we should get moving."

Nodding, Kairi smiled. "Right behind yo-Move!" She cut herself off as she caught movement behind Naruto. Not questioning it, Naruto rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the surprise attack sent his way by a Soldier Heartless. Springing up, he destroyed the offending Heartless with a quick slash of his Keyblade. "That was close." She said in relief. "That thing came out of nowhere!"

"And it brought friends." Naruto muttered, tensing as additional Heartless appeared around them. He slowly positioned himself so he and Kairi were standing with their backs to one another. A rush of memories made him frown. "The number of Heartless in the district suddenly spiked. There were already a lot of them, but now they've started swarming the place." He could even see Heartless gathering on the rooftops around them.

Kairi frowned as she tightened the grip on her Keyblade. "So what's the plan?"

"My clones will be able to take care of most of them, but we should still help clear them out." Naruto said. "We're going to fight our way to the tower and clear out the Heartless there before heading towards the gate. By the time we've worked our way there, most of them should have been taken care of."

"Sounds good to me." Kairi agreed, and at the same time, they dashed apart, lunging at the closest enemies.

Stepping to the side to avoid the claw of a Soldier Heartless, Naruto cut it down before immediately bashing the next one over the head, stunning it. As the Heartless swayed in place, Naruto grabbed it and threw it up into the air, directly into a floating Heartless that was preparing to cast a ball of ice at him. " **Fire**!" In a small explosion, both Heartless were destroyed.

A few yards away, Kairi jumped out of the path of a lunging Heartless before whirling around to cut both it and another one. Not slowing down, she leapt into the air and spun her body. " **Bubble Blaster**!" In a volley of bubbles, another three Heartless were killed. Landing back on the ground, Kairi rolled forward to dodge under the swipe of a soldier Heartless, making sure to take it out as she sprung back up.

"Kairi, jump!" The abrupt demand from Naruto surprised her, but she didn't question it. " **Windcutter**!" A moment later, a whirlwind blasted out in every direction, clearing the immediate area of the rest of the Heartless. Glancing around, Naruto nodded. "Come on." He ran at the nearest building, with Kairi only a step behind as they jumped up and onto the roof of the building. As their feet touched down, a new group of Heartless appeared around them. Without hesitating, Naruto got rid of the two closest ones with a single slash, trusting Kairi to get the others. As they reached the other side of the rooftop, several flying Heartless swooped into view, cutting off their path to the next building.

Thinking quickly, Naruto spoke up. "Take them out as we go!" Selecting his target, Naruto leapt off the roof. Once he was close enough, he lashed out a hand and grabbed onto a hook that was hanging from a chain attached to a bat-like Heartless. Not passing up on the chance, Naruto used the Heartless to swing across the rest of the gap between buildings. As he let go of it, Naruto spun his body around and aimed his Keyblade. " **Fira**!" The spell created a blast of fire large enough to get both the Heartless he had used and the two that were next to it. As he landed safely on the next building, he saw that Kairi had also taken advantage of the Heartless to get across, only she had used a Darkball as a stepping stone. Turning around, the two of them continued towards the tower, and were repeatedly confronted by groups of Heartless as they went.

Arriving at the tower, Naruto and Kairi slowed to a stop, looking around in case there was another ambush waiting for them. Exhaling slowly, Kairi twirled her Keyblade around in her hand. "They're really coming at us, aren't they?"

Naruto frowned. "…Yeah."

Noticing the hesitation, Kairi glanced at him. "What's wrong?" She asked, somewhat concerned.

He opened his mouth to speak, but then stopped himself. With a sigh, he shrugged. "I'm…not really sure, to be honest. There's just something…off about this?" Naruto finished lamely.

"Off as in…?" Kairi questioned curiously.

"I don't know." Naruto confessed. "It's like there's something about this that doesn't seem right to me, but I can't exactly tell what it is." Breathing out sharply, he shook his head. "Don't worry about it. We can figure it out later. For now, let's get the job done." Several pools of darkness came into existence in front of them, forming a semicircle. "Heads up." They tensed their bodies as more Heartless surfaced from the darkness, but the appearance of the Heartless caused them both to falter momentarily. "Well, that's new…" He had never seen Heartless like these before.

Kairi shivered. "Ugh, creepy is more like it." She mumbled. The new Heartless greatly resembled the typical Shadow Heartless, but not only were these much larger, but they were also more humanoid in shape. It was then that the Heartless all jumped into the air and tucked into balls before spinning rapidly. "Huh?" The next thing they knew, one of the Heartless came out of its ball and launched itself through the air, aiming straight at Naruto. Not having expected this, Naruto was unable to defend in time to stop the claws of the Heartless from grazing his side.

Hissing in a mixture of pain and agitation, Naruto was about to swing at the Heartless, but aborted that plan in favor of rolling to the side when another one came at him. He heard Kairi yelp in alarm, but didn't have time to do anything beyond briefly glance her way before focusing on his attackers. Naruto finally managed to block when a third Heartless launched itself at him, and using the small opening, he lashed back at it. He smirked as his Keyblade made contact, but the smirk fell when the Heartless didn't fade into darkness, instead stumbling back before sinking into the ground.

 _'Great. They're fast_ and _resilient.'_ Naruto ducked to the side of the Heartless that attempted to use the distraction to get a hit in. Reversing their positions so that he was behind the Heartless, Naruto performed a leaping slash, completing the reprisal. Not letting up, he dashed forward, landing a few more hits until the Heartless was finally destroyed. With that done, Naruto whirled around, swiping at the next Heartless as he did so, but his momentum was broken when he felt himself become slightly unbalanced. _'Wha-?'_ Not having expected this, Naruto's guard wavered for a moment, but it was enough for a claw to scrape against his back. "Ugh!"

Recovering, Naruto leapt away to gain some distance. With a wince, he shifted his stance and scanned the remaining Heartless. _'Can't believe I forgot about the balancing thing…'_ Naruto said internally. He had already known that the Keyblade he was using had drawbacks when it came to movement weight, but it had faded to the back of his mind as the fight went on. _'Gotta be more careful in the future.'_ Wanting to finish the fight then and there, Naruto pulled on some light. " **Sonic Blade**!" In a flash, the last few Heartless were gone.

Happy that it was over, Kairi took several deep breaths in an attempt to slow breathing. "…No question about it." She said quietly. "…I _really_ don't like those ones."

Huffing in amusement, Naruto raised a hand into the air. " **Cura**." Both of them were bathed in a green light for a few seconds, and Naruto sighed in relief as the cuts on his back and side disappeared.

Kairi grinned as she felt rejuvenated by the spell. "Whew! Thanks!" She said brightly before shooting him a pleading look. "Do you think you can teach me that one next?" She asked hopefully.

Naruto laughed. "Yeah, sure. We can get to work on that one once we have the time." He agreed easily. "I really should have taught you some sort of support technique by now, anyways." He paused and tilted his head as more memories came back to him. "Oh…"

"What's wrong?"

"Another report from my clones." Naruto informed her, his smile disappearing. "Apparently, most of the Heartless in this district are gone."

"Then what's the matter?" Kairi asked him. "You look like that's not a good thing."

Naruto's mouth formed a line. "They're gone because they left." He said quietly.

Kairi blinked. "They _left_?" She repeated incredulously.

"At nearly the exact same time." Naruto confirmed.

"That's…not normal."

"My thoughts exactly." He frowned. "Even stranger, a lot of them didn't leave through darkness; they _turned and ran_." Naruto's eyes trailed towards the direction they were heading in. "The ones that ran escaped into the Fifth District."

An uneasy feeling crept up Kairi's spine. "I don't like the sound of that…" She mumbled worriedly. "Do you know why they're acting like that?"

After a moment of thought, Naruto grimaced. "I've only ever seen Heartless run away while not using darkness once before…" He shivered as the memory of sword and long silver hair flashed through his mind. "They did it because they were running away from something that was a bigger threat than they wanted to risk…One that would be able to continue the pursuit through the darkness if it bothered." He glanced around warily. "But for our sake, I'm _really_ hoping that it's something else."

He wasn't arrogant enough to think that he was ready to face someone on that level yet.

Spotting the tenseness in his body, Kairi swallowed nervously. "…Anything else?"

Taking a breath to compose himself, Naruto nodded. "…There is another possibility…" He said slowly. "…But this one is a problem in a different way." Upon her curious expression, he explained. "It's possible that they received instructions to leave."

The implications of that didn't make Kairi feel any better. "There's someone here who can control the Heartless?"

Feeling his headache return, Naruto sighed and rubbed his temples. "Could be that. Either that, or there's something in the district that's more attracting to them." He replied as he tried to will the dull throbbing away. "If it's not one thing, it's another." He muttered.

Kairi gave him a worried look. "Are you alright?"

He gave her a small smile. "I'm fine. I just have a bit of a headache." Naruto shook his head. "I can rest after we figure out what's going on. "Let's go." He began to walk in the direction of the gate. After a brief moment of hesitation, Kairi followed.

They walked through the rest of the district in silence, doing nothing but taking in their surroundings. The lack of activity of other people was even more obvious now, and it made the district seem slightly unsettling.

Eventually, they stopped to look around when they came upon a large plaza. One end of the plaza led back to the way they came from, and the other end of the plaza stopped at the entrance to the arena. Off to the side was the gate leading into the district.

"What do you think that's for?" Kairi wondered, staring up at the arena.

Naruto shrugged and his eyes landed on various heavy machinery stationed around the arena. "Nothing right now since it's still under construction...But probably some sort of attraction revolving around fighting. What else would an arena be used for?"

"Right you are, kupo!" Surprised at the unexpected voice, they turned around.

Floating in the air behind them was a small, white creature that resembled a plush toy, with a large, spherical head, small ears, bulbous nose, and stubby hands. Its eyes appeared to be closed, but it could obviously see them. On its back were tiny, purple, bat-like wings. Completing the off look was a large red ball attached to its head.

It raised a hand in greeting. "Howdy!"

Kairi blinked before offering a smile. "Uh, hi."

Pulling himself together, Naruto echoed her. "Hi."

"I heard you kids talking about the coliseum, kupo!" The Moogle said cheerfully. "Sorry if I scared ya!"

"No, you're fine." Naruto said. "You know what it's for?"

The Moogle seemed to puff out its chest in pride. "Do I? You bet I do! You're looking at the proud owner of that magnificent structure, kupo!" It deflated slightly. "Sadly, you're also right when you say that it is still under construction. We're doing some heavy renovations right now, so I'm afraid that if you came over here to see it, you'll need to wait for the grand re-opening, kupo."

Naruto didn't show it, but he was actually somewhat relieved to hear that. If Natsu were to learn that this world had an arena as well, and that there was some sort of fighting going on in it, it would become _very_ hard to convince him to leave again. "That's unfortunate, but we don't really have the time right now, anyways. We're kind of on a tight schedule."

The Moogle tilted its head. "Speaking of which, what are you kids doing out here, kupo? Don't you know it's dangerous to be out and about right now? The Heartless have made it unsafe for most people."

Kairi smiled reassuringly at its concern for them. "We're actually here because of that. We're with Leon's group." Mild surprise radiated from the Moogle.

"Really? Well that's a relief." It said. "You look kinda young, but I've also seen that girl with blue hair running around with that group, so I won't doubt ya, kupo. That mean you're heading to the Fifth District?"

"That's right. We're going to try and clear out the Heartless there."

"I see, kupo…" The Moogle hesitated. "I won't tell you not to go -You're the ones who know how to fight, not me- but be careful, alright? You'd have to be blind to not have seen all those Heartless pass through a little while ago."

Naruto frowned slightly. "Yeah, we saw it."

"They're probably heading for the Garden as well, kupo." It mused.

This input made their eyes widen. "The Garden? Why there?" Kairi asked.

More surprise came from the Moogle. "You mean you don't know?" It sounded dumbfounded at this. "I thought for sure that's why you were here, kupo."

"We only knew that the number of Heartless hanging around was higher than normal, so we're clearing them out." Naruto frowned. "What's wrong with the Garden?"

"For the past couple of days, Heartless have been gathering in the Garden. It's mostly just the smaller ones, but there have been a few of the other kinds as well, kupo." The Moogle told them. "And then all those other Heartless passing through earlier? It's really weird. I've never seen anything quite like this, and neither have any of my friends in other worlds. I mean, some Heartless converging on something they're attracted to, sure, but this?" It shook its head. "As far as I'm aware, there's nothing in the Garden that they would want, kupo. Something's up."

Naruto's frown deepened as his unease with the situation grew. "You're right. There's something else going on here." He nodded to the Moogle. "Thanks for telling us about it."

"No problem. You guys are the ones fighting to keep the rest of us safe, so I'm happy to help, kupo!" It waved at them. "I'll leave you kids to it, but he sure to be careful!" With that, it floated off.

Once they were alone again, Naruto and Kairi traded looks. "...So what do you think?" Kairi asked quietly.

"...We should check it out." Naruto decided. "We'll be careful about it though. If anything happens, we'll leave immediately. If the Heartless are gathering for some reason, then it can't be left alone."

Kairi nodded. "Right."

They walked through the gate.

* * *

"What more proof do you need? You can see it for yourself right there."

"I…"

"Face it and move on with your life. You're apparently the only one who hasn't."

"No, there...there has to be some reason."

"You're in denial."

"No! There's something I'm missing! I know it!"

"Ugh, you're impossible. Are you going to go through with this or not?"

"...I…"

"Well? I'm waiting."

"...!"

"Hey, wait! Where the hell are you going?!"

...

"...Fine. It'll be easier if you're not here to interfere, anyways."

* * *

 **Fifth District**

Naruto exhaled slowly after he cut down another armored knight. Glancing over, he saw that Kairi was finished dealing with her Heartless as well. After a quick check to make sure she wasn't hurt, Naruto scanned their surroundings. Not seeing any other Heartless around them, he hesitantly relaxed his posture, but didn't completely let his guard down.

He heard footsteps approach him, but he didn't turn to the source. "You okay?" The concern in Kairi's voice prompted him to give her a small smile.

"I'm fine. They didn't even touch me." Naruto replied, turning his attention back to what he was doing.

"...Then what's the problem?" Kairi asked, unsure.

"..." Naruto hesitated.

"Naruto?"

"...The Heartless that just attacked us were the sixth and seventh ones." Naruto eventually said.

Kairi's eyebrows rose. "You've been counting?" He nodded. "...I guess they were…" She rubbed her arm, now joining him in looking around. "Where are all of the other ones? You think they're at the Garden?" The building in question took up the majority of the district.

He frowned. "Only one way to find out." The two of them walked the rest of the bridge until they reached the looming building.

As they approached, Kairi began to fidget. "This place is creepy…" She mumbled.

"You're not wrong…" All of the lights in the Garden were turned off, making the building stand out even more than they already did in the otherwise brightly lit district. Reaching the entrance, Naruto and Kairi traded one last glance before opening the door.

"It's so dark in there…" Kairi said quietly. From where they were, they could make out a reception area in the darkness, but not much else.

Naruto sighed. "Let's get this over with. Be ready for anything."

"Got it." And with that, they entered the Garden.

* * *

"Showtime."

* * *

 **The Garden**

Naruto and Kairi slowly walked through the Garden, remaining alert in case any of the Heartless they were warned about appeared. But despite being told about how this was supposedly a gathering place for Heartless, they had yet to see any of them. "Where are they?" Naruto muttered. He didn't think that Moogle was lying to them…

Kairi bit her lip in worry. "We've already checked out nearly this entire level...How big is this place again?"

He pointed over to a map a nearby wall. "There are three floors. The entrance is on the third floor, so we can only go lower." He leaned in to get a closer look. "There's not much left for us on this floor…" He was pulled from his thoughts when he felt Kairi start tugging on his sleeve.

"Naruto." She whispered, her tone making him turn around. "Look." Following her finger, Naruto frowned.

There was a single Shadow Heartless lurking by the slope that led to the next floor.

They stared at the Heartless for several seconds before it seemed to notice their presence. Upon spotting them, the Heartless spun around and ran down the slope.

Naruto's frown deepened. "It...ran away?"

"I guess we follow it…?" Kairi suggested hesitantly.

After a moment of indecision, Naruto groaned quietly. "This is a _really_ bad idea…" But he had to admit that he was curious. Not to mention that the last time he heard the Heartless were acting strangely, it led him to meeting Kairi.

So, no. He wouldn't risk leaving something like this without finding out as much as he could.

"Come on." They ran to catch up to the Heartless, soon seeing it as it turned a corner. They tried to reach it, but it would always turn a corner and duck out of sight before they could get to close, only to reappear a couple dozen feet away.

Eventually, the chase led them to the stairs that led to the bottom floor. Kairi was about to run down them, but Naruto suddenly snapped his hand out in front of her, stopping her from preceding. "Wha-Naruto!" She yelped in surprise at the unexpected loss in momentum. "What gives? It's going to get away!" No response. "...Naruto?" It was only then that she finally noticed the expression he had on his face.

Naruto stared at the stairs for several moments. He didn't know why, but his unease with the situation suddenly spiked. With a frown, Naruto scanned their surroundings again, but he didn't notice anything different from the rest of the building. He took a deep breath. "Something is definitely wrong. Let's take this last one slow." Unnerved by his actions, Kairi nodded. Cautiously, they began to walk down the stairs, keeping their eyes peeled for any movement, but it was hard to do so because it seemed to get darker with every step they took.

"Look! There it is!" Kairi said hurriedly, pointing to the bottom of the stairs. "I almost missed it. It really blends in with the ground."

Blinking, Naruto saw it. A pair of glowing yellow eyes stared up at them, the only thing visible on the floor because of how dark it was. The body of the Heartless blended in perfectly with the surrounding floor. Narrowing his eyes, Naruto tensed. Even for how dark it was, for it to blend in that well…

Something shifted a few feet from the Heartless.

Naruto's eyes widened in horror as it dawned on him what they were looking at.

Kairi took a step forward, but his hand lashed out and snapped around her wrist. "What's wrong?"

"We need to leave." He hissed, watching the "floor" warily.

"Huh?!"

" _Now_!" Naruto realized his mistake a second too late.

In response to his shout, the entire floor began to ripple, and countless yellow eyes opened to peer up at them.

Kairi whimpered at the sight. "N-Naruto…?"

 **Play Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep 0.2 OST: Final Boss Phase 1 - Extended**

"Run!" They spun around and ran for the exit.

The floor seemed to surge up and lunge at them as the countless Shadow Heartless covering it leapt at them in a sea of Heartless.

* * *

 **Fifth District**

Naruto and Kairi sprinted out of the garden and immediately threw themselves to ground on the side. Not even a second later, the doors were blown off as a wave of Heartless streamed out of the building. The two of them stared in shock as more and more Heartless poured out of the building and flew into the air in one giant torrent.

"There are so many of them…" Kairi said numbly.

The sound of her voice served as enough to pull Naruto back into the situation at hand. "We...We have to stop them." He said, and with a great amount of effort, Kairi forced herself to look at him. "If they leave the commercial districts and get to the residential areas…" Her face turned ashen at the thought. "It'll be a massacre." He pushed himself to his feet, Kairi doing the same a moment later. By then, the Heartless had formed a sort of shape that could almost be mistaken for a black cloud.

Kairi glanced around. "We can't fight them here. The bridge doesn't have nearly enough room."

He cursed under his breath as he acknowledged that she was right. "Oh, that's just perfect…" He muttered sarcastically. To get to the entrance of the Garden, you had to cross a long bridge that cut through a waterway. It wouldn't be impossible to fight in the water, but unlike him, Kairi couldn't stand on water, and he didn't want to risk her getting slowed down by the water in a fight like this. Thinking quickly, he recalled all the nearby locations they passed on the way there. "There's the plaza that the arena is in…" That plaza was pretty close by.

"But the arena could get damaged!" Kairi protested. "Not to mention all the other buildings."

Naruto grimaced. By then, the Heartless had stopped coming out of the garden and were instead gathering in the air. "Then the next place that comes to mind is the Fountain Plaza." The only problem with _there_ was…

"That's a district away!"

 _'We're running out of time.'_ Naruto thought to himself. The Heartless cloud was starting to shift around, as if looking for something. "We don't have a choice. Anywhere else has either people or buildings nearby." Kairi still looked nervous, but she couldn't argue. "We're going to have to lead it there with us as the bait." He locked eyes with her. "Kairi, this is important. I need to know right now if you think you can do this. Otherwise, I'll summon a dream eater that will take you to the others. I'll wake you up after I finish with these things."

If possible, Kairi became even more pale as she glanced from him to the Heartless. After a brief moment of indecision, she gathered her courage. "I can do this." She stated, determined.

Her tone brought a smirk to his face. "Then let's ready up." He reached into down and took out his deck of dream eater cards. After leafing through them for a few moments, he found the card he wanted and held it up. " **Summon: Pegaslick**!" He declared, and in a flash, the dream eater had arrived.

Standing in front of them was a dream eater that had the form of a winged horse, but the wings themselves weren't connected to its body. Its tail was shaped like a wing, and there were also smaller wings placed near its hooves. Most of the dream eater was colored various shades of blue, purple, green, and yellow. Finally, the dream eater emblem was present on its lower neck.

The dream eater appeared to be happy to see Naruto, but before it could greet him, its attention was drawn to the cloud of Heartless in the air. Pegaslick's eyes narrowed at the sight and its body tensed.

"Good to see you, buddy, but as you can see, we've got a problem." Naruto said. "Slick, this is Kairi." He said, gesturing to the redhead. Pegaslick glanced at her from the corner of its eye and nodded, but didn't turn away from the Heartless. "Do you think you will be able to carry the both of us at the same time while also outrunning those things?" Naruto asked.

The dream eater almost seemed to frown as it considered the question. Prying its gaze from the air, it studied Naruto and Kairi in silence for a few seconds before looking to the Heartless. After a brief debate, it slowly nodded.

"You're sure?" Pegaslick's eyes narrowed at it and it huffed, drawing a small smile to form on Naruto's face. "No, it wasn't a challenge. If you say you can do it, then I believe you." The dream eater nodded and crouched to a level where they could climb on. "Thanks." Once they were both seated, Naruto continued. "The destination is the Fountain Plaza over in that direction." He said with a point. "There's a district between us, as well as the rest of this one to go. You understand?" The dream eater nodded. "Great. Kairi, are you ready?"

"Is it possible to be ready for something like this?"

"She's ready." Naruto told Pegaslick. "We're gonna grab their attention now, so be ready to go." He raised his Keyblade, prompting Kairi to do the same. "On three. One...Two...Three! **Flame Salvo**!"

" **Bubble Blaster**!"

Water and fire careened towards the Heartless, impacting the center of the cloud and destroying multiple Shadow Heartless as a result. "Go!" Pegaslick didn't need any further encouragement, instead shooting off into a sprint and up into the air, making sure to not get too close to the Heartless.

The tide of Heartless crashed after them.

* * *

Pegaslick flew over the gate and into the Fourth District, heading straight toward the gate that stood between them and the Fountain Plaza. Naruto risked a glance behind them, only to see that the Heartless were closer than he was comfortable with. "I'm going to attack!" He warned them. Not bothering to wait for any responses, he swung his Keyblade behind them, trusting Pegaslick to not be thrown off balance by the movement, and created an arc of light that shot back and cut through the cluster. As he had hoped, the swarm had collectively faltered, but they were quick to recover.

"That didn't do much!" Kairi shouted over the wind.

"I noticed!" By then, they were flying over the rooftops of the buildings in the district, making quick work to close the distance to their goal. Naruto's eyes widened when the eyes of all the Heartless turned red.

"I think you made them angry!" A stream of Heartless was launched out of the cloud and rocketed at them. "Definitely angry!"

"Slick, incoming!" Naruto shouted. "Hold on!" Kairi adjusted her grip around his waist as Naruto ensured that his hold was secure. Pegaslick swerved to the side, narrowly avoiding the Heartless, but the collective wasn't done yet as a second stream was sent their way a second later. "Again!" The dream eater veered the other way, dodging this one as well. Naruto watched as the Heartless that attacked them moved to rejoin the rest of the tide. He was about to sigh in relief that they were done attacking, but his blood froze when two jets of Heartless split off from the main group. "Crap!" The offshoots sped up so that they were flanking the dream eater and its riders before changing their trajectory so that they would crash into them.

"Naruto!"

"I know! Slick, don't stop!" He raised a hand. " **Reflera**!" The barrier flashed into existence around them, and the next second, their vision was obscured by all the Heartless bashing against it. Naruto gritted his teeth at the effort of keeping the barrier going, silently hoping for the attack to end soon, but there didn't seem to be any end in sight. Slowly, a crack formed in the barrier, much to the alarm of Kairi and Pegaslick. "I...I can't…!" The crack grew. "I can't hold it much longer!" Naruto bit out as the crack splintered.

Narrowing her eyes, Kairi tightened her hold around him and leaned closer, focusing on the feel of his light. Immediately, Naruto felt his light surge. Knowing it was Kairi, he smirked.

"Back... _Off_!" Channeling the light into the barrier, Naruto forced it out in a single explosive release. The ensuing shockwave of light blasted all the Heartless off of them, as well as the ones that were closer to them. Panting slightly, Naruto checked where they were. "There's the gate!" He called out, pointing up ahead of them. While their vision was obstructed, they had continued to make steady progress towards the gate. "We're almost there!"

"They're coming again!" Kairi shouted, making Naruto snap his head around to see. But this time, instead of attacking with smaller streams of Heartless, the entire main group was rushing at them.

Knowing that he wouldn't be able to stop that many attacks simultaneously long enough, Naruto cursed. "Slick! One last burst of speed, put everything you've got into it!" The already panting dream eater neighed in response and started to emit a faint glow. The next thing they knew, Naruto and Kairi were hanging on as their speed suddenly increased. Trying not to fall off, Naruto glanced behind them again, only to see that the Heartless cloud was still gaining on them. Turning eyes back to the front and fighting against the wind, Naruto saw that they were nearly at the gate. "It's gonna be close!"

Pegaslick pulled on the last of its strength and forced itself to go faster, turning into nothing more than a streak in the air. With one final push, they shot over the gate.

"There!" Naruto shouted in triumph. "Get to the ground!" The dream eater rocketed towards the large plaza and skidded to a stop as the wave of Heartless surged over the gate as well. "Awesome job, Slick!" Pegaslick dropped to the ground, gasping for breath. "You were fantastic, go ahead and take a rest now." Naruto said, recalling the dream eater back to its card form. With that done, he joined Kairi in watching the torrent of Heartless circling in a ring in the air above them.

"That was terrifying." Kairi said weakly. "I never want to do that again."

"We're not done yet." Naruto replied, readying his Keyblade. With a small sigh, Kairi copied him.

"I know, I know…" Their short conversation ended when the eyes of the Heartless turned crimson. Without any other warning, the tide of Heartless dove down at them. "Whoa!"

"Out of the way!" They dove to opposite sides and watched as the Heartless vanished into a **Corridor of Darkness** that opened up. Able to guess what was about to happen, Naruto's eyes scanned the ground. When a new corridor fully formed to their right, he was alright in movement. "To the right!" He shouted, pointing his Keyblade at the spot. " **Fira**!" The fireball slammed into the Heartless as they reemerged. The spell succeeded in blasting apart a small chunk of the group, but the majority were still there.

Kairi was quick to follow up by slashing apart the Heartless that were thrown out of the group and onto the ground. " **Spark**!" She deftly directed the light crystals to destroy a pair that were attempting to rejoin the cluster.

As she was doing this, Naruto made sure to keep the tide's focus on him, trusting her to pick off the stragglers. Seeing them dive at him again, Naruto rolled to the side, but wasn't expecting for a set of thorns constructed with darkness to erupt from the ground in the vicinity of the corridor. Hissing in pain, Naruto jumped up and swung his Keyblade. " **Dark Firaga**!" The trio of dark fireballs exploded upon contacting the Heartless, doing even more damage.

When he landed, Naruto cut down a few Shadows while also making sure to keep an eye out for the tide's retaliation. Unexpectedly, the ground directly under him was suddenly bathed in darkness. His eyes widened, but he wasn't able to move out of the way in time to avoid the surge of Heartless. "Gah!" Naruto was carried several feet into the air before getting dropped back onto the ground.

Managing to land in a crouch, Naruto groaned and eyed the Heartless as they made a loop around the plaza. "You okay?" Kairi asked as she joined him.

"I've been better." He muttered. "The way it keeps vanishing is annoying." He brought his Keyblade up as the Heartless began to swoop down at them. "Help me out here." He waited for her to place a hand on his shoulder and the customary boost in his light. " **Reflega**!" The shield came up just in time to block the wave, but they turned around and went in for another attempt, making him unable to relax.

A bead of sweat trickled down his face as he mentally counted out the number of passes the Heartless made. He counted out five before the tide finally let up and their eyes turned back to yellow as they started to lazily float about the plaza. Releasing a relieved breath, he watched the Heartless move as they turned around to dive again.

Springing apart, Naruto and Kairi looked carefully for the next corridor. Upon spotting it, Naruto spiraled at it. " **Shadowbreaker**!" The attack didn't get rid of as many as he would have liked, but it did manage to dislodge more Heartless that Kairi was able to pick off. Tracking the Heartless as they turned around to make a swooping pass, Naruto cloaked himself in darkness and jumped at them. " **Dark Haze**!" He sheared off another layer of Heartless before landing and whirling around in preparation of the next attack, but he frowned when their eyes instead turned yellow and the cloud began to lazily float around the plaza.

After a minute of staring at it, Naruto's eyes narrowed. "...Kairi, I'm about to send another volley at it. Can you help me out? Try aiming for the front of the cluster." The way he asked it made her glance at him in slight confusion, but she nodded and raised her Keyblade as well. " **Flame Salvo**!"

" **Bubble Blaster**!" The attacks streaked at the Heartless and exploded upon meeting the leading few. Naruto's efforts were rewarded when he caught sight of a flash of violet in the mix.

"There's something in there." Naruto said quietly.

"Huh?"

He pointed at the Heartless. "Up at the front. You see those Shadows that are in a ball? They're shielding something, and all of the other ones are following their lead."

Kairi squinted as she attempted to see what he was talking about. After a few moments, her eyes widened. "You're right!" She gasped. "What do you think it is?"

Naruto smirked. "No clue. But I bet they wouldn't like it if we break it." They traded conspiratorial looks. Suddenly, the eyes of the Shadows turned red. "Here we go again." The two jumped apart as the Heartless descended, leaping and rolling as needed to avoid them when they reemerged. This time, when they stopped vanishing into corridors and instead started to fly around, Naruto crouched and waited for them to get closer. Timing his jump, Naruto gathered wind around his Keyblade. " **Wind Storm**!" A gale of wind erupted from his Keyblade and cut into the tide, destroying the first wave of defense, revealing a violet orb. "Kairi!"

"I'm on it!" She shouted. Following up on his attack, Kairi created a pair crystals out of light and aimed them at the Heartless. The crystals barreled into the group and eliminated even more Heartless before eventually exploding in a blast of light.

They watched as the explosion grazed the orb, momentarily turning it orange and sending it veering off course. The Heartless almost seemed to collectively panic and scramble to secure it. "Yep, they definitely don't like that." Naruto observed.

"Then we should aim for that."

Naruto frowned. "They're increasing the number of Shadows that are guarding it. That attack won't work again. If we want to get another crack at it, then we need to cut down on the number of Heartless."

Kairi's shoulders slumped slightly at this. "So more of the same?"

He quickly did a mental check to see how tired he was and grimaced. "...It doesn't have to be." At her confused glance, he elaborated. "You mind giving me one more boost? I think we can finish this in one shot. All we need is one attack to cut through them and hit the orb at the same time."

His request made her eyes widen, but then she smiled. "You got it." She walked over to him as he raised his Keyblade and placed her hand over the one holding his Keyblade. Pointing it at the Heartless, he channeled light into it. The eyes of the Heartless turned red again and they dove down at the pair. "Now!" A blast of light rocketed out of the Keyblade and met the wave of Heartless head on.

 _Boom!_

 **End Music**

The ensuing explosion forced Naruto and Kairi to shield their eyes and brace themselves against the shockwave. "Gah!" Naruto gritted his teeth and used chakra to plant himself to the ground, adding more to it when he felt Kairi use him as an anchor. After several seconds, the wind died down, prompting them to hesitantly open their eyes. "You've gotta be kidding me…" Naruto groaned quietly.

The orb was floating in the air in front of them, but it was now glowing an angry orange. A majority of the Heartless were gone, but a dozen or so still remained.

"I thought for sure that would be it." Kairi sighed. Suddenly, the orb's glow flared, making them both tense and ready their Keyblades. They watched as another **Corridor of Darkness** opened up under it, and the orb flew into it. "They're coming again?"

Naruto's eyes narrowed when the remaining Heartless all fled into their own corridors. When he realized what was happening, he cursed quietly. "No, they're running away!" He scowled. "After all of that, they're just gonna run away!"

"Seriously?" Kairi asked in disbelief. " _Seriously?_ "

"We should've finished it when we had the chance to." Naruto growled. He scanned the plaza, but there wasn't a single Heartless. He dismissed his Keyblade and ran a hand through his hair. "Damn it."

Kairi dismissed her Keyblade and put the card away. "Nothing we can do about it now…" She trudged over to the fountain and plopped herself down on the low wall of the basin. After a moment, Naruto sighed and sat down next to her.

For the next several minutes, the plaza was silent except for the sound of running water as they relaxed. Absently, Naruto noted that much of his irritation at the fact that the Heartless escaped had already left him, instead getting replaced by a sense of calm.

"Hey! You guys!" Naruto blinked at the voice and turned his head in the direction of the voice. "What the heck's with all the noise, huh?!" Yuffie called as she ran up to them.

"We heard the explosions all the way from the Post Office. What are the two of you doing here?" Gray asked as he joined them as well. "This isn't your assigned area."

Naruto rubbed his eyes tiredly. "We had to move here because this was the closest place that had enough room."

Gray furrowed his brows. "What? But you don't need _that_ much room to fight a Heartless…"

"Maybe not _one_ Heartless, but how about enough for you to go swimming in them?" Kairi muttered.

Hearing this, Gray and Yuffie's eyes widened. "Wha-Wait. _Wait_." Yuffie's jaw dropped. "I misheard you, right? You didn't just seriously say that! _How_ many were there?!"

"Too many." Naruto replied. With a great amount of effort, he pushed himself back to his feet. "We'll tell everyone at the same time back at the house in the Third District. I only want to have to explain this once." Not allowing them a chance to say anything, he began to walk away. Agreeing with the plan to only relive their activities once, Kairi was quick to follow.

"Huh?! Hold up! I'm not through with you yet!" Yuffie shouted, giving chase. Rolling his eyes, Gray moved after them.

* * *

"Well, _that_ was something..."

"Indeed."

"Wha-?! Oh, sir! I'm sorry, I didn't notice your arrival. May I ask how long you've been watching?"

"Long enough."

"I see…"

"Come along. Our business is finished here. This foray has given me plenty to think on."

"Yes, sir."

* * *

 **Vacant House (Later)**

"…the rest of them vanished after that, and then Gray and Yuffie showed up a little later." Naruto informed them. "We came straight back here without coming across a single Heartless."

Leon's face was set in a heavy frown as he listened to the story. "That's…worrying." He finally said.

"There were that many Heartless in the Garden?" A pale Wendy asked.

"That's very unnatural." Aerith added.

In contrast to the general mood of the room, Natsu groaned. "I can't believe I missed that! We didn't find anything like that where we were!"

"Are you saying you would have liked to come across an assembly of Heartless of a scale that they are reporting?!" Carla snapped.

"Yeah!"

Ignoring them for the moment, Leon regarded the map carefully. "Even stranger is the way that the number of Heartless in every district suddenly dropped to near zero when the ones you were facing ran away." He shook his head and leaned against the wall. "There's no way that isn't connected."

"You think that they were attracted to that…core?" Gray inquired.

Leon shrugged. "They could've been…But then what brought something like _that_ here?"

No one had an answer for him.

Sighing, he continued. "There's nothing that we can do about it now besides keep an eye out for anything similar in the future." Leon nodded to Naruto's group. "We appreciate the help. Things would have been a lot worse if not for you guys."

Kairi gave him a small smile. "It was tough, but we were happy to do it. I mean it's not like we coul-" She was cut off as a yawn escaped her. Regaining control, she blushed slightly as Leon smirked while Aerith and Wendy giggled.

"Hmph. Sounds like you guys are tired." Leon observed, noting the way Naruto was also slouched slightly. Gray, Happy, and Natsu seemed to be fine, but Leon had no doubt that they weren't at full capacity. "We all are, really."

Naruto hummed in thought. "Pretty much. We can't go anywhere until our gummi ship is finished with repairs, so we might as well use the time to relax a bit. I should probably go find Cid and ask how long until he is finished…"

"Don't bother, I'm already here." A familiar voice said from the door. Closing the door behind him, Cid glanced over the room's occupants. "What's the matter, kid? The job too tough for you? Should I have asked you to do something easier instead?"

The jab earned him a mild look of annoyance from Naruto. "Shut up. I didn't see _you_ out there getting chased across Traverse Town by a horde of Heartless."

With a scoff, Cid sat down in an open chair. "No, _I_ was just checking out _your_ ship." He sniped. "Now, are you gonna shut yer trap and gimme a chance to tell you about how badly you messed it up?"

Taking one last moment to glower at him, Naruto sighed. "So, how bad is it? Is it going to take you a while to finish?"

Cid snorted at the question. "Don't be stupid. I'm already done."

Naruto blinked at him as Kairi, Gray, and Natsu's jaws dropped. Their reactions made Yuffie and Happy burst out laughing. "…You're…done?" Naruto repeated. "With the repairs?"

"That's what I said, ain't it?"

"But it's only been a few hours!" Kairi exclaimed.

"Clearly, you don't know much about gummi ships." Cid rolled his eyes. "It doesn't take a whole bunch to fix a gummi ship. It's not like a normal machine. Part of what makes gummi ships so great is the way that you can quickly assemble and disassemble them. I figured you lot were in a hurry, so instead of actually _repairing_ each and every busted part, I just switched them out for new ones. The biggest obstacle I came across was working out how this model was built." His eyes gleamed. "I sure would love to meet the mind behind your ship. It's one of the best I've seen!"

"But you said it was hard work to fix a gummi ship!" Natsu shouted.

"And expensive!" Happy agreed.

Cid smirked at the two. "Well, it can be a lot of hard work, not to mention expensive...But then again, I'm a pro at this." He bragged.

"I'll, uh…I'll leave you their contact info." Naruto said quietly, getting an appreciative nod from Cid. "So…We're good to go?"

"Ready for launch whenever you are." Cid confirmed, but then he paused. "I also did a quick diagnostic of your systems. You realize that the navi-gummi you have installed only has one more unexplored world left in it, right?"

Naruto frowned. "I forgot about that…"

"Thought you might say that." Cid shook his head. "Nothin' I can do for you there. If I had navi-gummi blocks lying around, then I would give you one."

"Damn." Naruto closed his eyes. "We'll have to figure something out."

"Be sure to do that." Cid stood back up. "If that's all I'm needed for, I'm heading back to my shop. I added all of our numbers to your communicator, so gimme a call if you need anything. Don't forget to stop by to give me your gummi ship's creator's number." With that, he left.

Following his lead, Leon pushed himself off from his leaning position against the wall. "Good work today. We'll come by tomorrow to see you off." Aerith smiled at them and said her farewells, Wendy echoing her a moment later.

After they left, Naruto put his forehead down on the table. "So freakin' tired-ttebayo…"

* * *

 **Gummi Ship (The Next Day)**

Naruto frowned as he considered the map. "Not much choice left, is there?"

"Not really. Like Cid said, we only have one new place to go." Gray drawled.

"I wonder what we'll find there…" Kairi mused. "I'm not really sure what to expect at this point…I wouldn't even be surprised if we wind up in another school."

Natsu bounced in his seat. "Maybe we'll finally find someone from Fairy Tail there!"

"I bet we will!" Happy chirped.

"Could happen, I guess." Naruto shrugged.

* * *

 **There we go! All done with Chapter 52!**

 **The Neoshadow Heartless used to creep me out. To be honest, I still don't like them.**

 **Next chapter comes out when it comes out.**

 **Keep going after the review responses for something extra.**

* * *

 **Kairitrion Cerulean: Wasn't planning on doing World of Final Fantasy, no…**

 **The10thDoctor1964: This story starts after Birth by Sleep, goes into Kingdom Hearts 1, and then I will eventually get to the rest of them. Kairi already had a physical body, but not a heart. As for your final question…Pending.**

 **V01dSw0rd: If I do Misa, it definitely won't be for a while. And I wrote in during their first launch in the gummi ship that Naruto casts Esuna to heal him of motion sickness. I haven't written it since then, but it's implied.**

 **redlox2: I added Nox for reasons that will be addressed later.**

 **jburk40: Naruto casts Esuna to take care of Natsu's motion sickness, I just don't bother to write it every time they use the ship.**

 **DarthChaos05: No, the dreams of canon Naruto didn't just go away. I have actually added to that particular build up a couple of times, but they were subtler than that particular dream sequence. As of the ending of this chapter, we are at the point in the Kingdom Hearts timeline where Sora's group had their second visit to Traverse town. Their group has about three or four more worlds until they reach Hollow Bastion. I plan to revisit the tournaments, yes.**

 **cvillegas1998: Who knows? :P**

* * *

 **Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Kog6943**

* * *

 **Extra: Undertale World Ending**

 **Written On: 5/3/17**

 **Last Edited: 5/6/17**

 **Chances of turning out to be a spoiler: Unlikely**

 **This is something I've had stuck in my head for a little while now. Not sure if I'm going to use it, something similar, or maybe even not do this world at all, but I wanted to post this. At this point, it probably won't be a spoiler because I already have the rest of the worlds picked out. Depends on reactions and how I feel about it later, really.  
**

* * *

"So…let me see if I'm…understanding this correctly." Immediately, all eyes snapped to the speaker. "…In this world…the person with the most **determination** has…the ability to **SAVE** and **reset** …right?" Naruto asked softly from his spot on the ground, where he now lay in a small pool of his own blood.

No one answered him, but he didn't need them to.

"And…every time a **reset** happens…time is rewound back to…" He coughed weakly. "…back to the beginning…Undoing everything that happened…"

Ignoring the inexplicable feeling of dread that they should definitely _not be feeling_ , Chara's face cracked into something that resembled smile. _"Yes…That's right. It's amazing, isn't it?"_ They asked.

To their confusion, the sense of dread grew when Naruto's lips curled into a smile.

"That's what I thought." Naruto said quietly. "Then…Then I have one more question…for you." Chara stared at him in silence for a minute.

Why was he smiling?

He shouldn't be smiling.

He was bleeding out on the ground.

He just watched all his friends die.

There wasn't any hope left for him.

He _failed!_

 _ **SO WHY WAS HE SMILING?!**_

Not letting their thoughts show, Chara's smile widened. _"Yeah? And what's that?"_ They watched as Naruto's smile grew. Summoning the last of his strength, Naruto slowly raised his closed fist so that he was holding it out towards Chara with his palm facing up.

"…What…What would happen if…" Naruto's voice was hardly more than a whisper, but they were able to hear him perfectly well. When he revealed what he was holding, the smile was instantly wiped from Chara's face.

 **Play Undertale OST: Dummy! - ElectricMudkip Remix**

Glowing innocently in the palm of Naruto's hand was a golden star.

"…If someone who _wasn't from this world_ used a **reset**?" Naruto finished, smile widening.

"…didn't _see_ that one coming…" Sans wheezed, hand still clutching his bleeding abdomen. He couldn't see anything in Naruto's hand, but he got the idea.

Chara's head lowered, shadowing their face behind their hair. _"You…How…"_

Naruto chuckled, but quickly stopped due to the pain. "You hurt my friends…That kinda pissed me off…" He replied. "Now I'm pretty _determined_ to…get them back…"

"… _I…"_ Chara's form started to shake. _"This shouldn't…I can't…"_ Chara's head snapped back up, showing them the utterly enraged expression on their face. **_"_** _ **I AM THE GOD HERE! NOT YOU! ME!**_ **I'M** _ **THE ONE WITH THE POWER! IT BELONGS TO ME! SO GIVE! IT!**_ **BACK** _ **!"**_ They screamed before launching them self at Naruto.

Cerulean and violet eyes hardened. "Just shut up already, you megalomaniac." Naruto muttered.

His fist clenched around the star.

* * *

 **I would like to do Undertale, but that isn't really a game I could do as well as I would like without dedicating a bunch of chapters to it. It would turn into something like Negima, and that went on for longer than I had intended. Not to mention that it would mean even more confusing time travel. My last problem with this scene is how much of a** **deus ex machina it is.**


End file.
